Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#121
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Meryl Streep represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 51 years in, and Meryl is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Meryl Streep appears in 68 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Meryl. Henry David Thoreau is the clearest case: a film rated 9.3 by our editors, where the performance carries weight the script only implies.
The recognisable elements are versatility, transformation, quiet performance. Watch two of these films back to back and the method separates from the material — the same instrument, tuned differently for fantasy, adventure, family. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Greta Gerwig, David Frankel, Phil Lord and others, Meryl Streep helped set a standard other performers now audition against. Awards bodies have been slower than the work, which is usually the sign of a career built on choices rather than campaigns.
Henry David Thoreau (2026) as Various Voices (voice) · Project Hail Mary (2026) as Rejected Rocky Voice (voice) · Hoppers (2026) as Insect Queen (voice)
Career snapshot
Ranked #121 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
68
1977–2028
Career length
51 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
9.3
Henry David Thoreau
Average Nutevio score
6.5
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
9.3
Henry David Thoreau
Most frequent director
David Frankel
3 films together
Longest collaboration
3×
With David Frankel
Most common genre
Drama
46 titles
Average runtime
1h 51m
Across catalogue work
Golden Globe wins
—
Unknown
Nutevio metric
Ten weighted categories, applied identically to everyone we cover.
Nutevio Performer Score
7.2
out of 10
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio metric
Cultural impact and legacy, measured separately from craft — how far the work travelled once it left the cinema.
Nutevio Influence Score
7.1
out of 10
A quieter influence — felt inside the films rather than across the industry.
How far the work travelled past the people who saw it first.
What survives once the release-week conversation has burned off.
Institutional acknowledgement, weighted but never decisive.
Years of chosen, relevant work rather than years merely employed.
Statuettes, read as evidence rather than verdict.
Roles named without needing the film named alongside them.
Directors who wrote parts because this performer existed.
The reading other performers now have to answer.
Actor DNA
A fingerprint derived from the roles themselves — register, range and the kind of film they carry.
The shape of a career
Every performance plotted in time. Hover a point to read the title behind it.
Peak years
Where the scores, the awards and the sheer volume of work agree with each other.
Best decade
1970s
7.3 average MV
The 1970s are where the work and the material meet. Manhattan, Kramer vs. Kramer, The Deer Hunter — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
1970s
7.3
Across 4 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
1970s
7.4
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
1970s
0 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. Manhattan, Kramer vs. Kramer, The Deer Hunter.
Most productive era
2000s
18 films
The busiest stretch of the catalogue — volume that reads as appetite rather than availability.
Range, mapped
Genres down the side, decades across the top. Warmer cells mean stronger titles.
| Genre | 1970s | 1980s | 1990s | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | 7.34 films | 6.68 films | 6.78 films | 6.712 films | 6.711 films | 6.73 films |
| Action | — | — | — | 6.01 film | — | — |
| Thriller | 6.51 film | 5.71 film | 6.51 film | 6.52 films | — | — |
| Comedy | 7.51 film | 6.02 films | 6.83 films | 6.710 films | 6.48 films | 6.85 films |
| Crime | — | — | 5.91 film | 7.31 film | 6.01 film | — |
| Romance | 7.02 films | 6.75 films | 7.23 films | 6.45 films | 7.13 films | 6.11 film |
| Horror | — | — | 6.81 film | — | — | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
1977Julia
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Anne Marie.
First Nutevio masterpiece · Highest rated performance · Career peak
The first film here to clear 9.0 on our scale — a threshold fewer than one film in ten reaches. 9.3 on the Nutevio scale, the top of the catalogue for this performer. Weighing billing against the film's own quality, this is the point where everything aligned at once.
Most recent film
The current state of the argument, as Mrs. Claus.
Our order
Every performance in the catalogue, ordered by Nutevio Score.
Every title
Filter by genre or decade, and compare any two titles side by side.
68 of 68 films
as Various Voices (voice)
Directed by Unknown
as Rejected Rocky Voice (voice)
Directed by Phil Lord
as Miranda Priestly
Directed by David Frankel
as Francesca Johnson
Directed by Clint Eastwood
as Narrator (voice)
Directed by Philip Hunt
From the library
Every movie and TV credit stored for this name in the Nutevio catalogue — filter by media, role or sort by rating.
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The defining work
#1
Various Voices (voice)
Henry David Thoreau (2026)
Performance score9.1
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Various Voices (voice) gives Meryl Streep a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Rejected Rocky Voice (voice)
Project Hail Mary (2026)
Performance score8.4
Project Hail Mary asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Rejected Rocky Voice (voice) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Miranda Priestly
The Devil Wears Prada (2006)
Performance score8.2
The Devil Wears Prada asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Miranda Priestly is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Francesca Johnson
The Bridges of Madison County (1995)
Performance score8.2
The Bridges of Madison County asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Francesca Johnson is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movieStart here
A guided path through the work, ordered so each film explains the next.
Best entry point
as Various Voices (voice)
Start here. Henry David Thoreau is the clearest statement of what Meryl Streep does — accessible, 173 minutes, and rated 9.3 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Meryl at the most legible performance, then move forward in time so each film reads as a response to the one before it rather than a repetition of it.
The Bridges of Madison County (1995)
A deliberate change of key after Henry David Thoreau — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
The Devil Wears Prada (2006)
Keeps the drama register of The Bridges of Madison County but asks for a colder reading of it.
Here We Are: Notes for Living on Planet Earth (2020)
A deliberate change of key after The Devil Wears Prada — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Project Hail Mary (2026)
A deliberate change of key after Here We Are: Notes for Living on Planet Earth — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Mike Nichols
Director
3 films together
Notably Silkwood
David Frankel
Director
3 films together
Notably The Devil Wears Prada
Robert Benton
Director
2 films together
Notably Kramer vs. Kramer
Jonathan Demme
Director
2 films together
Notably The Manchurian Candidate
Steven Spielberg
Director
2 films together
Notably A.I. Artificial Intelligence
Rob Marshall
Director
2 films together
Notably Mary Poppins Returns
Greta Gerwig
Director
2 films together
Notably Little Women
Fred Zinnemann
Director
1 film together
Notably Julia
Michael Cimino
Director
1 film together
Notably The Deer Hunter
Woody Allen
Director
1 film together
Notably Manhattan
Karel Reisz
Director
1 film together
Notably The French Lieutenant's Woman
Alan J. Pakula
Director
1 film together
Notably Sophie's Choice
Sydney Pollack
Director
1 film together
Notably Out of Africa
Susan Seidelman
Director
1 film together
Notably She-Devil
Albert Brooks
Director
1 film together
Notably Defending Your Life
Robert Zemeckis
Director
1 film together
Notably Death Becomes Her
Bille August
Director
1 film together
Notably The House of the Spirits
Curtis Hanson
Director
1 film together
Notably The River Wild
Clint Eastwood
Director
1 film together
Notably The Bridges of Madison County
Barbet Schroeder
Director
1 film together
Notably Before and After
Jerry Zaks
Director
1 film together
Notably Marvin's Room
Wes Craven
Director
1 film together
Notably Music of the Heart
Stephen Daldry
Director
1 film together
Notably The Hours
Spike Jonze
Director
1 film together
Notably Adaptation.
Bobby Farrelly
Director
1 film together
Notably Stuck on You
Brad Silberling
Director
1 film together
Notably Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events
Ben Younger
Director
1 film together
Notably Prime
Robert Altman
Director
1 film together
Notably A Prairie Home Companion
John A. Davis
Director
1 film together
Notably The Ant Bully
Lajos Koltai
Director
1 film together
Notably Evening
Robert Redford
Director
1 film together
Notably Lions for Lambs
Gavin Hood
Director
1 film together
Notably Rendition
John Patrick Shanley
Director
1 film together
Notably Doubt
Nancy Meyers
Director
1 film together
Notably It's Complicated
Nora Ephron
Director
1 film together
Notably Julie & Julia
Wes Anderson
Director
1 film together
Notably Fantastic Mr. Fox
John Wells
Director
1 film together
Notably August: Osage County
Tommy Lee Jones
Director
1 film together
Notably The Homesman
Phillip Noyce
Director
1 film together
Notably The Giver
Sarah Gavron
Director
1 film together
Notably Suffragette
Stephen Frears
Director
1 film together
Notably Florence Foster Jenkins
Ryan Murphy
Director
1 film together
Notably The Prom
Philip Hunt
Director
1 film together
Notably Here We Are: Notes for Living on Planet Earth
Adam McKay
Director
1 film together
Notably Don't Look Up
Lawrence Kasdan
Director
1 film together
Notably Marty, Life Is Short
Daniel Chong
Director
1 film together
Notably Hoppers
Phil Lord
Director
1 film together
Notably Project Hail Mary
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
David Frankel
Director
3 films together · 7.1 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 3 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
The Devil Wears PradaMike Nichols
Director
3 films together · 6.5 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 3 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
SilkwoodSteven Spielberg
Director
2 films together · 7.0 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
A.I. Artificial IntelligenceRobert Benton
Director
2 films together · 6.6 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Kramer vs. KramerRob Marshall
Director
2 films together · 6.2 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Mary Poppins ReturnsJonathan Demme
Director
2 films together · 6.2 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
The Manchurian CandidateGreta Gerwig
Director
2 films together · 4.0 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Little WomenPhil Lord
Director
1 film together · 8.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Project Hail MaryDaniel Chong
Director
1 film together · 8.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
HoppersLawrence Kasdan
Director
1 film together · 8.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Marty, Life Is ShortMichael Cimino
Director
1 film together · 7.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Deer HunterWes Anderson
Director
1 film together · 7.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Fantastic Mr. FoxClint Eastwood
Director
1 film together · 7.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Bridges of Madison CountyPhilip Hunt
Director
1 film together · 7.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Here We Are: Notes for Living on Planet EarthWoody Allen
Director
1 film together · 7.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
ManhattanSpike Jonze
Director
1 film together · 7.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Adaptation.Stephen Daldry
Director
1 film together · 7.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The HoursSarah Gavron
Director
1 film together · 7.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
SuffragetteJohn Patrick Shanley
Director
1 film together · 7.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
DoubtAdam McKay
Director
1 film together · 7.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Don't Look UpSydney Pollack
Director
1 film together · 7.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Out of AfricaAlan J. Pakula
Director
1 film together · 7.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Sophie's ChoiceJohn Wells
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
August: Osage CountyBille August
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The House of the SpiritsAlbert Brooks
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Defending Your LifeBrad Silberling
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate EventsRobert Zemeckis
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Death Becomes HerStephen Frears
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Florence Foster JenkinsNora Ephron
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Julie & JuliaJerry Zaks
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Marvin's RoomPhillip Noyce
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The GiverWes Craven
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Music of the HeartTommy Lee Jones
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The HomesmanNancy Meyers
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
It's ComplicatedCurtis Hanson
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The River WildKarel Reisz
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The French Lieutenant's WomanFred Zinnemann
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
JuliaGavin Hood
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
RenditionRobert Altman
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
A Prairie Home CompanionRyan Murphy
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The PromRobert Redford
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Lions for LambsBen Younger
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
PrimeSusan Seidelman
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
She-DevilBarbet Schroeder
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Before and AfterLajos Koltai
Director
1 film together · 5.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
EveningJohn A. Davis
Director
1 film together · 5.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Ant BullyBobby Farrelly
Director
1 film together · 5.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Stuck on YouSix degrees
Follow the thread outward — director, film, co-star, and the film after that.
Recognition
3 wins
3 wins · latest 2012
The Iron Lady · as Actor
Sophie's Choice · as Actor
Kramer vs. Kramer · as Actor
Categories of our own
Six editorial categories we apply to every performer we cover.
Most rewatchable
Henry David Thoreau
as Various Voices (voice)
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Little Women
as Aunt March
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Henry David Thoreau
as Various Voices (voice)
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Stuck on You
as Meryl Streep (uncredited)
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Henry David Thoreau
as Various Voices (voice)
If the career had to be argued in a single scene, our editors would pick one from this film and rest the case.
In their films' words
“You can build a whole film around a performer who knows when not to speak. Meryl Streep has known it for a long time.”
Head to head
Put two careers on the same scale and see where the argument actually sits.
Ours alone
Recognitions handed out by this desk, on criteria no awards body uses.
Career Achievement
Awarded
51 years of relevant work — not merely a long career, but a long career of choices.
Modern Classic Performer
Awarded
Defining performances delivered inside the last twenty-five years, in films already being taught rather than merely remembered.
Drama Legend
Awarded
46 catalogue titles in drama, each one a reference point for the films that followed.
Our desk
Best ending, best opening, best twist and the rest — categories we apply to everyone we cover.
Best ending
Henry David Thoreau
as Various Voices (voice)
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Henry David Thoreau
as Various Voices (voice)
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Little Women
as Aunt March
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
The Manchurian Candidate
as Senator Eleanor Prentiss Shaw (D-VA)
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Henry David Thoreau
as Various Voices (voice)
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Lions for Lambs
as Janine Roth
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Defending Your Life
as Julia
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
The Devil Wears Prada
as Miranda Priestly
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
If you like this performer
Matt Damon
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Michael Caine
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Edward Norton
Works with the same directors — shared collaborators
Tom Hanks
Built a career in the same territory: animation and family
Bonnie Hunt
Built a career in the same territory: animation and family
Harvey Keitel
Works with the same directors — shared collaborators
Have your say
Community
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Our readers argue about this one. Make your case, or read the ranked debate already in progress.
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Reference
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