Filho is a producer, director, actor and screenwriter. His father was an actor and singer and his mother came from a circus family so Daniel started out performing in the circus as a kid. He started to act in the mid 1950s and since then has appeared in many films and television shows. He started to direct in the late 1960s making many TV series until 1999. He also directed features such as Pobre Príncipe Encantado (1969), TV film Mulher (1974) based on Ibsen’s play, O casal (1975), O cangaceiro Trapalhão (1983), The Inheritance (A partilha, 2001). Since 2004 he has worked for the production house Lereby Produções and directed Owner of the Story (A dona da história, 2004), If I Were You (Se eu fosse você, 2006), Lots of Ice and a Little Bit of Water (Muito gelo e dois dedos d'agua, 2006) and Primo Basílio (2007). In 2009, he made the sequel to his film If I Were You 2 (Se Eu Fosse Você 2) and the historical drama Peacetime (Tempos de Paz, 2009) as well as the biographical Chico Xavier (2010). After that, he went back to directing two TV serials, and currently he is preparing the third sequel to his successful comedy, Se Eu Fosse Você 3.