Joanna Szczepkowska

She made her debut on television in 1975 by appearing in episode 1 of the cult 1970s TV series Czterdziestolatek (The Forty-Year-Old). The same year, she graduated from the National Academy of Dramatic Art in Warsaw. She worked as a theatre actress for such institutions as Teatr Współczesny in Warsaw (1975–1981), the Polish Theatre (1981–1988), Teatr Powszechny (1988–1992, 2000–2004) and Teatr Dramatyczny (2006–2010).^[1]

Throughout her career she appeared in numerous films including Jan Batory's 1975 film Con amore, Janusz Zaorski's 1982 film The Mother of Kings, Andrzej Wajda's 1986 film A Chronicle of Amorous Accidents, Krzysztof Kieślowski's 1988 Dekalog: Three, Izabella Cywińska's TV film series Boża podszewka, Paweł Komorowski's 1998 film Syzyfowe prace, Rafał Wieczyński's 2009 biopic Popiełuszko. Wolność jest w nas and Juliusz Machulski's 2017 film Volta.^[1]

In 1997, she published a collection of poetry titled Miasta do wynajęcia.

In 2007, she was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta.^[2]

In 2010, she was elected President of the Union of Polish Stage Actors (ZASP), the first woman to hold this post.^[3]

She runs her own theatre named Teatr Na dole.^[4]

On 28 October 1989, during a live interview on the main state-run evening news programme Dziennik Telewizyjny (Television Journal), she made a historic statement in which she publicly announced the end of communism in Poland:

Proszę Państwa, 4 czerwca 1989 roku skończył się w Polsce komunizm. (Ladies and gentlemen, on the 4th of June, communism ended in Poland.)

This statement went down in history as a symbol of the political changes which took place in the country after the 1989 Polish legislative election, the first partially free elections in Poland after the World War II.^[5]

She is the daughter of actor Andrzej Szczepkowski, and Roma née Parandowska, and the granddaughter of Jan Parandowski.^[6]