Fausto Fanti


Fausto Fanti Jasmin was a Brazilian actor, humorist and musician, best known for being one of the founding members of the comedy troupe Hermes & Renato and the original guitarist of parodic heavy metal band Massacration.

Biography

Fanti was born in Petrópolis on October 20, 1978. In 1999 he founded Hermes & Renato alongside his friends Marco Antônio Alves, Adriano Pereira, Felipe Torres and Bruno Sutter; known for their off-color humor, frequently reliant on pop culture references, they amassed a strong cult following throughout the late 1990s/early to mid-2000s during their tenure on MTV Brasil. Considered the group's "intellectual mentor", Fanti portrayed some of its most well-known characters, such as "Gozo the Clown", "Padre Gato" and "Blondie Hammett", the guitarist of comedy band Massacration. Hermes & Renato briefly changed its name to "Banana Mecânica" from 2010 to 2013 after leaving MTV to join RecordTV, recovering the former name after returning to MTV, where they stayed until it went defunct.
Throughout most of his life Fanti suffered from bouts of depression; his brother Franco Fanti would elaborate that, during his final years of life, he was "nearly paranoid and not taking any antidepressants". His mental state was also further negatively affected following his separation from his wife, Karla Peixoto Sento Sé, with whom he had a daughter, Nina; they married in 1997. On July 30, 2014, he was found dead on his bathroom at his apartment in São Paulo with a belt around his neck; the attorney investigating the case stated that, "without a doubt", it was a suicide. His wake was held at the Cemitério do Araçá, and his body was later taken to be buried at his hometown of Petrópolis. Franco eventually replaced Fausto on Hermes & Renato when it went to FX in 2015.