Pinga (fanon biography)

Mary Margaret Harriet Winters OA (born 18 June 1988) is an actress, musician, and producer best known for her work in Pingu, its spinoff Pingu in the City, and the internet series The Henchmen. Winters is known for her orchestral soundscape and imagery in her music, and for her naivete in her acting roles. Winters has multiple accolades, including the AntMusic Award, the AntScreen Award, and the BAFTA Award.

Born in Whitby, Yorkshire, she was raised in Zürich, Switzerland with her family and began to make her first appearance as a child actress when she acted as Pinga in Pingu, the younger sister of the eponymous character. Her role later rose her to prominence and garnered a BAFTA Award nomination. Winters continued to appear as her character in promotional material ranging from merchandise to commercials until its cancellation.

Winters's music career began with the release of promotional material such as the singles "Pingu-Dance" (1993) released in Switzerland, "Pingu Rap" and "Seeds of Happiness" (1993) in Japan, and the German-exclusive album Pingu Hits (1994), for which she contributed her favorite tracks and lyrics. After HiT Entertainment revived Pingu, she reprised her role and later joined her brother's band, the Icebreakers, as a second drummer and later as a mandolinist, horn player, and string player, contributing to the band's eclectic output in their later albums. Her work in the Icebreakers supplanted her many AntMusic Awards; her penned songs include "Up Top Down Bottom", "A Key to Quietness", and "Try As We Might".

After the cancellation of the British reboot and the disbandment of the Icebreakers, Winters debuted as a solo artist with her first album, Wicker Basket (2007), and later garnered rave reviews with her sophomore effort, Outside Your Door (2008). She put her music career on hold to focus on the web series The Henchmen (2008–2012), in which she wrote, produced, and co-starred alongside Carmela Pendragon and Andrew Bettencourt.

She later resumed her music career after The Henchmen ended and released her third album Everyday Holidays (2012). Winters's fourth album, Sometime Afternoon (2016), garnered her a Pulse Music Award for Best Production and a nomination for a Pulse Music Award for Album of the Year. She reprised her role for the second time in Pingu in the City, with her co-workers from their work in The Henchmen appearing in the show as the characters Pendra and Pen-Pen, respectively. Winters continued to pursue her musical endeavors, doing commissioned pieces to soundtracks of various films and shows.

Her fifth album, Origami (2022), marked a stylistic departure from her last few albums, denoting a more upbeat synth-pop sound in contrast to her downbeat and ornate instrumentation she showcased in her previous works. Origami was nominated for a Pulse Award for Album of the Year and won three Pulse Awards: for songwriting, production, and engineering. Winters continues to be revered as a Swiss cultural export and icon, and was awarded the Order of Antarctica in the 2015 Honours and the Order of the Merit of Penguins in the 2018 lineup.

Early life
Winters was born on 18 June 1988 in Whitby, Yorkshire to Paul and Polly Winters (née Mead). Her father is a retired musician and actor who worked as a courier, while her mother appeared played saxophone in multiple bands. Along with her family, she was raised irreligious, but celebrated Christmas. Winters states if she were not to become an actress, she would work as a music teacher.

Winters attended the International Antarctic Children's Playgroup School in Zürich from 1992 to 1996.

Personal life
Winters's feathers do not molt. She attributed this to genetics, as her brother's feathers finished molting by the time he turned 4 years old.

Winters revealed that she is currently in a relationship with Sanrio model Tuxedo Sam. They have been dating since last year; she initially kept the relationship a secret, only telling her family and friends. Winters spoke about her struggles of finding a date, as she felt that she would not have the time

She gets into contact with her childhood friends, dating all the way back to when she was in playgroup.

Winters is great friends with the cast and crew of Pingu, notably Otmar Gutmann, Tony Wolf, and Carlo Bonomi. Because Winters was only 6 when Bonomi died, this had a tremendous change to her well-being, and began feeling sluggish in her home and playgroup. A director told Winters to keep smiling on, because that's what Gutmann would've wanted. To this day, Winters has spoken extensively about her friendship with Gutmann and how he got Winters to be more energetic in her roles.

She loved Tony Wolf's drawings of the cast and sketched a few portraits of her own, all of which are hidden until her 50th birthday. She attended Wolf's funeral, and placed one of her paintings near his gravestone.

Her mentor, Carlo Bonomi, lead Winters to become more confident in her performances and often worked to push her boundaries without hurting her in that regard. She continued to contact with Bonomi after the end of the original run of Pingu, and placed a bouquet of flowers along with a stylized portrait of him on his gravestone.

Discography
Solo
 * Wicker Basket (2007)
 * Outside Your Door (2008)
 * Everyday Holidays (2012)
 * Sometime Afternoon (2016)
 * Origami (2022)

Pingu-themed (as track director) Other
 * Pingu Hits (1994)
 * Pingu Sing-A-Long (1996)
 * The Henchmen: Songs from the Web Series (2012) (soundtrack)