Meryl Streep

Mary Louise Streep, known professionally as Meryl Streep, born June 22, 1949, in Summit, New Jersey, is universally regarded as the greatest screen actor of her era and among the finest in all of cinema history, celebrated for a chameleonic range and technical mastery that have made her name virtually synonymous with acting excellence itself. The daughter of a pharmaceutical executive father and a commercial artist mother, she showed a gift for mimicry and performance from early childhood, participating obsessively in school plays and musical theater. She studied drama at Vassar College before earning an MFA from the Yale School of Drama, where she performed in dozens of productions in three years and was recognized by faculty and peers alike as a once-in-a-generation talent. Her early career was built in distinguished New York theater — including celebrated Shakespeare in the Park productions — then in film, where she arrived with explosive force. She won her first Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in Kramer vs. Kramer (1979), holding her own with quiet devastating authority opposite Dustin Hoffman. Her second Oscar, for Best Actress in Sophie's Choice (1982), featured a Polish-accented performance of almost unbearable emotional depth; the scene in which Sophie Zawistowska reveals the impossible choice forced upon her at a Nazi concentration camp remains one of the most devastating and analyzed moments in the entire history of screen performance. Over four decades she demonstrated a range that seemed to have no ceiling: wrenching drama in The Deer Hunter, Out of Africa, and Ironweed; sharp comedic precision in Heartburn and The Devil Wears Prada — where her icy Miranda Priestly became instantly iconic and spawned countless imitations; musical charisma in Mamma Mia! and Into the Woods; and transformative biographical work in The Iron Lady (2011), for which she won her record third Academy Award playing Margaret Thatcher. She holds the all-time record for Academy Award acting nominations with twenty-one, winning three times. Her advocacy for gender equality in the industry and arts education has made her as admired for her integrity as for her craft.