Meryl Streep is an American actress who has had an extensive career in film, television, and stage.[1][2] She made her stage debut in 1975 with The Public Theater production of Trelawny of the 'Wells'.[3] She went on to perform several roles on stage in the 1970s, gaining a Tony Award nomination for her role in 27 Wagons Full of Cotton (1976).[4] In 1977, Streep made her film debut with a brief role alongside Jane Fonda in Julia.[5] A supporting role in the war drama The Deer Hunter (1978) proved to be a breakthrough for Streep; she received her first Academy Award nomination for it.[6] She won the award the following year for playing a troubled wife in the top-grossing drama Kramer vs. Kramer (1979).[7] In 1978, Streep played a German, "Aryan" woman married to a Jewish man in Nazi Germany in the television miniseries Holocaust, which earned her a Primetime Emmy Award.[8]
Streep established herself as a leading Hollywood actress in the 1980s.[9][10] She played dual roles in the period drama The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981),[10] and starred as a Polish Holocaust survivor in Sophie's Choice (1982).[11] She was awarded the Best Actress Oscar for the latter.[8] Streep portrayed the real-life character of Karen Silkwood in Mike Nichols' drama Silkwood (1983),[12] before starring in her most financially successful release of the decade, the romantic drama Out of Africa (1985), in which she played the Danish writer Karen Blixen.[13][14] With intermittent successes, Streep's career went through a period of relative decline post-1985, with several commentators criticizing her inclination towards melodramatic roles,[15] despite her attempt at playing against-type in the comedies She-Devil (1989) and Death Becomes Her (1992).[16]
In 1995, Streep starred opposite Clint Eastwood as an unhappily married woman in The Bridges of Madison County, her biggest critical and commercial success of the decade.[14][17] Although her dramas of the late 1990s received a mixed reception overall,[18][19] she was praised for her role as a cancer patient in One True Thing (1998).[20] She had acclaimed roles in the 2002 films Adaptation. and The Hours, and won a second Emmy Award for the television miniseries Angels in America a year later.[21][22] Greater success returned to Streep in 2006, with an Academy Award-nominated role as a ruthless fashion magazine editor in the comedy-drama The Devil Wears Prada.[23] This led to starring roles in several high-profile films, including the US$609 million-grossing romantic comedy Mamma Mia! (2008), her highest-grossing release, and the comedy-drama Julie & Julia (2009), in which she played Julia Child.[24][25] These roles re-established Streep's stardom.[26] Her portrayal of Margaret Thatcher in the biopic The Iron Lady (2011) earned her another Academy Award for Best Actress.[27] Further Oscar nominations came for her starring roles in August: Osage County (2013), Into the Woods (2014), Florence Foster Jenkins (2016), and The Post (2017), setting a record for more nominations than any actor or actress in history.[28]
Film
Television
Year | Title | Role | Notes | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
1976 | Everybody Rides the Carousel | Lover | Voice; animated film | [108] |
1977 | The Deadliest Season | Sharon Miller | TV film | [109] |
1977–1979 | Great Performances | Edith Varney | Episode: "Secret Service" | [109] |
Leilah | Episode: "Uncommon Women and Others" | [109] | ||
1978 | Holocaust | Inga Helms Weiss | Miniseries; 4 episodes | [109] |
1981 | Kiss Me, Petruchio | Katherine | TV documentary | [109] |
1982 | Alice at the Palace | Alice | TV film | [110] |
1990 | The Earth Day Special | Concerned Citizen | TV special | [111] |
1994 | The Simpsons | Jessica Lovejoy | Voice; Episode: "Bart's Girlfriend" | [112] |
1997 | ...First Do No Harm | Lori Reimuller | TV film; also producer | [49] |
1999 | King of the Hill | Aunt Esme Dauterive | Voice; Episode: "A Beer Can Named Desire" | [113] |
2003 | Angels in America | Hannah Pitt / Ethel Rosenberg / The Rabbi / The Angel Australia[b] | Miniseries; 6 episodes | [114] |
Freedom: A History of US | Abigail Adams / Mary Eastey / Mother Jones / Margaret Chase Smith[c] | Documentary; 4 episodes | [114] [115] | |
2007 | Ocean Voyagers | Narrator | Documentary | [116] |
2010–2012 | Web Therapy | Camilla Bowner | 5 episodes | [77] |
2013 | Makers: Women Who Make America | Narrator | Documentary; 3 episodes | [117] |
2014 | The Roosevelts | Eleanor Roosevelt | Voice; documentary; 7 episodes | [118] |
2017 | Five Came Back | Narrator | Documentary; 3 episodes | [119] |
2019 | Big Little Lies | Mary Louise Wright | Main role (season 2) | [120] |
2023 | Extrapolations | Eve Shearer | Episode: "2046: Whale Fall" | [121] |
2023–present | Only Murders in the Building | Loretta Durkin | Recurring role (seasons 3–4) | [122][123] |
† | Denotes series that have not yet been released |
Stage
Year | Title | Role | Venue | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
1975 | Trelawny of the 'Wells' | Miss Imogen Parrott | Vivian Beaumont Theater | [124] |
1976 | A Memory of Two Mondays 27 Wagons Full of Cotton[d] | Patricia Flora Meighan | Playhouse Theatre | [126] |
1976 | Secret Service | Edith Varney | [127] | |
Henry V | Catherine | Delacorte Theater | [128] [129] | |
Measure for Measure | Isabella | [128] [130] [131] | ||
1977 | The Cherry Orchard | Dunyasha | Vivian Beaumont Theater | [132] [133] |
Happy End | Lt. Lillian Holiday | Martin Beck Theatre | [134] | |
1978 | The Taming of the Shrew | Katharina | Delacorte Theater | [128] [135] |
1979 | Taken in Marriage | Andrea | Joseph Papp Public Theater & Newman Theater | [128] [136] |
1980–1981 | Alice in Concert | Alice | Joseph Papp Public Theater & Anspacher Theater | [128] [137] |
2001 | The Seagull | Arkadina | Delacorte Theater | [138] |
2004 | Bridge and Tunnel | — | Producer; Theatres at 45 Bleecker & Bleecker Street Theatre | [128] [139] |
2006 | Mother Courage and Her Children | Mother Courage | Delacorte Theater | [140] |