Joanna P. Adler

Joanna P. Adler is an American actress whose work spans Broadway, Off-Broadway, film, and television. She earned her undergraduate degree from Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts and later pursued graduate study in Performance Studies at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. Before completing her thesis, Adler began her professional acting career with the internationally recognized theater collaborative Mabou Mines.

Her Off-Broadway career established her as a significant presence in New York theater. Among her notable stage credits are the title role in Richard Foreman's Obie Award-winning production Benita Canova, John Guare's Lydie Breeze, and Paul Rudnick's The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told. In 1995, Adler received an Obie Award for Distinguished Performance by an Actress for her work in The Boys in the Basement.

Adler made her Broadway debut in 2007 in Terrence McNally's Deuce, directed by Michael Blakemore. The production marked her entry into the Broadway community following years of work in New York's Off-Broadway theater scene.

Her television credits include guest appearances on Sex and the City, Law & Order, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, 30 Rock, The Good Wife, and The Blacklist, as well as recurring roles on Gravity, Are We There Yet?, and Orange Is the New Black. In 2014, she joined the cast of the Lifetime comedy-drama series Devious Maids as a series regular in its second season, playing Opal, a secretive and conniving new maid. In 2018, Adler appeared in a recurring role on FX's The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story, portraying Mary Ann Schillaci Cunanan, the mother of serial killer Andrew Cunanan, a character played opposite Darren Criss.