Meryl Streep
The Master of a Thousand Voices
Meryl Streep is one of the most acclaimed actors in film history renowned for her emotional range and transformative performances. With record-breaking awards recognition she has portrayed complex women across decades blending technical mastery with empathy while advocating for artistic integrity and gender equity in Hollywood.
- 14 min listen
- Three-time Oscar winner
- Acting
- Accents
Meryl Streep’s full 14 min audio biography, The Master of a Thousand Voices, is available on Lyfestori for iOS. Listen to a free preview below.
A life in brief
The shape of a life.
She wanted to be a lawyer. Mary Louise Streep was a bright student at a New Jersey high school, known for her grades rather than the school play, and only found acting at Vassar. She has since been nominated for more Academy Awards than anyone in history — 21, with three wins — and built a method out of research: dialect coaches for Polish and Australian, months studying Thatcher's walk. Her name became shorthand for the highest level of performance.
- 1949
Born in New Jersey
Born Mary Louise Streep on 22 June in Summit, to a pharmaceutical executive and a commercial artist. As a child she entertains the family with impressions of neighbours.
- 1967
Vassar
Leaves a high school where she was known for academic excellence rather than drama, and enters Vassar to study English literature. She had planned to become a lawyer.
- 1971
Yale School of Drama
Graduates from Vassar having decided to act professionally, and enters one of the most prestigious training programmes in the country.
- 1975
MFA, and the New York stage
Earns her Master of Fine Arts and works Off-Broadway and Broadway. 'Happy End' shows critics she can sing as well as carry drama.
- 1977
First film
A small part in 'Julia', alongside Jane Fonda and Vanessa Redgrave — minor, and the start of everything.
- 1978
An Emmy and a first nomination
Wins the Primetime Emmy for the miniseries 'Holocaust', then earns her first Academy Award nomination for 'The Deer Hunter'. She marries sculptor Don Gummer the same year.
- 1979
First Oscar
Wins Best Supporting Actress for 'Kramer vs. Kramer', playing a woman who abandons her husband and son — a part that demanded making an unsympathetic character understandable. 'Manhattan' comes out the same year.
- 1982
'Sophie's Choice'
Plays a Polish Holocaust survivor in Brooklyn, mastering a Polish accent for a performance often cited among the greatest ever filmed. It wins her the Academy Award for Best Actress.
- 1985
'Out of Africa'
A Danish plantation owner — one of a run of parts through the 1980s and 1990s including a nuclear plant worker in 'Silkwood' and an Italian-born Iowa housewife in 'The Bridges of Madison County'.
- 2006
'The Devil Wears Prada'
Miranda Priestly brings menace and vulnerability to what could have been a simple villain, earns another nomination, and introduces her to a new generation. She is in her fifties and still a box office draw.
- 2011
'The Iron Lady'
Months studying Margaret Thatcher's speeches and positions, movement coaches for the walk and posture, voice coaches for the accent. It wins her a third Academy Award.
- 2014
Presidential Medal of Freedom
America's highest civilian honour. In 2017 she adds the Cecil B. DeMille Award for lifetime achievement, and uses the Golden Globes stage to criticise political divisiveness and defend the press.
Major achievements
What Meryl Streep gave the world.
- 01
21 Academy Award nominations
More than any actor in history, with three wins: 'Kramer vs. Kramer', 'Sophie's Choice' and 'The Iron Lady'. Also eight Golden Globe wins from 33 nominations.
- 02
'Sophie's Choice'
A Polish Holocaust survivor carrying a secret about a choice forced on her in a concentration camp — often cited as one of the greatest performances in cinema history.
- 03
Mastery of accents
Polish, Australian, Italian, British. She worked with dialect coaches and immersed herself in the culture and speech of each character until audiences forgot she was American.
- 04
Presidential Medal of Freedom
Awarded in 2014, America's highest civilian honour, followed by the Cecil B. DeMille Award for lifetime achievement in 2017.
- 05
The Writers Lab
She helped fund it in 2015 — run by New York Women in Film & Television and IRIS — to develop screenplays by women over forty, alongside vocal support for pay equity and inclusion.
- 06
Redefining the leading role
She showed a leading actress could transform completely from part to part rather than play variations of herself, and kept working into her seventies in an industry known for discarding older women.
Turning points
The moments that decided it.
- High school–Vassar
Giving up the law
She was known for academic excellence, not drama, and her confidence and ability to argue persuasively made law seem the obvious path. Music and theatre changed it. The stage gave her a creative freedom and emotional depth she had never felt before, and by her senior year at Vassar she had decided to act professionally.
- 1979
Making Joanna Kramer human
'Kramer vs. Kramer' asked her to play a woman who abandons her husband and son, then returns to fight for custody — a role audiences were set up to dislike. Making her understandable rather than sympathetic won Streep her first Academy Award, and defined the method: the character gets defended, not judged.
- 1982
'Sophie's Choice'
A Polish accent, a Holocaust survivor's guilt, and a secret about a choice forced on her in a camp. It established her as a master of the craft rather than simply a strong dramatic actress, and is still cited among the greatest performances ever put on film.
- 2011
Becoming Thatcher
Months of studying speeches, mannerisms and political positions; movement coaches for the walk and posture; voice coaches for the accent and speaking style. The transformation was complete enough that many viewers felt they were watching Thatcher herself. It won a third Oscar, nearly thirty years after the second.
- 2015–2017
Using the platform
She helped fund The Writers Lab to develop screenplays by women over forty, argued publicly for pay equity and inclusion, and used the 2017 Golden Globes stage to criticise political divisiveness and defend the press — sparking a national argument about the role of artists in politics.
What you’ll take away
Lessons that outlast the headlines.
- 01
Research is the talent
Months on Thatcher's walk, dialect coaches for Polish and Australian, immersion in each character's culture. What looks like transformation is preparation.
- 02
Defend the character
Joanna Kramer abandons her child. Miranda Priestly could have been a cartoon villain. Streep's habit is to find what makes a disliked person understandable rather than play them as written.
- 03
Don't take the easy part
Across five decades she consistently chose roles that pushed past what she had already proved she could do. It is why the career has no plateau in it.
Did you know
Fun facts.
- 01
Did you know that Meryl Streep holds the record for the most Academy Award nominations of any actor in history, with a staggering 21 nominations?
- 02
Did you know that early in her career, she auditioned for the 1976 film 'King Kong' but was rejected by producer Dino De Laurentiis who called her 'ugly' in Italian, not knowing she spoke the language?
- 03
Did you know that Streep famously leaves many of her Oscars and awards in her bathroom because she doesn't like to display them prominently in her living spaces?
Questions
Good to know.
Three, from 21 nominations — more nominations than any actor in history. She won Best Supporting Actress for 'Kramer vs. Kramer', then Best Actress for 'Sophie's Choice' and 'The Iron Lady'.
No. In high school she was known for academic excellence and dreamed of becoming a lawyer — her confidence and ability to argue made it seem ideal. She sang in the choir and occasionally appeared in school plays, but only committed to acting at Vassar, then trained at Yale School of Drama.
She works with dialect coaches and immerses herself in the cultures and speech patterns of her characters. For 'The Iron Lady' she also worked with movement coaches to capture Thatcher's walk and posture, on top of months studying her speeches and political positions.
They married in 1978 and have four children. In October 2023 it emerged that they had been living separate lives for several years — they had quietly separated around 2017 — though they never publicly announced a divorce and maintained mutual respect and family ties.
A programme Streep helped fund in 2015, run by New York Women in Film & Television and IRIS, to develop screenplays by women over forty. It sits alongside her vocal support for pay equity and greater inclusion across the industry.
14 min · one sitting