Wanniarachchige Malini Senehelatha Fonseka, popularly known as Malini Fonseka (මාලිනී ෆොන්සේකා) (born 30 April 1947, in Kelaniya, Sri Lanka) is a Sri Lankan actress, theatre artist and a director. Often considered the “Queen of Sri Lankan Cinema”, Fonseka first became widely known when she won the ‘Best Actress Award’ at the 1969 National State Drama Festival, followed by Sarasaviya Best Actress Awards for Hingana Kolla in 1980, Aradhana in 1982 and Yasa Isuru in 1983.

A veteran actress acting for a span of seven decades, she began her career in Sri Lankan cinema with Tissa Liyansooriya’s Punchi Baba in 1968. She has also made a record by winning the Slim Nielsen Peoples’ Award for the Most Popular Actress twelve times in a row. In 2010, she was named by CNN as one of Asia’s 25 greatest film actors of all time.

She made her debut in veteran director K. A. W. Perera’s 1975 film, Wasana but it was Neil Rupasinghe’s Lassana Kella which was released first. Since then, she is often referred to as “the prettiest girl (  සිංහල සිනමාවේ ලස්සන කෙල්ල)” on Sri Lankan silver screen and she has appeared in over 80 movies, winning the Sarasaviya Best Actress Award four times, in 1991, 1996, 2000 and 2004. She has also received the Sarasaviya Most Popular Actress Award several times.