Meryl Streep has racked up more than 90 acting credits since she embarked on her history-making career more than five decades ago.
The actress, now 76 and back on screens in The Devil Wears Prada 2, originally set her sights on a career on the stage before Robert De Niro's role in Taxi Driver made her rethink those plans.
But before she found fame, Streep's private life was rocked by a private tragedy after she fell in love with a co-star.
Let's take a look at the life and career of one of the world's most celebrated actors.
Early life
Mary Louise Streep was born on June 22, 1949, in New Jersey. Her mother, also called Mary, was an artist, while her father Harry was a pharmaceutical executive.
Streep's mother had an art studio in the rear of the family home, and encouraged her daughter to pursue creative endeavours. She also instilled the need to work hard, and gave her confidence from a young age.
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Streep told Michelle Obama during a 2015 interview for More magazine, "My mentor was my mother. She said to me, 'Meryl, you're capable. You're so great ... 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."
Streep started acting while at school and starred in numerous plays during her high school years.
She continued to act while at college, and after earning a drama degree, went to Yale School of Drama, where she appeared in productions while supporting herself by working as a waitress and typist.
After graduating in 1975, she moved to New York City and was cast in a theatre production of Trelawny of the Wells opposite John Lithgow.
The following year, she appeared in a New York Shakespeare Festival production of Measure for Measure opposite John Cazale, who was best known for his roles in Dog Day Afternoon and The Godfather films.
Despite Cazale being 14 years her senior, the two started dating.
Meanwhile, Streep, who never wanted to be a film actor, changed her mind after seeing Robert De Niro's performance in the 1976 film Taxi Driver.
She started auditioning for films, but was shocked by the comments made by a director at one such audition.
During a 2015 appearance on the Graham Norton Show, Streep revealed the son of director Dino De Laurentiis saw her in a play and invited her to audition for a role in King Kong.
But when she walked into the room, he reportedly said in Italian, "Che brutta", which means, "How ugly", perhaps not realising Streep understood the language.
She replied, "I understand what you're saying, I'm sorry I'm not beautiful enough to be in King Kong", and described the moment as "very sobering for a young girl".
A breakthrough role - and a private tragedy
Not to be deterred, she went on to land her first movie role in the 1977 film Julia.
It was her acting idol, De Niro, who suggested she play his girlfriend in the 1978 film The Deer Hunter after he spotted her in a play.
She took the role largely to be by Cazale's side; he had also been cast in the film but was battling terminal lung cancer.
Cazale managed to finish filming but died before the movie's release on March 13, 1978. He was 42.
The Deer Hunter director Michael Cimino told People in 1995 Streep showed great devotion to caring for Cazale in his final months.
"Meryl stayed by his side every single moment," he said.
Streep addressed Cazale's death in an interview with People the following year, saying it was "still very much with" her.
"It has forced me to confront my own mortality, and once you do that, you look at things differently," she said.
Finding love again
Following Cazale's death, Streep went to Canada to stay with a friend. On her return to New York, she was told she had to vacate the home she and Cazale had shared.
Faced with packing up his belongings, her brother arrived to help and brought along a friend, sculptor Don Gummer.
Things moved quickly, and just six months after Cazale's death, Streep and Gummer married on September 30, 1978, in the garden of her parents home in Connecticut.
Oscar nomination and critical acclaim
Four months after the wedding, Streep received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her role in The Deer Hunter.
She did not win, but by then she had won a Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie for her role in Holocaust.
In 1979, Streep starred in the critically acclaimed film Kramer vs Kramer as a burnt-out housewife who walks out on her husband (Dustin Hoffman) and seven-year-old son, only for her to return and sue for custody.
The film, which was described as a legal drama, became a box office hit.
Streep won both the Golden Globe and Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her performance.
The film made Streep a household name and led to her first starring role in the 1981 film The French Lieutenant's Woman.
It netted Streep her first Best Actress in a Leading Role nomination at the Oscars.
She didn't win, but an Oscar was right around the corner, thanks to her role in the 1982 drama Sophie's Choice.
She followed this with roles in Silkwood, Out of Africa, and as Lindy Chamberlain, mother of missing infant Azaria, in the 1988 Australian film, Evil Angels.
Streep also tried her hand at comedy with roles in She-Devil, Postcards from the Edge and the 1992 film Death Becomes Her.
In 1994, she starred in the action-thriller genre in The River Wild, followed by romantic drama The Bridges of Madison County.
The early 2000s saw her return to the stage for a production of The Seagull. She also appeared in comedy-drama film Adaptation and opposite Nicole Kidman in The Hours.
Streep surprised many when she agreed to play fashion magazine editor Miranda Priestly in the 2006 film The Devil Wears Prada.
In fact, she was initially passed over for the role because producers did not consider her funny and then she turned it down over pay.
"I read the script. Script was great. And they called me up and they made an offer, and I said, 'No, not going to do it'," Streep told the US Today show this week.
"I knew it was going to be a hit, and I wanted to see if I doubled my ask."
She eventually agreed to take on the part after they upped their offer to $5.5 million.
"They needed me, I felt ... I was ready to retire. But, you know, that was a lesson," she said, adding it was a pity she didn't realise until her 50s that she should fight for her own worth.
The film was of course a huge success, raking in $450 million at the box office.
Streep followed this with a role in the 2008 film adaptation of the stage musical Mamma Mia!
It became her biggest box office success, bringing in a whopping $980 million.
This was followed by roles in Julia & Julia; and opposite Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin in the romantic comedy, It's Complicated.
The next decade saw her play former UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady, and appear in dark comedies, Hope Springs and August: Osage County.
She played the witch in the musical fantasy Into the Woods, a tone-deaf opera singer in Florence Foster Jenkins and a real-life newspaper publisher in The Post.
In 2019, she came on board for the second season of Big Little Lies in a role specially written for her, and also appeared in the real-life comedy The Laundromat.
She again reunited with Kidman in the 2020 musical The Prom (2020)and another Netflix project, Don't Look Up, as a US President who refuses to accept climate change.
Streep has just reprised her role in The Devil Wears Prada 2, which opened in cinemas this week.
During a recent press conference, Streep spoke about the "chemistry" she shared with her co-stars 20 years on.
"I think our chemistry was different in the first one, because we didn't know each other [then]," Streep said.
"I tend to come in on the first week of a film like it's a party, because I love to hang.
"I did that for a couple of days, and then I realised it was not valuable, so I had to pull back and stay in my trailer while they all had fun, so I was kind of miserable on the first film."
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Making Oscar history
Streep has received 21 Oscar nominations during her five decade-long career, including 17 for Best Actress and four for Best Supporting Actress – making her the most nominated performer of all time.
She has taken home three Oscars, for Sophie's Choice, Kramer vs Kramer and The Iron Lady.
Family life
Streep and Gummer, who are now separated, have four children: son Henry, 46, who is a musician, and daughters Mary, known as Mamie, 42, Grace, 39, and Louisa, 34.
All three of her daughters are actresses.
Mamie is best known for her roles in the TV series' The Good Wife and The Good Fight, but has also appeared on stage and in films, including with her mother.
Grace is best known for her roles in TV shows Mr. Robot, American Horror Story, The Newsroom and Dr Death, and for playing Caroline Kennedy in the 2026 limited series Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette
Meanwhile, Louisa is currently starring in the series The Gilded Age.
Streep has six grandchildren.
In 2023, the actress revealed she and Gummer had been living separately for a number of years.
A spokesperson for the actress confirmed to Page Six People in October 2023, that the couple separated six years earlier.
"Don Gummer and Meryl Streep have been separated for more than six years, and while they will always care for each other, they have chosen lives apart," the spokesperson said.
The couple had not been seen together on the red carpet since the 2018 Oscars – one year after she thanked him while picking up her Best Actress gong for The Iron Lady.
"First, I'm going to thank Don because when you thank your husband at the end of the speech, they play him out with music," she said.
"I want him to know that everything I value most in our lives you've given me."
The couple is not believed to have divorced.
Those Martin Short whispers
In 2024, rumours started that Streep was in a relationship with Martin Short, her co-star in the series Only Murders in the Building.
The rumours were thought to have started after they were spotted holding hands on the red carpet.
However, they were denied by a spokesperson for the actress and later by Short himself.
Homes and net worth
Streep has been a long-time resident of the US state of Connecticut, where she and Gummer raised their family in a large estate in the town of Salisbury.
The former couple reportedly purchased a home in Pasadena, California, in 2017. They reportedly also owned a penthouse in New York's Tribeca, which they sold for $22 million in 2020.
Streep has a reported net worth of about $140 million.
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Title: The tragedy that rocked Meryl Streep's private life before her rise to Hollywood stardom
Sourced From: celebrity.nine.com.au/latest/meryl-streep-inside-actress-life-career-movies-relationships-family-explainer/b6732796-d03a-4533-8b4a-0c8556d98140
Published Date: Fri, 01 May 2026 06:05:00 GMT
