Acting
Oct 28, 1971
Winona, Minnesota, USA
Winona Ryder
Acting
Biography
Winona Laura Horowitz (born October 29, 1971), known professionally as Winona Ryder, is an American actress. She is the recipient of several awards, including a Golden Globe Award, and has been nominated for two Academy Awards. She is known for taking on quirky roles in her earlier films, later playing more prominent roles in the 1990s. After Ryder's film debut in Lucas (1986), she gained attention with her performance in Tim Burton's Beetlejuice (1988). She further rose to prominence with major roles in Heathers (1989), Mermaids (1990), Edward Scissorhands (1990), and Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992). She garnered critical acclaim and two consecutive Academy Award nominations for her portrayals of socialite May Welland in Martin Scorsese's The Age of Innocence (1993) and Jo March in the fifth film adaptation of Little Women (1994). Her other films during this period were Reality Bites (1994), How to Make an American Quilt (1995), The Crucible (1996), Alien Resurrection (1997), Celebrity (1998), and Girl, Interrupted (1999), which she also executive-produced. In 2002, Ryder starred in the critically panned box office hit Mr. Deeds, after which her career declined and she took a break from films. In 2009, she returned in the high-profile film Star Trek. In 2010, she was nominated for two Screen Actors Guild Awards: as the lead actress in the television film 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). She has starred as Joyce Byers in the Netflix science fiction horror series Stranger Things (2016–2025), for which she has received Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild nominations; and in 2020, she starred in the HBO drama miniseries The Plot Against America. Her relationship with Johnny Depp in the early 1990s and a 2001 arrest for shoplifting were both subjects of tabloid journalism. She has been open about her personal struggles with anxiety and depression. In 2000, Ryder received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Feature Films (78)
A small suburban town receives a visit from a castaway unfinished science experiment named Edward.
Edward Scissorhands
A quintet of cabbies in five cities and their remarkable fares on the same eventful night.
Night on Earth
A rancher, his clairvoyant wife and their family face turbulent years in South America.
The House of the Spirits
Upon arriving at a remote cabin in the redwoods, Kath and her boyfriend find a mysterious younger couple already there — the rental has apparently been double-booked. They decide to share the cabin with these strangers until the next morning, but her boyfriend disappears with the young woman, which sends Kath in a spiral to find an explanation for their sudden breakup — but the truth is far stranger than she could have imagined.
Gone in the Night
An undercover cop in a not-too-distant future becomes involved with a dangerous new drug and begins to lose his own identity as a result.
A Scanner Darkly
Will Keane, a Manhattan restaurateur, is content with his playboy lifestyle until he meets Charlotte Fielding, a free-spirited young woman. Together the pair pursue a passionate affair that forces them both to reevaluate what they want out of life, even as fate threatens to steal away their future.
Autumn in New York
Television & Series (20)
Set in Springfield, the average American town, the show focuses on the antics and everyday adventures of the Simpson family; Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie, as well as a virtual cast of thousands. Since the beginning, the series has been a pop culture icon, attracting hundreds of celebrities to guest star. The show has also made name for itself in its fearless satirical take on politics, media and American life in general.
The Simpsons
Six young people from New York City, on their own and struggling to survive in the real world, find the companionship, comfort and support they get from each other to be the perfect antidote to the pressures of life.
Friends
Comic Garry Shandling draws upon his own talk show experiences to create the character of Larry Sanders, a paranoid, insecure host of a late night talk show. Larry, along with his obsequious TV sidekick Hank Kingsley and his fiercely protective producer Artie, allows Garry Shandling and his talented writers to look behind the scenes and to show us a convincing slice of behind the camera life.
The Larry Sanders Show
Jerri Blank is a former prostitute and junkie whore who returns to high school as a 46-year-old freshman at Flatpoint High. Jerri ran away from home and became 'a boozer, a user, and a loser' after dropping out as a teenager, supporting her drug habits through prostitution, stripping, and larceny. She has been to prison several times, the last time because she 'stole the TV'. At home, Jerri's father Guy is comatose, although he seems perfectly capable of amazing feats. Her stepmother Sara is vain and bitter, and stepbrother Derrick is a bullying jock. Jerri tries to do things the right way but always ends up learning the wrong lesson. Her hijinks often involve, either directly or indirectly, neurotic history teacher Chuck Noblet and his secret lover, sensitive art teacher Geoffrey Jellineck.
