Marleen Scholten (Groningen, 1978) is an actress and a cofounder of the theatre collective Wunderbaum since 2001. She studied at the Maastricht Academy of Dramatic Arts. Wunderbaum is a collective that writes, performs and directs its own pieces. The group is part of Theater Rotterdam and its members have been artistic directors for Theaterhaus Jena since 2018. Scholten has made over forty-five pieces with the company, which were staged both nationally and internationally. In 2016, the actress moved to Italy, where pieces she made and played in include Who is the real Italian? (2016), The History of my Stiffness (2018), The National Song (2019) and Comizi d’amore (2020), based on the documentary of the same name by Pier Paolo Pasolini. She also realised a project with African refugees and Italian youths that centred on the question: where is your home? Scholten’s latest piece is La codista, based on the story of a Milanese man who lost his job and started waiting in line for other people in exchange for money. The first performance is in May 2021 in the Triënnale Milano Teatro. The Dutch premiere is during the Holland Festival 2021. Scholten was awarded Italy’s Antonio Conti national playwright’s prize for the script of La codista. Wunderbaum’s previous awards include the Mary Dresselhuys Award (2007), the Proscenium Prize (2010) and The Total Theater Award (2014).