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. Early life Poźniak was born in Gdańsk, Poland. Her mother was born in Wilno, 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 December 13, 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. Career Film and television work 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