Beth Porter, (born May 23, 1942) is an American stage, film and television actress, who has worked in Britain for most of her career.

Beth Jane Porter was born in Connecticut, United States where she first started performing on stage at the age of twelve. She was heard in the original 1978 radio series and later appeared in the 1981 television series of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy as the "marketing girl." She also featured in the television series The Men's Room with Bill Nighy, who, coincidentally, would go on to play Slartibartfast in the Hitchhiker's movie.

One of her most famous movies is Eskimo Nell, produced by Stanley Long, and released in 1975, although she has subsequently disowned it.

She has also produced television programmes and has written a book about the Internet called The Net Effect. For many years Porter lived in Bristol, although she now currently resides in Kent, in the south west of England.

First professional appearance at age 12 in touring company; studied at Stratford Connecticut Shakespeare Festival; member of original Obie-Award winning NY LaMaMa Troupe under director Tom O'Horgan [Hair] where she starred in play and film of "Futz" and featured in Tom Paine, and Melodrama Play Sam Shepard. Founded London LaMaMa, and became its administrative and artistic director, touring all over Europe. Featured in plays Little Mother, Groupjuice, Hump. US television includes guest spots in Baretta and Kojak. UK television roles include costarring in Rock Follies and Hitch-hikers Guide to the Galaxy; tv films included Blue Money with Tim Curry, and Pleasure, part of the Alan Bleasdale Presents series. Feature films include The Great Gatsby, Reds, Love and Death, and Yentl [in which she worked as Barbra Streisand's understudy and played Sophie, Amy Irving's maid, uncredited]. Beth then trained as a television script editor and producer at the BBC. She produced The Husband, The Wife and The Stranger, starring Adam Faith and Derrick O'Connor, and Unusual Ground Floor Conversion, a short film directed by Mark Herman [Little Voice], before joining BBC Television Drama as a development executive for new drama series. She's written several plays and film scripts, and became a film critic in 1988, serving for 10 years as London Editor for Film Journal International. A new career as a Web Producer led to the publication of Beth's book The Net Effect, to which David Puttnam contributed the foreword. 2006 was her ninth year as a nominating judge for the International Webby Awards and she has served as a contributor to policy advisers on eDemocracy issues.