Meryl Streep American Actress Born 1949 in Summit

Meryl Streep is an American actress who has worked in film, television and theatre. She was born Mary Louise Streep on 22 June 1949 in Summit, New Jersey. Her screen career spans more than five decades and covers dramas, comedies and musicals.

Early life

Streep was born in Summit, New Jersey, the daughter of the artist Mary Wilkinson Streep. She grew up in the New Jersey towns of Basking Ridge and Bernardsville and attended Bernards High School. She studied at Vassar College, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in 1971, and then at the Yale School of Drama, where she completed a Master of Fine Arts in 1975. She had also spent time as a visiting student at Dartmouth College.

Career

Streep started on the stage in 1975. A year later she won a Theatre World Award and drew a Tony nomination for the play 27 Wagons Full of Cotton. Her earliest screen credit is Everybody Rides the Carousel (1975), and she appeared in the feature Julia (1977). In 1978 she won a Primetime Emmy Award for the miniseries Holocaust and appeared in The Deer Hunter, which brought her first Academy Award nomination.

Her work in 1979 included Manhattan and Kramer vs. Kramer, which won her an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. During the early 1980s she starred in The French Lieutenant's Woman and Sophie's Choice, playing Zofia Zawistowski in the second, and then in Silkwood and Out of Africa. The late 1980s included Ironweed and Evil Angels, known in some countries as A Cry in the Dark.

In the 1990s she appeared in Postcards from the Edge, Death Becomes Her (1992, as Madeline Ashton), The Bridges of Madison County (1995), Marvin's Room (1996), One True Thing and Music of the Heart. The 2000s began with A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001) and included The Hours and Adaptation (both 2002). In Adaptation she played Susan Orlean. She appeared in the television miniseries Angels in America (2003) and in Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events (2004).

The Devil Wears Prada (2006) gave her the role of the editor Miranda Priestly. She followed it with the musical Mamma Mia! (2008), where she played Donna Sheridan and reprised the part in Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again (2018), and with Doubt (2008) and Julie & Julia (2009). In The Iron Lady (2011) she played Margaret Thatcher. Later films include August: Osage County (2013), Into the Woods (2014), The Post (2017), in which she played Katharine Graham, Mary Poppins Returns (2018), Little Women (2019), where she played Aunt March, and Don't Look Up (2021). Her latest listed credit is The Devil Wears Prada 2 (2026). In total she has 88 screen credits. She also recorded The Velveteen Rabbit as an album in 1984.

Recognition

Streep has won three Academy Awards: Best Supporting Actress for Kramer vs. Kramer and Best Actress for Sophie's Choice and for The Iron Lady. She has also been nominated for Best Actress for roles including The French Lieutenant's Woman, Silkwood, Out of Africa, Ironweed, Evil Angels, Postcards from the Edge, The Bridges of Madison County, One True Thing, Music of the Heart, The Devil Wears Prada and Doubt, and for Best Supporting Actress for The Deer Hunter and Adaptation.

Her other prizes include several Golden Globe Awards, among them wins for The French Lieutenant's Woman, Sophie's Choice, Adaptation, Angels in America, The Devil Wears Prada, Julie & Julia and The Iron Lady, plus the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2017. She won BAFTA Awards for The French Lieutenant's Woman and The Iron Lady, Emmy Awards for Holocaust, Angels in America and the narration of Five Came Back, the Best Actress prize at Cannes for Evil Angels in 1989, and the Silver Bear for Best Actress for The Hours in 2003. Further honours include the Presidential Medal of Freedom (2014), the Kennedy Center Honors, the National Medal of Arts, a Screen Actors Guild Award for Doubt, a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and induction into the New Jersey Hall of Fame in 2024. Her recorded totals are 42 wins and 28 nominations.

Personal life

Streep married Don Gummer in 1978. She has four children, who include the actors Mamie Gummer and Louisa Jacobson, as well as Grace Gummer and Henry Wolfe Gummer.