Winona Ryder

Biography

Winona Laura Horowitz, known professionally as Winona Ryder, is an American actress. One of the most successful and iconic actresses of the 1990s, she made her film debut in the film Lucas (1986). As Lydia Deetz, a goth teenager in Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice (1988), she won critical acclaim and widespread recognition. After appearances in film and on television, Ryder continued her acting career with the cult film Heathers (1988), a controversial satire of teenage suicide and high school life that has since become a landmark teen film. She later appeared in the coming of age drama Mermaids (1990), earning a Golden Globe Award nomination, and in the same year appeared alongside Johnny Depp in Burton’s dark fairy-tale Edward Scissorhands (1990), and shortly thereafter with Keanu Reeves in Francis Ford Coppola’s gothic romance Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992).

Having played diverse roles in many well-received films in the mid to late 1980s and early 1990s, Ryder won a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress and an Academy Award nomination in the same category for her role in The Age of Innocence (1993), as well as another Academy Award nomination for Best Actress for her role in the literary adaptation of Little Women the following year. She later appeared in the Generation X hit Reality Bites (1994), Alien Resurrection (1997), the Woody Allen comedy Celebrity (1998), and Girl, Interrupted (1999), which she also executive-produced. In 2000, Ryder received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, honoring her legacy in the film industry.

Ryder’s personal life has attracted significant media attention. Her relationship with Johnny Depp in the early 1990s and a 2001 arrest for shoplifting were constant subjects of tabloid journalism. She has been open about her personal struggles with anxiety and depression.

In 2002, she appeared in the box office hit Mr. Deeds alongside Adam Sandler. In 2006, Ryder returned to the screen after a brief hiatus following her shoplifting arrest, appearing in high-profile films such as Star Trek. In 2010, she was nominated for two Screen Actors Guild Awards: as the lead actress in When Love Is Not Enough: The Lois Wilson Story and as part of the cast of Black Swan. She also reunited with Burton for Frankenweenie (2012). Since 2016, she has starred as Joyce Byers in the Netflix supernatural-horror series Stranger Things, for which she has garnered Golden Globe and SAG nominations.