Streep, Meryl (1949– )

US actor. Considered one of the leading character actors of the 1980s and 90s, she has portrayed a wide range of roles with emotionally dramatic intensity, for example a conflicted mother in Kramer vs Kramer (1979, Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress), a Polish Holocaust survivor in Sophie's Choice (1982, Academy Award for Best Actress), and the Danish baroness Karen Blixen in Out of Africa (1985). She is particularly adept at a wide variety of accents.

Other films include The Deer Hunter (1978), The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981), Silkwood (1983), Death Becomes Her (1992), The Bridges of Madison County (1995), and The Hours (2002). She starred later in the ironic comedies Adaptation (2002) and The Devil Wears Prada (2006). She also starred in the acclaimed TV miniseries Angels in America (2003), based on the play by Tony Kushner.