Kathryn Joosten (born December 20, 1939) is a two-time Emmy Award-winning American television actress. Joosten did not begin to hone her craft until middle age in the 1980s, after taking acting classes in Chicago, Illinois. She started acting at age 42. Prior to her career as an actress, she worked as a psychiatric nurse.

It was not until the mid-1990s that Joosten made the move to Hollywood, where she took guest roles in television series such as Roseanne, Home Improvement, Picket Fences, Murphy Brown, ER, Seinfeld, Frasier, Just Shoot Me!, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Dharma & Greg, Las Vegas and The Drew Carey Show.

In the 1997 episode of Frasier, 'Roz's Turn', Joosten appeared as Vera, the mother and personal secretary of Frasier's conniving agent, Bebe Glazer, played by Harriet Sansom Harris. The pair would later be reunited to play opposite neighbors in the first season of Desperate Housewives.