Talented Julie & Julia's Meryl Streep

  Meryl Streep                                                            (AP Photo/wiki)

Mary Louise Streep, "Meryl Streep," received her B.A. in Drama at Vassar College in 1971, but she also enrolled as an exchange student at Dartmouth College for a semester before that school became coeducational.  She, too, earned an M.F.A. from Yale School of Drama.

Streep performed in several theater productions in New York after graduating from Yale School of Drama, including the New York Shakespeare Festival productions of Henry V, The Taming of the Shrew with Raúl Juliá, and Measure for Measure opposite Sam Waterston and John Cazale, who became her fiancé.

Some of Streep's many film roles were: The Deer Hunter (1978), Manhattan (1979), Kramer vs. Kramer (1979), The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981), Still of the Night (1982), Sophie's Choice (1982), Silkwood (1983),  Falling in Love (1984) and  Plenty (1985).

Out of Africa (1985), Heartburn (1986) and Ironweed (1987), in which she sang onscreen for the first time. A Cry in the Dark (1988) and She-Devil (1989) with Roseanne Barr.

In the 1990s, Streep took a greater variety of roles, The Bridges of Madison County with Clint Eastwood, The River Wild, Marvin's Room (with Diane Keaton and Leonardo DiCaprio), One True Thing, and Music of the Heart, a role that required her to learn to play the violin.

Streep is adept with foreign accents, some of her best known roles have called for them. In The Bridges of Madison County, she played a woman from Bari, Italy, while in Sophie's Choice she adopted a Polish accent. She was a voice actor for the animated series The Simpsons and King of the Hill. She also voiced the Blue Fairy character in the Steven Spielberg film A.I. Artificial Intelligence.

In 2008 she appeared as Donna in the film version of the ABBA musical Mamma Mia!  Doubt was next with Julie & Julia to follow.  Her latest is in Nancy Meyers' new but yet still untitled romantic comedy, which will also star Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin. The film began production in February, 2009. ~ Actress, chef & author of cookbooks, too, is Padma Lakshmi, celebrity chef Giada De Laurentiis, along with Dom DeLuise, actor, also a chef in real life!

Streep is no stranger to theater, on and off-Broadway in New York City.  Once Streep's film career flourished, she took a long break from stage acting.  In July 2001, Streep returned to the stage for the first time in more than twenty years, playing Arkadina in the Public Theater's revival of Anton Chekhov's The Seagull. 

Streep holds the record for the most Academy Award nominations of any actor, having been nominated 15 times since her first nomination in 1979 for The Deer Hunter (12 for Best Actress and 3 for Best Supporting Actress).

Meryl Streep also holds the record for actress with the most Golden Globe Awards, with six wins. She is the most nominated performer for a Golden Globe Award (she has 23 nominations) and is also tied with Jack Nicholson and Angela Lansbury for most Golden Globes overall by an actor or actress (six wins). Streep has received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.