Joanna Bessey

Joanna Bessey (born 1976) is an actress and director from Malaysia. She is best known for her role as Marie Tan in the situation comedy Kopitiam which ran for 7 seasons.

Bessey was born in West Sussex to a British father and Malaysian mother of Malay descent with Minangkabau lineage.

She is married with German husband Aurel Wunderer. They welcomed son on 28 February 2008.

She has had the following nomations: 'Best Actor in a Supporting Role' at the 'Boh' Cameronian Arts Awards 2007, "Best Director" for her directorial debut of Ibsen's 'An Enemy of the People", 'Best Actress in a Comedy Role' for the award winning sitcom, "Kopitiam" at the Asian Television Awards (Singapore) and was highly commended. She was voted Best Female Artist in 2000 by a public online poll.

Bessey has appeared in over 200 episodes of television, 6 TV movies, 5 feature films, commercials with 2 major celebrity endorsements, voice-over work for commercials and animated series and numerous theatre productions, over the last 10 years. Other TV credits include La Dolce Amira, Bilik 13, All Mixed Up and Island FM. She has been in feature films such as Lips to Lips, Buli, 1957- Hati Malaya and Waris Jari Hantu.

Bessey appeared on BBC World News hosting, "Exploring Malaysia", a travel documentary. She is also an environmentalist.