Meryl Streep

Meryl Streep was born Mary Louise Streep on June 22, 1949, in Summit, New Jersey, and grew up in Bernardsville. Her mother, Mary Wilkinson Streep, was an artist and art editor, while her father, Harry William Streep Jr., worked as a pharmaceutical executive. She studied drama at Vassar College, graduating in 1971, then earned an MFA from the Yale School of Drama in 1975. At Yale, she appeared in productions including The Taming of the Shrew and Measure for Measure, building a stage repertory before her screen career. Her first feature-film role was a small part in Fred Zinnemann’s Julia (1977), followed by The Deer Hunter (1978), Michael Cimino’s Vietnam War drama. Playing Linda, she received her first Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. She won that category two years later for Kramer vs. Kramer (1979), portraying Joanna Kramer opposite Dustin Hoffman. In the film, Joanna returns after leaving her husband and fights for custody of their son. Streep’s performance as Polish survivor Zofia “Sophie” Zawistowski in Alan J. Pakula’s Sophie’s Choice (1982) brought her the Academy Award for Best Actress. The story’s defining revelation is Sophie’s coerced selection of one of her children at Auschwitz. She learned Polish and German for the role. Her other early Oscar-nominated films included The French Lieutenant’s Woman (1981), Silkwood (1983), and Out of Africa (1985), where she played Danish writer Karen Blixen opposite Robert Redford. She expanded her comic screen persona in Death Becomes Her (1992), playing vain actress Madeline Ashton, and in The Devil Wears Prada (2006), as Runway editor Miranda Priestly. Her depiction of British prime minister Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady (2011) earned her third Oscar, again for Best Actress. She sang as Donna Sheridan in Mamma Mia! (2008) and reprised the part in Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again (2018). In Julie & Julia (2009), she played Julia Child and recreated Child’s distinctive voice and mannerisms. By 2024, Streep had received 21 Academy Award nominations, more acting nominations than any other performer, and won three. Her television work includes the 2003 HBO miniseries Angels in America, for which she won an Emmy, and the second season of Big Little Lies (2019), where she played Mary Louise Wright. In Only Murders in the Building’s third season (2023), she portrayed Loretta Durkin, an actor whose audition history and connection to a murder investigation shape the season’s theatrical mystery.