Meryl Streep

Meryl Streep began her professional acting career in 1975 at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center’s National Playwrights Conference before moving to New York, where she appeared in productions of Trelawny of the Wells, Henry V, The Taming of the Shrew, Measure for Measure, Happy End, Alice at the Palace, 27 Wagons Full of Cotton, A Memory of Two Mondays, and The Cherry Orchard. Her stage work earned an Obie Award and nominations for the Tony and Drama Desk Awards.

Streep made her feature film debut in Julia (1977) and gained widespread recognition with roles in The Deer Hunter (1978), Holocaust (1978), Manhattan (1979), The Seduction of Joe Tynan (1979), and Kramer vs. Kramer (1979). Her performances in Holocaust and Kramer vs. Kramer earned major awards, including an Emmy Award and her first Academy Award.

During the 1980s, Streep established herself as one of Hollywood’s leading actresses with starring roles in The French Lieutenant’s Woman (1981), Still of the Night (1982), Sophie's Choice (1982), Silkwood (1983), Falling in Love (1984), Plenty (1985), Out of Africa (1985), Heartburn (1986), Ironweed (1987), Evil Angels (1988), and She-Devil (1989). Her work during this period earned numerous awards, including Academy Awards for Kramer vs. Kramer and Sophie's Choice.

In the 1990s, Streep appeared in Postcards from the Edge (1990), Defending Your Life (1991), Death Becomes Her (1992), The House of the Spirits (1993), The River Wild (1994), The Bridges of Madison County (1995), Marvin’s Room (1996), ...First Do No Harm (1997), Dancing at Lughnasa (1998), One True Thing (1998), and Music of the Heart (1999). She also continued to receive major award nominations for her film and television work.

Streep returned to the stage in 2001 with a production of The Seagull and began the decade with projects including A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001), Adaptation. (2002), The Hours (2002), Angels in America (2003), The Manchurian Candidate (2004), Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events (2004), Prime (2005), and Mother Courage and Her Children (2006). She also appeared in A Prairie Home Companion (2006), The Devil Wears Prada (2006), Dark Matter (2007), Rendition (2007), Evening (2007), Lions for Lambs (2007), Mamma Mia! (2008), Doubt (2008), Julie & Julia (2009), It’s Complicated (2009), and provided voice work for Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009).

Throughout the 2010s, Streep starred in The Iron Lady (2011), for which she won her third Academy Award, followed by Hope Springs (2012), August: Osage County (2013), The Giver (2014), The Homesman (2014), Into the Woods (2014), Ricki and the Flash (2015), Suffragette (2015), Florence Foster Jenkins (2016), The Post (2017), Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again (2018), Mary Poppins Returns (2018), Big Little Lies (2019), The Laundromat (2019), and Little Women (2019).

In the 2020s, Streep voiced a role in Here We Are: Notes for Living on Planet Earth (2020) and starred in The Prom (2020), Let Them All Talk (2020), Don’t Look Up (2021), Extrapolations (2023), and Only Murders in the Building (2023–present). She also served as an executive producer on Sell/Buy/Date (2022). In 2025, she made her first appearance on Saturday Night Live during the program’s 50th anniversary special. Her recent film work includes voicing Queen Butterfly in Hoppers (2026) and reprising her role as Miranda Priestly in The Devil Wears Prada 2 (2026).

Upcoming projects include a biographical film about musician Joni Mitchell, directed by Cameron Crowe, in which Streep is set to portray Mitchell in her later years.