Joan Ellen Rayner AM (8 December 1900 – 11 March 1999) was a New Zealand-born Australian theatre educator.

She and her sister, Rhoda Elspeth (Betty) Rayner, founded the Australian Children's Theatre in 1948.

They travelled in France and Germany, but by 1929 they were back in Sydney creating a youth theatre and being pictured with their caravan.

[1] The Rayner sisters started a "universal travelling theatre, directly in contact with the community" as Constance Smedley had imagined.

[4] In the 1978 Queen's Birthday Honours, she was made a member of the Order of Australia because of her work for children's theatre.