Meryl Streep

Mary Louise "Meryl" Streep (born June 22, 1949) is an American actress.

Known for her versatility and accent adaptability, she has been described as "the best actress of her generation".

She has received numerous accolades throughout her career spanning over four decades, including a record 21 Academy Award nominations, winning three, and a record 33 Golden Globe Award nominations, winning eight.

Mary Louise Streep was born on June 22, 1949, in Summit, New Jersey to artist Mary Wilkinson Streep and pharmaceutical executive Harry William Streep Jr. She has two younger brothers, Harry William Streep III and Dana David Streep, both actors.

Her father was of German and Swiss descent; his lineage traced back to Loffenau, from where Streep's great-great-grandfather, Gottfried Streeb, immigrated to the United States and where one of her ancestors served as mayor (the surname was later changed to "Streep").

Another line of her father's family was from Giswil.

Her mother had English, German, and Irish ancestry.

In 1963, the family moved to Bernardsville, New Jersey, where she attended Bernards High School.

Author Karina Longworth described her as a "gawky kid with glasses and frizzy hair", yet noted that she liked to show off in front of the camera in family home movies from a young age.

At age 12, Streep was selected to sing at a school recital, leading to her having opera lessons from Estelle Liebling.

Despite her talent, she later remarked, "I was singing something I didn't feel and understand. That was an important lesson—not to do that. To find the thing that I could feel through."

She quit after four years.

Streep had many Catholic school friends, and regularly attended Mass.

She was a high school cheerleader for the Bernards High School Mountaineers.

She was also chosen as the homecoming queen her senior year.

Although Streep appeared in numerous school plays during her high school years, she was uninterested in serious theater until acting in the play Miss Julie at Vassar College in 1969, in which she gained attention across the campus.

Vassar drama professor Clinton J. Atkinson noted, "I don't think anyone ever taught Meryl acting. She really taught herself."

Streep demonstrated an early ability to mimic accents and to quickly memorize her lines.

She received her BA in drama cum laude in 1971, before applying for an MFA from the Yale School of Drama.

At Yale, she supplemented her course fees by working as a waitress and typist, and appeared in over a dozen stage productions per year; at one point, she became overworked and developed ulcers, so she contemplated quitting acting and switching to study law.

Streep made her stage debut in 1975 in Trelawny of the Wells, and received a Tony Award nomination the following year for a double-bill production of 27 Wagons Full of Cotton and A Memory of Two Mondays.

In 1977, she made her feature film debut in Julia.

She won her first Primetime Emmy Award in 1978 for the miniseries Holocaust, and received her first Oscar nomination for The Deer Hunter that same year.

She won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for playing a troubled wife in Kramer vs. Kramer (1979), followed by the Academy Award for Best Actress for starring as a Holocaust survivor in Sophie's Choice (1982).

She continued to gain awards and critical acclaim for her film work throughout the 1980s and 1990s.

Commercial success varied, with Out of Africa (1985), Death Becomes Her (1992), and The Bridges of Madison County (1995) earning the most money during that period.

She received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1998.

Streep reclaimed her stardom in the ensuing decades with leading roles in Adaptation, The Hours (both 2002), The Devil Wears Prada (2006), Doubt, Mamma Mia! (both 2008), Julie & Julia, It's Complicated (both 2009), Into the Woods (2014), The Post (2017) and Little Women (2019), and won her third Oscar for her portrayal of Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady (2011).

Her television roles include the miniseries Angels in America (2003), for which she received her second Primetime Emmy, HBO's Big Little Lies (2019), and Hulu's Only Murders in the Building (2023).

In 2003, the French government made her a Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters.

Streep has been the recipient of many honorary awards, including the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2004, a Gala Tribute from the Film Society of Lincoln Center in 2008, and the Kennedy Center Honor in 2011 for her contribution to American culture through performing arts.

President Barack Obama awarded her the National Medal of Arts in 2010 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2014.

She was awarded the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2017.

Some of Streep's maternal ancestors lived in Pennsylvania and Rhode Island, and were descended from 17th-century English immigrants.

Her maternal great-great-grandparents, Manus McFadden and Grace Strain, were natives of the Horn Head district of Dunfanaghy in Ireland.

Streep's mother, whom she has compared in both appearance and manner to Dame Judi Dench, strongly encouraged her daughter and instilled confidence in her from a very young age.

Streep said, "She was a mentor because she said to me, 'Meryl, you're capable. You're so great.' She was saying, 'You can do whatever you put your mind to. If you're lazy, you're not going to get it done. But if you put your mind to it, you can do anything.' And I believed her."

Although she was naturally more introverted than her mother, when she later needed an injection of confidence in adulthood, she would consult her mother at times for advice.

Streep was raised as a Presbyterian in Basking Ridge, New Jersey, and attended Cedar Hill Elementary School and the Oak Street School, which was a junior high school at that time.

In her junior high debut, she starred as Louise Heller in the play The Family Upstairs.