MERYL STREEP BIOGRAPHY & FILMOGRAPHY:
 
Meryl Streep was born on June 22nd, 1949 in Summit, New Jersey to parents Mary Wolf and Harry William Streep.  Meryl had two brothers and her family raised her and her siblings in Bernsardsville, New Jersey.  After graduating from Bernards High School she earned a Bachelor of Arts in Drama from Vassar College in 1971 and a Masters from Yale School of Drama.
 
Her first acting experiences were on stage during college in such productions as, "Midsummer Night's Dream".  She then relocated to New York City and continued to gain experience as a stage actress being cast in the plays, "Henry V", "The Taming of the Shrew" and "Measure for Measure".
 
By the late 1970's she began working in the film industry with her first role in the film, "Julia" (1977) followed by a small role in, "The Deer Hunter" (1978).  During this time she was married to her first husband, John Cazale who was fighting bone cancer and as she continued to work his illness worsened.  After she traveled to Europe to film she returned back to him and  nursed him until he passed away on March 12th, 1978.
 
Streep chose to continue working hoping she could get her mind off the loss of her husband.  She worked on the television miniseries, "Holocaust" which earned her a great amount of praise and even a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress.  She was also nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in the film, "The Deer Hunter" (1978).
 
Some of her other film roles were in, "Manhattan" (1979), "The Seduction of Joe Tynan" and "Kramer vs. Kramer".  Meryl won an Academy Award and Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor for her role in "Kramer vs. Kramer". 
 
Streep was now being cast as the lead in a variety of films such as, "The French Lieutenant's Woman" (1981), "Still of the Night" (1982) and "Sophie's Choice" (1982) winning another Academy Award for Best Actress.
 
Her roles continued in such films as, "Silkwood" (1983), "Falling in Love" (1984), "Out of Africa" (1985), "Heartburn" (1986), "Ironweed" (1987), "A Cry in the Dark" (1988) and "She Devil" (1989).
 
Streep won in total between 1984 and 1990 six people's Choice Awards for Favorite Motion Picture Actress and continued to take on new and challenging roles.  She appeared with Clint Eastwood in, "The Bridges of Madison County" and "Marvin's Room" with Leonardo DeCaprio and Diane Keaton.
 
In the year 2000, Meryl Streep worked with director, Steven Spielberg in the film, "A.I. Artificial Intelligence" and then with Spike Jonze in, "Adaptation" (2002) for which she won her fourth Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress.
 
Meryl continued with amazing success never slowing down.  She took on challenging film roles and television roles.  Streep made an appearance in the mini series, "Angels in America" portraying four different roles and she once again was acknowledged by critics for her amazing acting talent and was awarded her second Emmy Award and a fifth Golden Globe.
 
With no momentum slow down in her career, Streep was seen on the big screen in such films as, "Prime" (2005), "A Praire Home Companion" (2006) and "The Devil Wears Prada" (2006) which again earned her a number of awards and another Oscar nomination.  This film was one of the largest grossing films in her career earning more then 326.5 million.  Her success again continued with roles in, "Dark Matter" (2007), "Rendition" (2007), "Evening" (2007), "Lions For Lambs" (2007) and "Mamma Mia!" (2008) which grossed 602.6 million and again, Streep was nominated for another Golden Globe for her performance.
 
As her career progressed into the late 2000's, Streep could be seen on the big screen in more amazing film roles such as, portraying the chef, Julia Child in the film, "Julie and Julia".  She was also in the film, "It's Complicated" (2009) directed by Nancy Meyers and her co stars Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin.  Some of her latest roles are in, "The Iron Lady" (2011) and "Great Hope Springs" which will debut in 2012.
 
Along with a highly successful film career, on occasion Meryl would return to her love of performing on the stage.  She had an amazing talent for portraying different accents and throughout her career she was seen in such stage productions as, "A Memory of Two Mondays", "The Cherry Orchard", "The Seagull" and "The Mother Courage and Her Children".  She also has a beautiful singing voice and was given the opportunity to share that with audiences when she recorded a rendition of the song, "Mamma Mia" which won an award for, "Favorite Song From A Soundtrack" in 2008 at the People's Choice Awards.
 
Meryl Streep has only been married twice, after losing her first husband she later married a sculptor, Don Gunner in 1978 and they remain married and have four children together.  She holds the record for the most Academy Awards nominations reaching a total of sixteen and a total of twenty five nominations for a Golden Globe Award.  She has also been awarded a Crystal Award in 1998, a Cesar Award in 2003 and a Stanislavsky Award in 2004.  Then in 2010 Streep was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters and was also awarded with a Doctor of Arts Degree from Harvard University.  Along with all her awards, she was also honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1998.   
 
Meryl Streep was listed as one of twelve, "Promising New Actors of 1977" in John Willis' Screen World, was ranked #24 in Empire magazine's "Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time" in 1997 and in 2007 was ranked #6 on Ew's the 50 Smartest People in Hollywood.
 
She currently resides in New York and Connecticut and  as of 2011 she is still the most Oscar-nominated actress with 16 nominations.

 
Filmography

2012 Great Hope Springs
2011 The Iron Lady
2010 Web Therapy
2010 Higglety Pigglety Pop! or There Must Be More to Life
2009 It's Complicated
2009 Secret Ingredients: Creating Julie & Julia
2009 Fantastic Mr. Fox 
2009 Julie & Julia 
2008 Doubt 
2008 Mamma Mia! 
2007 Lions for Lambs 
2007 Rendition 
2007 Evening 
2007 Dark Matter 
2006 The Ant Bully 
2006 The Devil Wears Prada
2006 The Music of Regret
2006 A Prairie Home Companion 
2005 Prime
2004 Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events
2004 The Manchurian Candidate
2003 Angels in America
2003 Freedom: A History of Us
2002 The Hours 
2002 Adaptation. 
2001 A.I. Artificial Intelligence
1999 King of the Hill
1999 Music of the Heart 
1999 Chrysanthemum 
1999 Ginevra's Story: Solving the Mysteries of Leonardo da Vinci's First Known Portrait 
1998 One True Thing 
1998 Dancing at Lughnasa 
1997 ...First Do No Harm
1996 Marvin's Room 
1996 Before and After
1995 The Bridges of Madison County
1994 The Simpsons 
1994 The River Wild
1993 The House of the Spirits 
1992 Death Becomes Her 
1991 Defending Your Life 
1990 Postcards from the Edge 
1989 She-Devil 
1989 Rabbit Ears: The Fisherman and His Wife 
1988 A Cry in the Dark 
1988 The Tailor of Gloucester 
1987 Ironweed 
1987 Rabbit Ears: The Tale of Peter Rabbit
1987 Rabbit Ears: The Tale of Mr. Jeremy Fisher
1986 Heartburn 
1985 Out of Africa 
1985 Plenty
1984 Falling in Love 
1983 Silkwood 
1982 Sophie's Choice 
1982 Still of the Night 
1982 Alice at the Palace 
1981 The French Lieutenant's Woman 
1981 Kiss Me, Petruchio 
1979 Kramer vs. Kramer
1979 The Seduction of Joe Tynan 
1979 Uncommon Women... and Others  
1978 The Deer Hunter
1978 Holocaust 
1977 Julia 
1977 The Deadliest Season
1977 Secret Service
1975 Everybody Rides the Carousel