Meryl Streep

Mary Louise “Meryl” Streep is an actress known for her versatility and accents. Often hailed as the “best actress of her generation,” Streep is known for 1982’s Sophie’s Choice, 2011’s The Iron Lady, 2006’s The Devil Wears Prada, 2009's Julie & Julia and 2017's The Post. Streep has also ventured into television roles, playing the role of Mary Louise Wright in HBO’s hit series Big Little Lies alongside Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman and Shailene Woodley.

In 2008 Streep starred in Mama Mia! and reprised her role in the sequel in 2018.

In 2014, Streep played a vengeful witch in the Disney film adaptation of Stephen Sondheim's beloved musical Into the Woods, which was inspired by the Brothers Grimm's fairy tales.

Streep played the title character's cousin Topsy in Mary Poppins Returns in 2018.

Streep has been the recipient of many honorary awards. She was awarded the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2004, Gala Tribute from the Film Society of Lincoln Center in 2008, and Kennedy Center Honor in 2011 for her contribution to American culture, through performing arts. President Barack Obama awarded her the 2010 National Medal of Arts, and in 2014, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In 2003, the government of France made her a Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters. She was awarded the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2017.

A graduate of Vassar College and Yale Drama School, Streep is equally adept at performing on stage or in front of the cameras. Streep began her career on the New York stage in the late 1960s and appeared in several Broadway productions, including a 1977 revival of the Anton Chekhov drama "The Cherry Orchard."

Meryl Streep broke into films in the 1970s with a role in the drama Julia. The next year she appeared in The Deer Hunter opposite Robert De Niro and Christopher Walken, for which she earned her first Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. That same year, she won her first Primetime Emmy for her role in the film Holocaust. In 1979, her portrayal of a woman who abandons her family only to come back and fight for custody of her son in Kramer vs. Kramer brought Streep her first Academy Award win for Best Supporting Actress.

A chameleon on screen, Meryl Streep spent much of the 1980s submerged in a variety of roles. In Sophie's Choice, she convincingly played a Polish woman traumatized by her experiences during the Holocaust. Streep won her second Academy Award -- her first for Best Actress -- for her work on this film. In Out of Africa, she took on the role of a Danish plantation owner living in Kenya. The role earned her another Academy Award nomination.

Streep has been married to sculptor Don Gummer since 1978. The couple has four adult children, including daughter Mamie Gummer, who has been following her mother's footsteps and pursuing a career as an actress.