Meryl Streep by Brigitte Lacombe for WSJ. Magazine September 2016

Mary Louise "Meryl" Streep (born June 22, 1949) is an American actress. Often described as the "best actress of her generation", Streep is particularly known for her versatility and accents. Nominated for a record 21 Academy Awards, she has won three. Among other accolades, she has received 32 Golden Globe nominations, more than any other person, and won eight.

Streep made her stage debut in Trelawny of the Wells in 1975. In 1976, she received a Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actress in a Play for 27 Wagons Full of Cotton and A Memory of Two Mondays. In 1977, she made her screen debut in the television film The Deadliest Season, and also made her film debut in Julia. In 1978, she won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress – Miniseries or a Movie for her role in the miniseries Holocaust, and received her first Oscar nomination for The Deer Hunter. Streep went on to win the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for Kramer vs. Kramer (1979), and the Academy Award for Best Actress for Sophie's Choice (1982) and The Iron Lady (2011).

Streep's other Oscar-nominated roles were in The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981), Silkwood (1983), Out of Africa (1985), Ironweed (1987), Evil Angels (1988), Postcards from the Edge (1990), The Bridges of Madison County (1995), One True Thing (1998), Music of the Heart (1999), Adaptation (2002), The Devil Wears Prada (2006), Doubt (2008), Julie & Julia (2009), August: Osage County (2013), Into the Woods (2014), Florence Foster Jenkins (2016), and The Post (2017). Her stage roles include The Public Theater's 2001 revival of The Seagull, and her television roles include two projects for HBO, the acclaimed miniseries Angels in America (2003), for which her performance won her another Emmy Award, and the drama series Big Little Lies (2019).

Streep's other films that were critically and or commercially successful where she wasn't nominated for an Academy Award include Julia (1977), Manhattan (1979), The Seduction of Joe Tynan (1979), Defending Your Life (1991), Death Becomes Her (1992), The River Wild (1994), Marvin's Room (1996), Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events (2004), A Prairie Home Companion (2006), Mamma Mia (2008) and its sequel, Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009), It's Complicated (2009), Suffragette (2015), Mary Poppins Returns (2018) and Little Women (2019).

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.