Biography of Joanna Kulig

Joanna Kulig (born June 24, 1982) is a Polish actress and singer. In 2018, she received the Best Actress Award at the 31st European Film Awards for her performance in Cold War. She is also a two-time Polish Film Award recipient for Best Supporting Actress (Elles) and Best Actress (Cold War).

In 1998, Kulig won an episode of the Polish television talent show Szansa na sukces by performing Grzegorz Turnau's song "Między ciszą a ciszą". She took part in the show's annual final, and came third. Turnau later invited her to sing with him on his 2002 album Nawet. Kulig also participated in season two of the Polish television talent show Idol in 2002. She was eliminated in the semi-finals.

Kulig made her stage debut in 2006 as Hermia in the play A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Helena Modrzejewska National Stary Theater in Kraków. She made her film debut in 2007 in Grzegorz Pacek's film Wednesday, Thursday Morning, which earned her the Gdynia Film Festival award for Best Debut. In 2011, she played Alicja opposite Juliette Binoche in Małgorzata Szumowska's 2011 film Elles, which earned her the Polish Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, and another recognition at the Gdynia Film Festival for Best Supporting Actress. She also starred alongside Ethan Hawke and Kristin Scott Thomas in the 2011 drama The Woman in the Fifth directed by Paweł Pawlikowski. In 2013, she appeared in Jacek Borcuch's drama Lasting, and in Pawlikowski's Academy Award-winning drama Ida. The former earned Kulig her second Polish Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. She also played Sister Irena in Anne Fontaine's 2016 critically acclaimed drama The Innocents.

Kulig's international breakthrough came in 2018 when she starred in Pawlikowski's historical drama film Cold War, in which she plays Zula, a woman in post-war Poland who joins a folk music touring group. Mark Kermode of The Observer wrote that she "delivers a star-making performance of astonishing range and depth", and Mick LaSalle of San Francisco Chronicle stated that "she takes the role of a lifetime between her teeth, chomps on it, pounds it into the ground and never lets go for a second." Kulig received the Best Actress Award at the 31st European Film Awards, and the Polish Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance. That same year, she played local priest's girlfriend with whom she gets pregnant in Wojciech Smarzowski's controversial film Clergy. In 2019, Polish magazine Wprost ranked her fourth on its list of the 50 most influential Polish women.

Kulig starred as jazz singer Maja in Damien Chazelle's 2020 Netflix musical drama series The Eddy. She served as one of the jurors of the Un Certain Regard section at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival. She is next committed to star in Rebecca Miller's romantic comedy She Came to Me alongside Anne Hathaway, Tahar Rahim, Marisa Tomei and Matthew Broderick.

Full name: Joanna Kulig

Born: June 24, 1982

Birthplace: Krynica-Zdrój, Kuyavia-Pomerania, Poland