MERYL STREEP

MARGARET THATCHER

For almost 40 years, Meryl Streep has portrayed an astonishing array of characters in a career that has cut its own unique path from the theatre through film and television.

Ms. Streep was educated in the New Jersey public school system through high school, graduated cum laude from Vassar College, and received her MFA with honors from Yale University in 1975. She began her professional life on the New York stage, where she quickly established her signature versatility and verve as an actor. Within three years of graduation, she made her Broadway debut, won an Emmy (for HOLOCAUST) and received her first Oscar® nomination (for THE DEER HUNTER). In 2010, in a record that is unsurpassed, she won her sixteenth Academy Award® nomination for her role as Julia Child in Nora Ephron's JULIE AND JULIA. 

Ms. Streep has pursued her interest in the environment through her work with Mothers and Others, a consumer advocacy group that she co-founded in 1989. M&O worked for ten years to promote sustainable agriculture, establish new pesticide regulations, and the availability of organic and sustainably grown local foods. She also lends her efforts to Equality Now, and Women for Women International, organizations that work to support and protect the human rights of women and girls worldwide, and Partners in Health. She is a member of the Vassar College Board of Trustees and the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She has been accorded a Commandeur de L'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Government, and a Lifetime Achievement Award by the American Film Institute, and this year, The National Medal of Arts by President Obama.