Maria Penelope Katharine Aitken (born 12 September 1945) is a British theatre director,[1] teacher, actress, and writer.
[2][3] Her performance in the film A Fish Called Wanda (1988) earned her a nomination for the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role.
Her film career includes appearances in Doctor Faustus (1967), Mary, Queen of Scots (1971), Half Moon Street (1986), A Fish Called Wanda (1988) (for which she was nominated for a BAFTA award), The Fool (1990), The Grotesque (1995), Fierce Creatures (1997), Jinnah (1998) and Asylum (2005).
In 1984, Aitken co-wrote and starred in the sitcom Poor Little Rich Girls alongside Jill Bennett.
She is the author of A Girdle Round the Earth, a story of some of the remarkable women travellers of the last 200 years, and Style: Acting in High Comedy, published in 1996, which contends that "High comedies are not bloodless, refined, wordy plays — their themes are sex, money and social advancement.