Ana Paula Zacarias was born in Lisbon in 1959.
She has a degree in Cultural Anthropology from the University of Lisbon (1983).
She was an assistant at the Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas - Universidade Nova de Lisboa until 1985.
She entered the Portuguese Diplomatic Service in 1983 and held several assignments: to the Protocol Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (1984-1985); as Junior Counsellor for International Relations at the Office of the President of the Republic (1986-1988); as Director of Press and Information Department (1996-1998) and as Vice President of the Instituto Camões (1998-2000).
As a career diplomat she also served at different Diplomatic Missions such as the Embassy of Portugal in the USA (1988-1993); as Consul in Curitiba (1993-1996); as Deputy Permanent Representative in the delegation of Portugal to the UNESCO in Paris (2000-2005); as the first resident Ambassador of Portugal to Estonia (2005-2008) and as Deputy Permanent Representative of Portugal to the European Union (2009-2011).
From 2011 to 2015 she was Head of Delegation of the EU Delegation in Brazil and from 2015 until July 2017 Head of Delegation of the EU Delegation to Colombia and Ecuador.
On July 2017, she was appointed as Secretary of State for European Affairs, and is currently serving in this position since October 2019.