Meryl Streep on screen and stage

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]