Meryl Streep has achieved what most actors in Hollywood can only dream of, with a career spanning more than 40 years and no signs of slowing down. In January 2018, she broke her own record for the most Oscar nominations of any actor in history when she received her 21st nod for her performance as Katharine Graham in The Post. (The award ultimately went to Frances McDormand for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.)
“I am honored beyond measure by this nomination for a film I love, a film that stands in defense of press freedom and the inclusion of women’s voices in the movement of history,” Streep said in a statement to the Los Angeles Times. “Proud of the film, and all her filmmakers. Thank you from a full heart.”
On the personal front, Streep married Don Gummer in 1978, and together they have four children: Henry, Mamie, Grace, and Louisa. In October 2023, Us Weekly reported tha
#1. 1976
Streep was photographed in August 1976 at the age of 27, when she was still an emerging talent. Back then, the Vassar College and Yale School of Drama graduate had mostly acted in smaller stage productions.
#2. 1978
The New Jersey native got one of her first big-screen roles in the Oscar-winning drama The Deer Hunter, released in 1978. She played Linda, a bridesmaid, sharing the screen with John Cazale, Chuck Aspegren, and Robert De Niro.
#3. 1980
Golden Girl! Streep was celebrated at the 52nd Academy Awards, where she won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in 1980 for her role opposite Dustin Hoffman in Kramer vs. Kramer.
#4. 1981
Just a girl about town! In August 1981, Streep was photographed taking the subway in New York City. She looked effortlessly chic in an off-the-shoulder floral dress with her hair pulled back.
#5. 1983
The Big Little Lies star needed to make more room in her trophy cabinet after the 55th Academy Awards, where she won the Oscar for Best Actress for her role in the 1982 drama Sophie’s Choice. She accepted the award while pregnant with her daughter, Mamie Gummer.
#6. 1985
The acclaimed actress mastered another foreign accent in her role opposite Robert Redford in the 1985 film Out of Africa. Sporting brunette locks, she captivated audiences with her performance. The film went on to win seven Academy Awards.
#7. 1989
Streep was red carpet-ready at the 46th Annual Golden Globe Awards in Beverly Hills in 1989, where she was nominated for her role in A Cry in the Dark (1988), famously associated with the “Dingo got my baby” line.
#8. 1992
Death truly does become her! Streep dazzled in the 1992 dark comedy Death Becomes Her. She starred in the gothic comedy alongside Bruce Willis and Goldie Hawn.
#9. 1994
Streep got her hands dirty in Hollywood in September 1994. The beloved star—who has four kids with husband Don Gummer—made footprints and handprints in the cement outside of the famous Mann’s Chinese Theatre.
“People say, ‘When you have children, everything changes,'” she told USA Today in 2002. “But maybe things are awakened that were already there.”
#10. 1998
Too cool for school! The icon epitomized ’90s perfection when she received her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in September 1998. She sported shades and a taupe suit, which she casually paired with white sneakers for the occasion.
#11. 2000
What’s an awards show without Streep? At the 57th Annual Golden Globe Awards in January 2000, the 50-year-old star waved to the crowd as she was nominated for Best Actress for her role in Music of the Heart (1999).
#12. 2003
Just palling around! At the 60th Annual Golden Globes in 2003, Streep mingled with fellow star Nicole Kidman. The two actresses both took home awards that night, with Streep winning Best Supporting Actress for Adaptation (2002) and Kidman claiming Best Actress in a Leading Role for The Hours.
#13. 2004
Picture perfect! The famed starlet added to her collection of statues with an Emmy award in September 2004. She earned the statue for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or Movie for 2003’s Angels in America.
#14. 2006
That’s all! Streep embraced high fashion in 2006’s The Devil Wears Prada, channeling Vogue’s Anna Wintour as the high-powered Editor-in-Chief Miranda Priestly.
Her performance earned her the Golden Globe for Best Actress. It was an ironic win for Streep, who had once admitted, “For me, clothes are kind of character. I don’t follow fashion or understand trends.”
#15. 2009
Streep epitomized elegance at the 4th International Rome Film Festival in October 2009, where she was honored with the Golden Marc’Aurelio Acting Award.
#16. 2012
Selfie! Streep captured a now-famous photo with political heavyweight Hillary Clinton at the Kennedy Center’s Gala Dinner in December 2012. The snapshot quickly went viral.
#17. 2014
The Hollywood icon made another appearance at the Academy Awards in March 2014, attending the 86th annual ceremony. She was nominated for her role in August: Osage County, a drama that also starred Julia Roberts, Dermot Mulroney, and Chris Cooper, among others.
#18. 2017
At the 2017 Golden Globes on January 8, the Florence Foster Jenkins actress, in a dazzling bejeweled Givenchy gown, received an impressive four nominations. While accepting the Cecil B. DeMille Lifetime Achievement Award, she delivered a powerful speech in support of immigrants.
“I was born and raised in the public schools of New Jersey. Viola was born in a sharecropper’s cabin in South Carolina, grew up in Central Falls, Rhode Island,” she said.
Sarah Paulson was raised by a single mom in Brooklyn. Sarah Jessica Parker was one of seven or eight kids from Ohio. Amy Adams was born in Italy. Natalie Portman was born in Jerusalem. Where are their birth certificates? And the beautiful Ruth Negga was born in Ethiopia and raised in Ireland, and she’s here nominated for playing a small-town girl from Virginia.
Ryan Gosling, like all the nicest people, is Canadian. And Dev Patel was born in Kenya, raised in London, and is here for playing an Indian raised in Tasmania. Hollywood is crawling with outsiders and foreigners. If you kick ’em all out, you’ll have nothing to watch but football and mixed martial arts, which are not the arts.”
#19. 2018
It was a standout year for the Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again star, who dazzled on the 2018 Oscars red carpet in a striking red Christian Dior Haute Couture gown.
She not only received a nomination for Best Actress for her role in The Post, but also set a new record with her 21st Academy Award nomination, surpassing her previous record of 20 nods.
Additionally, in January 2018, it was announced that Streep would take on a major TV role as Mary Louise Wright, the mother of Alexander Skarsgard’s late character, Perry Wright.
#20. 2019
In February 2019, at the age of 69, Streep became a first-time grandmother when her daughter Mamie Gummer welcomed a baby boy.
That year, she also made her debut as Mary Louise Wright in the second season of HBO’s hit Big Little Lies and received widespread acclaim for her performance in the 2019 adaptation of Little Women.
#21. 2020
After narrating AppleTV+’s Here We Are: Notes for Living on Planet Earth in April 2020, Streep was slated to star in two more streaming projects that year: Netflix’s The Prom and HBO Max’s Let Them All Talk. However, production on both was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
#22. 2021
The Vassar alum took on the role of President Orlean in the apocalyptic film Don’t Look Up. Director Adam McKay revealed in an interview with Variety that Streep’s character’s death was inspired by a moment of improvisation she brought to the role.
#23. 2023
Streep joined the cast of the third season of Hulu’s Only Murders in the Building, playing the role of aspiring actress Loretta.
“Working with [Meryl], for any actor, I would assume, takes your breath away,” OMITB star Selena Gomez told The Wrap in June. “She’s a part of history, having paved the way for so many actresses and told so many powerful stories, and she’s recognized for that.
And she couldn’t have been more humble, more nice, more just, adorable. I don’t know how to explain it. She was so sweet to everyone, always on time, and never looked at her script. It was really inspiring.”
#24. 2024
Meryl Streep dazzled at the 2024 SAG Awards in a sheer dark red Prada dress, channeling her iconic Miranda Priestly from The Devil Wears Prada. At 74, she attended as both a nominee and presenter, reuniting with co-stars Emily Blunt and Anne Hathaway.
Reflecting on her method acting experience from the film, Streep humorously mentioned feeling “so depressed” while trying to stay in character. Her role earned her a SAG nomination and an Oscar nod. The awards will stream live on Netflix on February 24, 2024.
