Rosa Magalhães is the daughter of writer and academic Raimundo Magalhães Júnior and the playwright Lúcia Benedetti. Graduated in painting from the School of Fine Arts in Rio de Janeiro and in scenography from the Theater School of Uni-Rio, she worked as a teacher of scenography and garment design in the School of Fine Arts, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and the Bennett School of Architecture. In 1971 she began to participate in Rio's carnival by cooperating with the group led by Fernando Pamplona and Arlindo Rodrigues, which worked in the samba schoolSalgueiro and had as its members Mary Augusta, Lycia Lacerda and Joaozinho Trinta among others. Later, Rosa designed costumes for Beija-flor and then worked for Portela, where, paired with Lycia Lacerda, she created costumes and floats for scenarios developed by Hiram Araújo. In 1982 Rosa and Lycia worked as carnival designers for the first time with Império Serrano, where they performed the famous plot "Bumbum Paticumbum Prugurundum". In 1984, the duo was responsible for the carnival of Imperatriz. Despite great financial problems, the school won fourth place. For their work in that year, Rosa Magalhães and Lycia Lacerda received the Estandarte de Ouro award. In 1987 they worked together at Estácio on "Tititi of sapote". The year 1988 marked the first carnival in which Rosa Magalhães participated alone, again with Estacio, where she developed the theme "The Oxgoat". The following year, continuing to work with the school, she presented: "One, two, beans and rice". The next year she returned to Salgueiro and won the third place 1990 and was runner-up in 1991. From 1992 to 2009, Rosa Magalhães worked as carnival designer for the samba school Imperatriz and helped the school to win five of its eight championships, including the first tri-championship in Sambadrome. Under Rosa the school realized carnivals such as "The Marquis likes to swing!", "Catherine de Medicis in the court of the Tupinambôs and Tabajères", "Better a donkey to carry me around than a camel to knock me down... there in Ceará", "Leopoldina, Empress of Brazil", "Mr Cabral was the one who, on April 22, two months after Carnival, discovered Brazil", "Breazail", "A crazy fabulistic confusion" and "John and the Marias", among others, establishing herself, with five titles won, as the greatest champion of the Sambadrome and one of the most important contemporary Brazilian artists. In 2007 Rosa Magalhães created the opening show of the Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro for which she would receive in the following year the most important award in the television world, the Emmy Award for best costumes. In 2010, Rosa left Imperatriz and worked as carnival designer for União da Ilha, keeping the school in the special group of Rio de Janeiro's samba schools parade, despite the modest 11th place in the contest. She continued to work with Vila Isabel. In 2013, she won another carnival, this time by Vila Isabel, with the theme "A Vila Sings Brazil, world's breadbasket - water in the beans that came another" In 2016 Rosa Magalhães created the closing ceremony of the 2016 Summer Olympics.
