Joanna Merlin (born JoAnn Delores Ratner; July 15, 1931 – October 15, 2023) was an American actress and casting director who worked with Stephen Sondheim and starred in the original Broadway production of Fiddler on the Roof.

[4] Her family also included her older sister, Harriet Glickman, who would go on to gain recognition for helping persuade Charles M. Schulz in 1968 to add a black character to his Peanuts strip, which he did with the introduction of Franklin.

[3] Five years later, she made her Broadway debut in Becket[3] before playing Tzeitel in Harold Prince's production of Fiddler on the Roof.

Like many actors from that show, she went on to play other characters in the Law & Order franchise - another defense attorney in the original show and a more recurring role as Judge Lena Petrovsky, a judge who was very stern, by-the-book, and scolded or sanctioned, at various times, ADAs Casey Novak (Diane Neal) and Alexandra Cabot (Stephanie March) and Detective (now Captain) Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay), in its first spin-off Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.

[7] After a marriage to Martin Lubner in the 1950s ended in divorce, Merlin was married to David Dretzin from 1965 until his death in 2006, from an injury sustained in a car accident.