50 free Meryl Streep trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Meryl Streep trivia quiz covers the most nominated performer in Oscar history from every angle. The early questions ask about the New Jersey girl who took opera lessons at 12, the Vassar production that changed her mind about acting, the Yale years waiting tables, the King Kong audition where a producer insulted her in Italian, and John Cazale. From there it moves through the films: The Deer Hunter, the Kramer vs. Kramer testimony she rewrote and the Oscar she left in the ladies' room, the Polish accent of Sophie's Choice, Silkwood, Out of Africa, the dingo case, Death Becomes Her, The Bridges of Madison County, Adaptation, Angels in America, Miranda Priestly, Mamma Mia!, Doubt, Julia Child, Margaret Thatcher and Big Little Lies. The last stretch is about the woman and the reputation: the accents from Danish to Bronx, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Cecil B. DeMille speech about Donald Trump, the Writers Lab for women over forty, the four children with sculptor Don Gummer, and the record 21 Academy Award nominations. Every answer was checked against a reference page and each question carries its citation. Difficulty runs from easy to expert and is shown on every question. Try our Robert De Niro and Classic Hollywood quizzes next.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What is Meryl Streep's real first name?
Mary Louise
Big Little Lies author Liane Moriarty named Streep's character Mary Louise Wright after her legal name.
Q 02In which state was Streep born and raised?
New Jersey
She was born in Summit and grew up in Basking Ridge and Bernardsville, where she was a cheerleader and homecoming queen.
Q 03At age 12, Streep began lessons in what after being chosen to sing at a school recital?
Opera
She studied with Estelle Liebling for four years but quit, saying she was 'singing something I didn't feel and understand'.
Q 04Which play at Vassar College in 1969 first got Streep interested in serious theatre?
Miss Julie
Her drama professor said 'I don't think anyone ever taught Meryl acting. She really taught herself.'
Q 05At which university did Streep earn her Master of Fine Arts?
Yale
She waited tables and typed to pay fees, appeared in a dozen productions a year, developed ulcers and thought about switching to law.
Q 06Auditioning for the 1976 King Kong remake, Streep understood when which producer called her ugly in Italian?
Dino De Laurentiis
She replied: 'I'm very sorry that I'm not as beautiful as I should be, but, you know – this is it.'
Q 07Which actor's Taxi Driver performance made Streep decide 'that's the kind of actor I want to be when I grow up'?
Robert De Niro
He later saw her in The Cherry Orchard and suggested her for his girlfriend in The Deer Hunter.
Q 08Which actor, Streep's partner, was dying of lung cancer while they both filmed The Deer Hunter?
John Cazale
They met doing Measure for Measure in the park; she nursed him until his death in March 1978 and said 'I didn't get over it. I don't want to get over it.'
Q 09Streep's first feature film role was a small flashback part opposite Jane Fonda in which 1977 film?
Julia
Most of her scenes were cut and she thought 'I've made a terrible mistake, no more movies. I hate this business.'
Q 10For which 1978 miniseries, watched by an estimated 109 million, did Streep win her first Emmy?
Holocaust
She played a German woman married to a Jewish artist and admitted she took it for the money.
Q 11For Kramer vs. Kramer, Streep insisted the script be revised because her character was what?
'Too evil'
Director Robert Benton let her write her own dialogue in two key scenes, despite Dustin Hoffman, who 'hated her guts' at first.
Q 12Where did Streep famously leave her first Oscar after her acceptance speech?
In the ladies' room
The Deer Hunter and Kramer vs. Kramer were consecutive Best Picture winners.
Q 13Which 1981 film, pairing Streep with Jeremy Irons in a story within a story, was her first leading role?
The French Lieutenant's Woman
Q 21Which 1992 black comedy with Goldie Hawn and Bruce Willis was the longest shoot of Streep's career?
Death Becomes Her
She got into character by 'thinking about being slightly pissed off all of the time'.
Q 22For The Bridges of Madison County, Streep modelled her Italian farm wife on which two screen stars?
Sophia Loren and Anna Magnani
She gained weight for the part and watched Pasolini's Mamma Roma; Clint Eastwood directed and co-starred.
Q 23In Music of the Heart (1999), Streep played which real-life violin teacher?
Roberta Guaspari
It won her a BAFTA; New York magazine called her a 'chameleon' willing to play any type of role.
Q 14In Sophie's Choice, Streep's character is a survivor of Auschwitz from which country?
Poland
She filmed the 'choice' scene in one take and refused to do it again; Roger Ebert wrote she had 'the first accent I've ever wanted to hug'.
Q 15Which actress did William Styron have in mind for Sophie when he wrote the novel?
Ursula Andress
Streep was determined to get the role; Premiere later voted her Sophie the third greatest movie performance of all time.
Q 16Streep's first real-life role, in a 1983 Mike Nichols film, was which nuclear whistleblower killed in a car crash?
Karen Silkwood
Silkwood had been investigating the Kerr-McGee plutonium plant.
Q 17Which Danish writer did Streep play opposite Robert Redford in Out of Africa?
Karen Blixen
Director Sydney Pollack had doubted she was sexy enough and considered Jane Seymour; they clashed over the aristocratic voice she copied from tapes.
Q 18For which film did Streep win at Cannes, playing an Australian mother convicted of killing her baby?
A Cry in the Dark
Lindy Chamberlain maintained a dingo had taken her daughter; Streep said learning Australian was 'like coming from Italian to Spanish'.
Q 19Streep lobbied to star in Oliver Stone's planned 1989 adaptation of which musical, then dropped out?
Evita
She cited exhaustion, though a salary dispute was later revealed.
Q 20Which friend wrote Postcards from the Edge (1990) and made Streep godmother to her daughter?
Carrie Fisher
Streep quoted her in 2017: 'Take your broken heart and make it into art.'
Ebert wrote that even her 'no accent' here was someone else's voice, not her own.
Q 24Which real journalist did Streep play in Spike Jonze's Adaptation. (2002)?
Susan Orlean
The role won her a fourth Golden Globe; Chris Cooper played the orchid poacher.
Q 25How many roles did Streep play in the HBO miniseries Angels in America (2003)?
Four
It brought her second Emmy and fifth Golden Globe, alongside Al Pacino and Emma Thompson.
Q 26What is the name of the fashion editor Streep plays in The Devil Wears Prada?
Miranda Priestly
It brought her a record-setting 14th Oscar nomination and grossed $326.5 million; the sequel arrived in May 2026.
Q 27On which real Greek island was Mamma Mia! filmed, standing in for the fictional Kalokairi?
Skopelos
With $602.6 million, it became her highest-grossing film and the top-grossing musical of its time.
Q 28In Doubt (2008), Streep played the principal of a Catholic school in which New York borough?
The Bronx
One critic called Sister Aloysius 'the scariest nun of all time'; all four leads were Oscar-nominated.
Q 29Which chef did Streep play in Nora Ephron's 2009 film about a blogger cooking through a French cookbook?
Julia Child
It was the first major film based on a blog; Amy Adams cooked all 524 recipes as Julie Powell.
Q 30For The Iron Lady, Streep prepared by attending what?
A session of the House of Commons
Thatcher's friends called the portrayal 'inaccurate' and 'biased'; the film brought her third Oscar.