Meg Ryan is huge. She’s petite, but she’s huge. One of Hollywood’s best-loved actors and biggest names, she’s known for a single genre, but is master of many.

Born Margaret (Peggy, Meg) Mary Emily Anne Hyra, the Connecticut teen pared down her moniker when applying for a Screen Actors’ Guild membership, using her own nickname and her mom’s maiden name (a mom who left her husband and children about that time, and from whom Ryan is said to be still estranged). After a stint as Bethel High School’s Homecoming Queen, filling in as runner-up to the suspended queen (somebody was prettier?!), young Ryan financed University (of New York say some biographies, of Connecticut say others) with television commercial work.

Two years into a degree in journalism, Ryan was lured away from the books with a small part in Rich and Famous (1981). The 20-year-old turned to full time acting, and the small screen. Amy and the Angel (1982 – an ABC After School Special) led to the daytime drama As The World Turns (1982-84), and two series, Wildside (1984) and Charles In Charge (1984).

Amityville III: The Demon (1983) brought Ryan back to the big screen, and there she stayed. Supporting roles in Top Gun (1986), Armed and Dangerous (1986), Innerspace (1997), DOA (1988), Promised Land (1988), and The Presidio (1988), gave way to Ryan’s first and successful leading role in When Harry Met Sally (1989). Audiences loved Ryan, and so did casting: there followed: Joe Versus The Volcano (1990), The Doors (1991), Prelude To A Kiss (1992), Sleepless In Seattle (1993), IQ (1994), When A Man Loves A Woman (1994), Restoration (1995), French Kiss (1995 – Ryan produced and starred), Courage Under Fire (1996), Addicted to Love (1997), Hurlyburly (1998), City of Angels (1998), You’ve Got Mail (1998), Hanging Up (2000), and Proof of Life (2000). Ryan lends her pleasant voice to animation: television’s Red Riding Hood/Goldilocks (1990), The New Adventures of Captain Planet (1990), Celebrate Storytelling With Tracy Ullman (1994), and the film Anastasia (1997).

Listed one of only two women in Ulmer’s Y2K top twenty Hottest Actors, she’s one of only two (the other on both lists being Julia Roberts) women to command $15 million per picture. Even Ryan’s tousled hairdo is on a list – Most Imitated – and the actor is a favourite webshrine subject. Ryan married and divorced (1991-2000) actor Dennis Quaid, with who she worked on three pictures, and the couple has a son.
Upcoming are production/starring projects The Women and This Man, This Woman.
Best loved for her roles in romantic comedies (and, therefore, deluged with such scripts) Ryan does well, too, with a darker side. Bright talent, impeccable timing, impressive range, all-American good looks, and seeming accessibility took Ryan to the top, and are more than enough to keep her there for as long as she chooses to stay.