JOANNA RICHARDS is an actor and playwright based in Canberra. She has studied acting with the American Repertory Theatre Institute, The Moscow Art Theatre School, The Groundlings, and William Esper Studio. She studied writing for television at AFTRS, and sketch writing at The Second City. In 2020 she was selected for the Street Theatre’s Early Phase Program. Joanna co-wrote the web series Whirld which was nominated for Best Series at the Sydney Web Fest and won Best Series at Paris Web Fest. In 2021, she started writing Blonde Philosophy, a sketch series for YouTube which uses character comedy to explore philosophical concepts. She is also a stand up and sketch comedian, performing at the Canberra Comedy Festival Gala, and at the PIT in NYC. Outside of the arts, Joanna works in the gender and diversity space as both a consultant and researcher, working for 50/50 by 2030 Foundation, Global Institute for Women’s Leadership, the Office of Andrew Leigh, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, and the YWCA. In 2021, Joanna won Canberra Youth Theatre’s Emerging Playwright Commission which led to the creation of You Can’t Tell Anyone, her debut play.