The young American actress Meg Ryan, Margaret Mary Emily Anne, was born on November 19, 1961 in Fairfield, Connecticut.
She attended St. Pius X Elementary School in Fairfield and was raised Catholic. She has two sisters named Dana and Annie and a brother named Andrew Hyra, who plays music and is part of the band Billy Pilgrim. When she was fifteen, her parents separated.
In 1979, Ryan graduated from high school in Bethel. While in college, she attended the University of Connecticut and New York University to study journalism.
She appeared in television commercials and the soap opera As the World Turns to earn extra money while studying. Due to her success as an actress, she dropped out of school a semester early.
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ToggleMeg Ryan’s career
Ryan made her acting debut in George Cukor’s final film, Rich and Famous, in 1981. From 1982 to 1984, Ryan played Betsy Stewart in the daytime drama As the World Turns, in which her role was part of ‘a popular love story.
She also appeared in a few television commercials for brands such as Burger King and Aim toothpaste in the early 1980s.
This was followed by roles on television and in smaller films such as Charles in Charge, Armed and Dangerous and Amityville 3-D.
Ryan received his first Independent Spirit Awards nomination for his performance in Promised Land (1987).
When Harry Met Sally… (1989), a romantic comedy starring comedian Billy Crystal, which gave Ryan his first major role and earned him a Golden Globe nomination.
In one of the most famous scenes of her portrayal of Sally Albright, she theatrically shows the character Crystal in Katz’s Delicatessen in Manhattan how easy it is for a woman to fake an orgasm.
In 1994, in Luis Mandoki’s romantic social drama “When a Man Loves a Woman,” which also starred Andy Garcia, Ryan took on the role of an alcoholic school counselor, quite different from the brilliant romantic comedy roles for which she had previously achieved notoriety.
Ryan was involved in numerous projects in the early 2010s, all of which failed, including the ensemble drama Lives of the Saints, in which he would have starred alongside Kat Dennings, Kevin Zegers and John Lithgow, and the film Long Time Gone. Based on the novel Angel Angel by April Stevens.
Into the Beautiful, billed as “a great contemporary thrill where longtime friends reunite,” was intended to be Ryan’s feature directorial debut in April 2011, but was never released.
The PBS show “Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide” featured Ryan in October 2012. The show highlights women and girls who struggle to overcome difficult conditions while living in them.
William Saroyan’s Human Comedy was released as an audiobook that same month and read by Ryan.
Rumors swirled that Ryan would return to television in October 2013 to produce and star in a brand new comedy for NBC based on a former New Yorker editor, but approval for the production has yet to materialize.
Ryan’s next feature film was the ABC Family film Fan Girl, an independent comedy starring Kiernan Shipka about a 15-year-old girl with a passion for film who makes a film about her favorite band, All Time Low Want. In June 2015, the film celebrated its world premiere at the Los Angeles Film Festival.
Ithaca, a drama film based on William Saroyan’s 1943 novel The Human Comedy, marked Ryan’s directorial debut.
The film was filmed in Petersburg, Virginia, starring Ryan and had its international premiere in October at the Middleburg Film Festival.
Does Meg Ryan have children?
Ryan has two children; Jack Quaid and Daisy True Ryan. Jack was born on April 24, 1992, while Daisy was adopted in 2006, when she was 14 months old.