An actress is a female person who acts in a dramatic production and works in film, TV, theatre, or radio as a voice actress. The word actor refers to one who acts, while actress refers specifically to a female who acts. In the Oxford English Dictionary, the word 'actor' was originally used for both sexes. The word actress was probably formed independently in English and was not derived from any other language. As actress is a specifically feminine word, some feminists assert that the word is sexist.
