A regular performer with Joseph Papp's New York Shakespeare Festival, she made her screen debut in JULIA (1977) and was Oscar-nominated for THE DEER HUNTER (1978). In the watershed year of 1979, she played the seductress in THE SEDUCTION OF JOE TYNAN and Woody Allen's lesbian ex-wife in MANHATTAN and won her first Oscar®, for KRAMER VS. KRAMER. Two years after her first screen appearance, she had become one of the most widely praised actresses working in the medium.
Streep turned in a bravura performance opposite Jeremy Irons in THE FRENCH LIEUTENANT'S WOMAN (1981) and cemented her reputation with a riveting tour de force as the title character of SOPHIE'S CHOICE (1982) -- a role that combined flawless technique with raw emotional intensity and earned her another Oscar. She went on to give a succession of performances that aggressively proved her mastery of any idiom, accent or social milieu, playing a blue-collar political activist in SILKWOOD (1983), transplanted Danish writer Karen Blixen in OUT OF AFRICA (1985) and Lindy Chamberlain -- the woman whose claim that dingos had made off with her baby made her "the most maligned woman in Australia" -- in A CRY IN THE DARK (1988).
Streep's career took a new turn in the late 1980s with several comedic roles, including Susan Seidelman's lackluster SHE-DEVIL (1989) and the more successful POSTCARDS FROM THE EDGE (1990), in which she played a character loosely modeled on actress Carrie Fisher. In Albert Brooks' imperfect comedy-fantasy DEFENDING YOUR LIFE (1991), Streep was a candidate waiting to get into heaven. Streep's portrayal of a vain desperate actress in Robert Zemeckis' black comedy DEATH BECOMES HER earned her a Golden Globe nomination. Less successful was her portrayal of a woman with clairvoyant powers in THE HOUSE OF THE SPIRITS (1993), the filming of Isabel Allende's powerful novel about an aristocratic Chilean family. And in THE RIVER WILD (1994) Streep found a real change of pace, as well in her first outing as an action heroine, playing a former white water rafting guide who must pilot her family down river to safety.
Other notable (non-nominated) credits include STILL OF THE NIGHT (1982), FALLING IN LOVE (1984), PLENTY (1985), HEARTBURN (1986), EVIL ANGELS (1988), BEFORE AND AFTER and MARVIN'S ROOM (both 1996), DANCING AT LUGHNASA (1998), THE HOURS (2002), "Angels in America" (2003), THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE and LEMONY SNICKET'S A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS (both 2004), PRIME (2005), A PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION and THE MUSIC OF REGRET (both 2006), DARK MATTER, EVENING, RENDITION and LIONS FOR LAMBS (all 2007), MAMMA MIA!, DOUBT and DIRTY TRICKS (all scheduled for 2008), and A QUESTION OF MERCY (scheduled for 2009).
Her twelfth Oscar nomination for 1999's MUSIC OF THE HEART tied her with Katharine Hepburn for the most nominations for acting. And her 2002 nomination for ADAPTATION set her apart from the field as the most-nominated actress in Academy history.
Nominated for Supporting Actress 1978: THE DEER HUNTER
Supporting Actress 1979: KRAMER VS. KRAMER
Nominated for Actress 1981: THE FRENCH LIEUTENANT'S WOMAN
Actress 1982: SOPHIE'S CHOICE
Nominated for Actress 1983: SILKWOOD
Nominated for Actress 1985: OUT OF AFRICA
Nominated for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role 1987: IRONWEED
Nominated for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role 1988: A CRY IN THE DARK
Nominated for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role 1990: POSTCARDS FROM THE EDGE
Nominated for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role 1995: THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY
Nominated for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role 1998: ONE TRUE THING
Nominated for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role 1999: MUSIC OF THE HEART
Nominated for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role 2002: ADAPTATION
Nominated for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role 2006: THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA
14 nominations, 2 Awards