Mieke Wijaya


Mieke Wijaya is an Indonesian actress who has won three Citra Awards.

Biography

Wijaya was born in Bandung, West Java, Dutch East Indies, on 7 March 1940. After graduating senior high school, she studied for some time at the National Theatre Academy of Indonesia in Jakarta. During this period she was active as a singer and actress; she had made her film debut in 1954 with Gagal.
In 1956 Wijaya rose to fame as one of the stars in Perfini's Tiga Dara. The film, directed by Usmar Ismail, saw Mieke play Nana, one of three sisters raised by their grandmother after their mother's death; in 2006 Ade Irwansyah of Tabloid Bintang wrote that Tiga Dara was the eleventh best Indonesian film of all time. Over the next five years she acted in thirteen films, including five in 1961 alone. Through the 1960s, while continuing to act in films, she was a member of Teguh Karya's Teater Populer, a stage drama troupe.
Through the 1970s and 1980s Wijaya acted in numerous films, including the religious Sembilan Wali, the comedy Bing Slamet Koboi Cengeng, the drama Ranjang Pengantin, and the romances Badai Pasti Berlalu and Dr. Karmila. In 1987 she acted in three productions.
After a four-year hiatus, during 1991 Wijaya acted in two films, Saat Kukatakan Cinta and Zig Zag . This was followed by another long hiatus from featured films: the Indonesian film industry declined drastically in the early 1990s, and Wijaya began to concentrate on television series., her most recent feature film role was in Hanung Bramantyo's Ayat-Ayat Cinta.
Wijaya has won two Citra Awards for Best Leading Actress, one in 1967 for Gadis Kerudung Putih and one in 1975 for Kembang Semusim. She also received a Citra Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1975 for her role in Ranjang Pengantin. In 1996 she received a Surjosoemanto Prize from the National Film Board in recognition of her lengthy career, and at the 2011 Bandung Film Festival she received a Lifetime Achievement award together with Deddy Mizwar.
She was married to fellow actor Dicky Zulkarnaen until his death of a stroke in 1995. The couple's daughter Nia Zulkarnaen was nominated for a Citra Award in 1991 for her role in Lagu Untuk Seruni''.

Filmography

Wijaya has acted in over seventy films during her fifty-year career.