Beata Poźniak

Polish–American actress

Beata Poźniak (; born 30 April 1960) is a Polish American actress, film director, poet, painter and an Earphones Award winning narrator. She is also a human rights activist who introduced the first bill in the history of US Congress to officially recognize International Women's Day in the United States. Pozniak won the prestigious Voice Arts Award in the "Outstanding Video Game Character Best Performance" category for her role of Skarlet, the Blood Queen in Mortal Kombat 11 starring alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone. In thirty years of Mortal Kombat's franchise, Pozniak is the first and only actress that won in the Best Performance Category.

Poźniak was born in Gdańsk, Poland. Her mother was born in Vilnius, Lithuania, and her father's family is from Ukraine. Her parents divorced when she was six years old and she grew up with a single mother in Soviet ruled Poland during the Cold War. She eventually passed her entrance exam to the National Film School in Łódź PWSFTViT with the highest score in the country, and received a Master's of Fine Arts degree with High Honors at age 22. Her stage debut was playing the role of Justine, symbol of justice, in a Mrożek play, Vatzlav, under the eyes of a government censor. Martial Law was imposed on 13 December 1981. After graduating, she moved to Warsaw where she was assisted in getting necessary documents by Father Jerzy Popiełuszko. In 1984, the priest was murdered because of his support for the Solidarity movement. A film of this incident, To Kill a Priest, was later made by Agnieszka Holland. After arriving in Warsaw she starred in a highly successful theater production of How the Other Half Loves by Alan Ayckbourn. It was during rehearsals for this production that Andrzej Wajda became a mentor to Beata and gave her invaluable guidance for her career. In 1985, before the collapse of the Berlin Wall, Beata immigrated to the United States. Her very first film role, while still in high school, was as an extra in the Academy Award winning film The Tin Drum which happened to be filming near her home. She later made many film appearances and worked as a fashion model and was the calendar girl for Poland's National Soccer team.

Poźniak was discovered by the U. S. audiences when Oliver Stone cast her in JFK as Marina Oswald. This memorable role in an Academy Award nominated film was her U. S. feature debut and it led to her appearances in over 30 film and TV projects worldwide. After playing Earth Alliance President Susanna Luchenko in Babylon 5 and a fiery young revolutionary in George Lucas' The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, as well as a sharp scientist Ludmilla in Dark Skies or Eva in Pensacola she becomes known for playing badass female characters. Other powerful roles have included Paramount's JAG where she appeared as an exotic Israeli spy, a double agent working for the Mossad and CIA. In the television series Melrose Place, she created a ground breaking character, Dr. Katya Fielding, a "straight" woman and mother who decides to marry a gay man the role that is still very much talked about, making Poźniak one of the show's most popular former cast members. Her other diverse roles include Masha in Mad About You, Raisa on The Drew Carey Show and Tambor, the Japanese nanny in Oliver Stone's Wild Palms miniseries. In the CBS movie of the week A Mother's Gift, she was seen as a character that aged thirty years, whereas in a World War II drama entitled Miriam she played a Catholic woman who risks her life to save a Jewish girl from the Nazis. She also stars as Laina in the interactive movie/video game Psychic Detective, premiered at Sundance Film Festival as the first video game in the New Media category. An experimental film "All These Voices" where she stars as Beata, a World War II Survivor wins a Student Academy Award.

Poźniak narrated the bestseller, The Winter Palace: A Novel of Catherine the Great, a 19 hour audiobook for Random House, where she made use of her European background in bringing to life the 78 characters and their colorful accents. After embodying one of the most intriguing women in history, she read another 19 hour story of the Empress of the Night: A Novel of Catherine the Great. This was followed by a teen romance/adventure/sci fi thriller, "The Illuminae Files", by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff, which won an Audie Award. After that, she co narrated "The Tsar of Love and Techno" by Anthony Marra which was selected in the Top 5 Best Audiobooks of the year by The Washington Post. As a producer and narrator she takes on "Libretto for the Desert – Poetry Dedicated to the Victims of Genocide and War" a project that acknowledges the universality of loss, persecution, and intolerance. Poźniak received the 2019 Earphones Award for the best read audiobook Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead written by Nobel Prize Winner Olga Tokarczuk. In the video game world, she voiced Skarlet, the Blood Queen in Mortal Kombat 11. She also narrated documentaries such as, "The Officer's Wife" about the mass murder of Polish officers in the Katyn forest and co narrated Freedom from Despair, a film about communism, which won several Awards and received an honorable mention in the US Congress. She narrated the 2020 novel Light in Hidden Places by Sharon Cameron, based on the true story of Stefania Podgorska, a Polish Catholic teenager who hid 13 Jewish persons during World War 2.

Seeking a new voice for herself in a uniquely contemporary style that declares "anything is possible," she founded Theater Discordia. Creating performance art pieces that have been part of the L. A. Theatre Festival, and the L. A. Poetry Festival, she directed and wrote "Poeticus Umbilicus", "Poetry Discordia", "Return of Umbilicus", "We & They" and "Changing Flags." Her Theater Discordia evolved, with the participation of Peter Sellars, into a celebrated venue for experimental theater works.

Poźniak is also a painter, and continues to work in film, often appearing in experimental and independent productions, several of which she has also directed. In her directorial debut, which was a short film, "Mnemosyne", she used several art pieces made by herself. Praised by F. X. Feeney LA Weekly: "the multitalented Pozniak rapidly intercuts news footage of violence with live models and her own sensual sculptures to express a fierce moral sense." Through her art, Poźniak often explores what it is to be a woman in today's world with recurring themes of women's rights, social justice and women's history. Her artworks combine the choreographic traditions of theater with symbolic and surreal imagery of painting and sculpture. In her early mask series, Poźniak connects an ancient and mythological theatrical device with the surrealism of Man Ray to produce a stunning range of fantastical masks made from feathers and other found objects. Her more recent paintings and sculptures explore the collision of ancient myths and the modern world. By combining imagery reminiscent of surrealist dreamscapes with found objects, these works challenge our notions of continuity between past and present. Poźniak says:
"Surrealism is a lens through which I view many of the events and circumstances occurring in the world today. Whether it is the horrors of war or inspirational insights found in ancient mythology, I am constantly exploring fantastical juxtapositions that express something about the experience of being a woman. That is why my paintings and sculptures are often surreal and full of symbolism. Feministic, poetical, and political."

Poźniak's art is often auctioned off for charity and support different causes including Children's Hospital and Looking Above & Beyond, an organization dedicated to creating awareness and the enrichment of children with special needs or Our House, an organization providing grief support services, education, resources, and hope. She also hosted Domestic Violence Prevention Awards, National Women's Political Caucus's Women's Leadership Awards.

Beginning in the late 1980s, soon after her arrival in America, Poźniak began a campaign to get the US government to recognize International Women's Day. She was very successful, and on 8 March 1994, she accomplished the introduction of the first bill in the history of the U. S. Congress for national recognition of the holiday (H. J. Res. 316) designating 8 March as International Women's Day. She made the headlines of the Los Angeles Times, who hailed her as "Taking the Banner For Women Everywhere". Furthermore, Poźniak established an educational organization, Women's Day USA, which aims to raise public awareness of women's inspirational achievements all over the world. She also works on projects that help bring awareness to third world issues, with a special emphasis on the representation of women's voices and their untold stories. She received official recognition from the Los Angeles City Council, which commended her for her efforts in establishing International Women's Day as a day to be celebrated in the United States and from Mayor Richard Riordan for her vision in creating International Women's Day, and from Mayor Tom Bradley for bringing the idea to Los Angeles. Poźniak has been acknowledged for her ability to work across both political parties in seeking greater recognition for women's rights. In 1995, at a public awards event, a women's rights attorney, Gloria Allred acknowledged Poźniak for her contributions to human rights and to women's history and also named Poźniak as being her personal hero. In 1994, to commemorate the introduction of the bill recognizing International Women's Day, Poźniak created a painting "Mnemosyne International Women's Day", the Mother of Memory, which celebrates the many contributions to human rights by women from all over the world. A symbol of International Women's Day, the work depicts a community of all races of the world in a female form. It evokes the achievements of women along their struggle for peace and equality in the face of discrimination and war.

+ List of audiobooks Year Title Notes Won? 2021 The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman 2021 Libreto para el desierto (Spanish language) 2021 Libretto dla pustyni (Polish language) 2021 Bending Toward the Sun: a Mother Daughter Memoir, a true Holocaust story 2021 Chwile zamyślenia ("Moments of Reflection") poetry 2020Tribute to a Nobel Prize Winning Poet Voice Arts Awards Nominee "Outstanding Spoken Word or Storytelling Best Performance" 2020 A Wolf for a Spell, a Baba Yaga children's story, Random House 2020 The Light in Hidden Places by Scholastic, a true story about the heroic Podgórski sisters The 2020 Earphones Award Winner 2020 Droga do nieba by Blackstone Publishing (Polish language) The 2020 Feniks Award for Best Expressive Performance in an Audiobook 2019 Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead written by Nobel Prize winner Olga Tokarczuk Penguin Random House The 2019 Earphones Award Winner 2019 Libretto for the Desert by Sona Van. Poems Dedicated to all the Victims of Genocide and War Blackstone Audio Voice Arts Awards Nominee "Outstanding Spoken Word or Storytelling Best Performance" 2015 Illuminae (as Dr. Shteyngart) Penguin Random House Audie Award Winner 2015 The Tsar of Love and Techno by Anthony Marra, Penguin Random House The Washington Post "Best Audiobook of the Year" 2014 Empress of the Night: A Novel of Catherine the Great (19 hour audiobook) published by Random House 2012 The Winter Palace: A Novel of Catherine the Great (19 hour audiobook) published by Random House