Joana Marques

Joana Marques
Marques in January 2024
Born	(1986-01-03) 3 January 1986 Portugal
Occupation(s)	TV and radio presenter, comedian, writer, scriptwriter
Years active	2007-
Relatives	João Pedro Marques, father

Joana Marques (born 1986) is a Portuguese comedian, screenwriter, and television and radio personality. In April 2024 she was ranked ninth on a list of the 25 most influential women in Portugal in 2023.

Education

Marques was born on 3 January 1986. Her father, João Pedro Marques, is a historian and novelist. She has a degree in communication sciences from the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities of the NOVA University Lisbon.

Career

In 2007, she began working as a screenwriter. In 2012, she created and presented the programme Altos e Baixos (Highs and Lows) on the Portuguese Canal Q together with her future husband, Daniel Leitão. The title was a joke based on the considerable difference in height between the two. The programme ran for five seasons. From 2012 she worked at the Antena 3 radio station, where she participated in programmes such as As Donas da Casa (The Housewives), which she co-hosted with Ana Galvão, and Extremamente Desagradável (Extremely Disagreeable). Her time at Antena 3 included the Toca a Todos (Touch Everyone) event in December 2014, in which she, Galvão and Diogo Beja hosted a continuous 73-hour broadcast, with the aim of raising funds for the Catholic charity, Caritas Portugal, in the fight against child poverty.

In December 2018, she left Antena 3, making her debut on Rádio Renascença the following month as one of the announcers on the programme As Três da Manhã (Three in the Morning), together with Galvão and Inês Lopes Gonçalves. Her comedy section on the show, also named Extremamente Desagradável, became the most listened-to radio comedy in Portugal. From 2020 she became a scriptwriter for the satirical SIC TV programme Isto É Gozar Com Quem Trabalha (This is making fun of those who work), starring Ricardo Araújo Pereira. In 2022, she was a judge on the 7th edition of Ídolos (Pop Idols), being the only member of the jury who did not have a career linked to music.

Writing and publications

In 2019, Marques published Vai correr tudo mal – O primeiro (e possível o último) livro de anti-ajuda (Everything Will Go Wrong – The First (and probably the last) Anti-Help Book) and in 2022 she published Apontar é Feio (Pointing is Ugly). In 2022 and 2023 she wrote a column called Elefante na Sala (Elephant in the Room), for Visão magazine, with the articles being published as a book in June 2024.

Controversy

In July 2024, it was reported that the musical duo Anjos had taken legal action against Marques, demanding over one million euros in damages because she had shared on her Instagram page a montage that mocked the duo's performance of the Portuguese national anthem at the Algarve International Circuit before a race. In the montage, the performance is interspersed with expressions of displeasure on the part of the four judges of the 7th edition of Ídolos, including Marques herself.

Awards

In 2021, Marques was a finalist for the award for best comedian of the year in Portugal, at the Hiena Awards. She was the only female candidate. In both 2022 and 2023, she received the Golden Globe for Digital Personality of the Year at the Portuguese Golden Globes, despite not having any exclusive content on the Internet. In 2024, she was nominated for the same award. In 2022 she was the winner of the ACTIVA Inspiring Women Award, in the Arts category. In April 2024 she was ranked ninth on a list of the 25 most influential women in Portugal in 2023 by the Executiva web site, which is a web site for women.