Joanna Kulig

Joanna Kulig (born 24 June 1982) is a Polish film, stage and television actress, and singer. In 2018, she received the Best Actress Award at the 31st European Film Awards for her performance in Cold War. Polish magazine Wprost ranked her fourth on its list of the 50 most influential Polish women in 2019.

Kulig was born on 24 June 1982 in Krynica, Lesser Poland Voivodeship, Poland. Her mother worked as a cook at a local kindergarten and her father was a folk poet. She was raised with four siblings in Muszynka.

In 2000, Kulig enrolled at the Mieczysław Karłowicz State Music School Complex in Kraków. She graduated from the Frédéric Chopin State Music School in Krynica-Zdrój (piano class) as well as the AST National Academy of Theatre Arts in Kraków in 2007 with a specialization in popular music vocals. She was the first in her family to graduate from a university.

Kulig has performed at the Helena Modrzejewska National Stary Theater in Kraków. In 1998, she won an episode of the talent show Szansa na sukcesby performing the song Między ciszą a ciszą by Grzegorz Turnau.

Kulig made her film debut in 2007 in Grzegorz Pacek's Środa czwartek rano. In 2010, she appeared alongside Jakub Gierszał in Milion dolarów ("One Million Dollars") by Janusz Kondratiuk. In 2011, she starred alongside Ethan Hawke and Kristin Scott Thomas in The Woman in the Fifth directed by Paweł Pawlikowski. Other film directors with whom she has collaborated include Agnieszka Holland, Jacek Borcuch, Mirosław Borek, and Marcin Wrona.

In 2013, Kulig received the Polish Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress conferred by the Polish Film Academy for her role in Małgorzata Szumowska's film Elles. In 2018, she received the Best Actress Award at the 31st European Film Awards for her role in Paweł Pawlikowski's historical drama film Cold War. The role also earned her the Polish Academy Award for Best Actress. She will star as Maja in Damien Chazelle's Netflix musical drama series The Eddy.

Kulig's sister, Justyna Schneider, is also an actress and adopted their great-grandmother's surname to avoid confusion. In 2009, Kulig married film director and screenwriter Maciej Bochniak. In February 2019, she gave birth to their son.