Age, Biography, and Wiki
Meg Ryan was born in Fairfield, Connecticut, to Susan Jordan and Harry Hyra. Her parents were both teachers, and her father was of Ukrainian descent. Ryan grew up in a Roman Catholic household and developed an interest in acting early on. She began her career in television commercials and soap operas before moving to film. Ryan's breakthrough came with her role in "Top Gun" (1986) and her memorable performance in "When Harry Met Sally…" (1989), which cemented her status as America's sweetheart.
| Occupation | Soap Opera Actress |
|---|---|
| Date of Birth | 19 November 1961 |
| Age | 63 Years |
| Birth Place | Fairfield, Connecticut, U.S. |
| Horoscope | Scorpio |
| Country | U.S |
Height, Weight & Measurements
Meg Ryan stands at a height of 5 feet 8 inches (1.73 meters), which is often noted as a characteristic of her on-screen presence.
| Height | 5 feet 8 inches |
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Dating & Relationship Status
Meg Ryan is currently single. Her personal life has been relatively private, with a focus on her career and family. She has been married once, to actor Dennis Quaid, with whom she has a son, Jack Quaid.
Her father is of Polish descent. She was raised Catholic and attended St. Pius X Elementary School in Fairfield. She has two sisters, Dana (d. 2022) and Annie (d. 2019), and a brother, musician Andrew Hyra, a member of the band Billy Pilgrim. Her parents divorced in 1976 when she was 15.
In 1986, she played Carole Bradshaw, the wife of Anthony Edwards' character, naval flight officer Nick "Goose" Bradshaw, in Top Gun. Scenes with them were reprised in the 2022 sequel Top Gun: Maverick as flashbacks to illustrate the emotional conflicts between lead character Pete "Maverick" Mitchell (Tom Cruise) and the Bradshaws' grown son, Bradley "Rooster" Bradshaw (Miles Teller).
Ryan appeared in the film Innerspace in 1987 with her future husband Dennis Quaid, and they subsequently costarred in the remake of D.O.A. (1988) and Flesh and Bone (1993). She also costarred in 1988 with Sean Connery and Mark Harmon in The Presidio.
Ryan's first film of the 2000s was Hanging Up, a Diane Keaton-directed family comedy-drama about a trio of sisters who bond over the approaching death of their curmudgeonly father. Also starring Keaton, Lisa Kudrow and Walter Matthau, the film adaptation of Delia Ephron's 1995 novel received poor reviews from critics.
The same year, Ryan was cast in the action thriller Proof of Life with Russell Crowe, directed by Taylor Hackford. In the film, she portrayed the distraught wife of a kidnapped engineer, played by David Morse, while relying on a resourceful troubleshooter who makes a profession of dealing with international bandits. While the film became a lukewarm critical and commercial success, grossing $63 million worldwide, it garnered much reportage in the tabloid press in association with Ryan and Crowe's affair. Stephen Holden, film critic for The New York Times, did not think the film worked well and opined that the actors did not connect.
Following a three-year hiatus, Ryan returned to film with Jon Kasdan's 2007 independent film In the Land of Women. Starring alongside Kristen Stewart and Olympia Dukakis, she played Sarah Hardwicke, a mother and wife facing breast cancer, who connects with her neighbor's much younger grandson, played by Adam Brody. Released to mixed reviews by critics, the film grossed $17.5 million worldwide, exceeding its budget of $10 million. Ryan received a positive response for her performance, with Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times noting it "the best work [she] has done in forever".
Ryan's first film release of 2008 was The Deal, a satirical comedy film based on Peter Lefcourt's 1991 novel of the same title about Hollywood. Directed by Steven Schachter and co-starring William H. Macy, the film was shot in Cape Town and other South African locations and celebrated its world premiere at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. Garnering generally mixed to negative reviews, it failed to draw interest among film studios, resulting in a straight-to-DVD release in January 2009. In his review for Variety, Peter Debruge said, "The characters seem to be doing all the laughing, while the general public has nothing to cling to but the horndog flirtation between mismatched leads William H. Macy and Meg Ryan—hardly ideal ingredients for mainstream success." Ryan also starred in George Gallo's My Mom's New Boyfriend, shot in 2006 but released direct-to-DVD in 2008. Co-starring Colin Hanks, Selma Blair and Antonio Banderas, the action comedy received overwhelmingly negative reviews, with David Nusair of Reel Film noting it "an unmitigated disaster virtually from its opening frames".
Ryan's last film of 2008 was The Women, a remake of the 1939 production. The all-female cast comprises Annette Bening, Debra Messing, and Jada Pinkett Smith. Written, produced and directed by Diane English, the film centers on a group of four female Manhattan socialites whose primary interest is idle gossip, with Ryan portraying a wealthy woman whose husband is cheating on her with a shop girl, played by Eva Mendes. Ryan was the first actress to join the long-delayed production, which had struggled to find financing since the early 1990s, resulting in an independent production budgeted at $18 million. Upon its release, The Women received a disastrous response from critics, with Richard Schickel of Time calling it "one of the worst movies I've ever seen". The film was a financial success, however, becoming Ryan's most successful film since 2001's Kate & Leopold with a worldwide gross of $50 million.
In 2009, Ryan starred alongside Kristen Bell and Justin Long in the independent comedy film Serious Moonlight. In this film, directed by actress Cheryl Hines and based on a screenplay by late writer Adrienne Shelly, who was murdered a year prior to filming, Ryan portrayed a high-powered female attorney who learns that her husband, played by Timothy Hutton, is about to leave their troubled marriage, and decides to hold him captive by duct-taping him to a toilet. Picked up by Magnolia Pictures, the production received a limited release throughout North America only and grossed less than $150,000 worldwide. Critical reaction to the film was generally mixed-to-negative, although Ryan was praised for her "terrific" performance. Also in 2009, Ryan guest-starred on the seventh season of Curb Your Enthusiasm.
Following another four-year hiatus, Ryan re-teamed with Lisa Kudrow on her improvisational comedy series Web Therapy, for which she filmed five episodes in 2013. The following year, she provided the future voice of Greta Gerwig's character in the pilot of How I Met Your Dad, a woman-centric variation of the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother that was not picked up. CBS later passed on the project.
Some of the actress' attempts to explore different archetypes and genres have been met with mixed results. Notably, her role in In the Cut (2003) drew backlash from critics and fans, after which she dramatically limited her workload and public appearances. The New Republic's David Thomson said Ryan became "widely regarded as that nice girl next door ... who lost her sweetness" after the film. In retrospect, Ryan said they should have prepared audiences for her departure from the archetype she had become known for. According to Anthony Brett of The Daily Telegraph, Ryan's infamous Parkinson interview damaged her reputation for several years. Ryan's public image also suffered from rumors that she had cheated on then-husband Dennis Quaid with Proof of Life (2000) co-star Russell Crowe. In 2019, Ryan described herself as a "terrible celebrity" who finds fame to be uncomfortable, exhausting and disabling.
In January 2006, Ryan adopted a 14-month-old girl from China whom she named Daisy True. From 2010 to 2014, Ryan was in a relationship with American singer-songwriter John Mellencamp. They reunited in 2017, and Ryan announced their engagement on November 8, 2018. In October 2019, it was reported that Ryan had ended their engagement.
| Parents | |
| Husband | Dennis Quaid (m. 1991-2001) |
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Net Worth and Salary
As of 2025, Meg Ryan's estimated net worth varies, with some sources stating it is around $40 million, while others place it at $85 million. Throughout her career, she has commanded significant salaries for her roles, often earning between $10 and $15 million per film during her peak in the 1990s.
Career, Business, and Investments
Meg Ryan's career has been defined by her leading roles in romantic comedies, most notably in "Sleepless in Seattle" (1993) and "You've Got Mail" (1998), both alongside Tom Hanks. She has also showcased her dramatic range in films like "Courage Under Fire" (1996) and "City of Angels" (1998). Beyond acting, Ryan has ventured into directing with her debut film "Ithaca" in 2015. Her wealth is supported by smart real estate investments and select behind-the-camera ventures.
In 1995, critic Richard Corliss called Ryan "the current soul of romantic comedy". The same year she also starred opposite Kevin Kline in Lawrence Kasdan's French Kiss, a comedy catering to her "America's Sweetheart" image, and was awarded the Women in Film Crystal Award – given to "outstanding women who, through their endurance and the excellence of their work, have helped to expand the role of women within the entertainment industry."
In 2003, Ryan broke away from her usual roles, starring alongside Mark Ruffalo and Jennifer Jason Leigh in Jane Campion's erotic thriller film In the Cut. Co-producer Nicole Kidman had originally been cast in the lead, but the actress eventually dropped out after five years of development, leaving the role to Ryan, who appeared nude in a lengthy and rather graphic love scene for the first time in her career. Although her image-conflicting depiction earned Ryan and the film much media attention, the film failed with critics and grossed only $23 million in theaters. While promoting In the Cut on Michael Parkinson's talk show Parkinson, the actress was offended by the host's questions regarding filming nude scenes, appearing disinterested, delivering one-word responses, and suggesting that Parkinson end their interview when asked what she would do in his position. The interaction is considered to be one of the most infamous in talk show history. Three years after the interview aired, Ryan explained that she felt Parkinson was berating her for performing nudity and had attempted to disagree with his views respectfully. Parkinson eventually apologized for losing his temper in 2021, but maintained that Ryan's behavior "played a part in it too".
During the peak of her career, Ryan was one of Hollywood's most bankable stars, comparable to Julia Roberts. She has been called one of the greatest actresses of the 1990s. She was also one of Hollywood's highest-paid, earning as much as $15 million per film by the end of the decade. Ryan is particularly known for her work in romantic comedies, having starred in several from the late 1980s until the early 2000s. The 1990s were particularly prolific for Ryan's work in the genre, appearing in six romantic comedies during the decade. Two of her films, When Harry Met Sally...(1989) and Sleepless in Seattle (1993), are ranked among the 10 greatest romantic comedies of all time by the American Film Institute. The organization also ranked the same films among the 100 greatest romance films, at numbers 25 and 45 respectively. Journalist Jane Pauley, as well as Kate Erbland of IndieWire, recognized Ryan as one of the leading ladies responsible for the genre's resurgence, earning her the nickname the "Queen of Rom-coms". Benjamin Lee of The Guardian attributes Ryan's association with the genre to her "endless source of warmth and charisma, boasting a magic, ineffable charm that only a handful of other actors have ever truly had". Journalist Michael Shnayerson declared Ryan the "queen of the screwball romantic comedy" whose "instinct for physical comedy puts her in a league with the greats—Carole Lombard, Rosalind Russell, Jean Arthur".
For much of her career, Ryan typically played cheerful, witty, and quirky women in romantic comedies, but she has also starred in thrillers, dramas, and action films. Ryan does not feel she was pigeonholed into the romantic comedy genre, explaining that they comprise a comparatively small portion of her filmography, and insists that her desire to explore different genres as an actor did not stem from any pressure to reinvent herself, but rather a genuine passion for trying new roles. Described as an embodiment of the girl next door archetype, the media dubbed Ryan "America's sweetheart" due to both her wholesome on and offscreen personas, a label she admitted to feeling conflicted about. Joanna Robinson of Vanity Fair felt Ryan's early roles limited both the jobs she was offered and audience perception of her. However, journalist Andrew Anthony insists Ryan was greatly responsible for the image she perpetuated, rather than a victim of it.
Ryan has received multiple awards and nominations throughout her career, including three Golden Globe Award nominations for Best Actress – Motion Picture Comedy or Musical for her performance in the romantic comedies When Harry Met Sally... (1989), Sleepless in Seattle (1993) and You've Got Mail (1998).
Social Network
Meg Ryan maintains a relatively private presence on social media, preferring to keep her personal life out of the spotlight.
After her film debut in director George Cukor's final film, Rich and Famous, in 1981, Ryan played Betsy Stewart in the daytime drama As the World Turns from 1982 to 1984; her character was featured in a popular romantic story arc. She also appeared in some television commercials during the early 1980s for Burger King and Aim toothpaste, among others. Several television and smaller film roles followed, including appearances in Charles in Charge, Armed and Dangerous, and Amityville 3-D. Her role in Promised Land (1987) earned Ryan her first Independent Spirit Award nomination.
Education
Ryan initially studied journalism at the University of Connecticut before transferring to New York University. She dropped out of college just a semester before graduating to pursue her acting career full-time.
This article provides a comprehensive overview of Meg Ryan's life, career, and financial status, highlighting her enduring impact on Hollywood and her lasting legacy as a romantic comedy icon.
Ryan graduated from Bethel High School in 1979. She studied journalism as an undergraduate, first at the University of Connecticut and then at New York University. During college, she acted in television commercials and the soap opera As the World Turns to earn extra money. Her success as an actress led her to leave college a semester before she planned to graduate. When she joined the Screen Actors Guild, she used the surname "Ryan", her maternal grandmother's maiden name.
In 1994, Ryan played an alcoholic high-school guidance counselor – far from the romantic-comedy ingenue roles for which she had become famous – in Luis Mandoki's social romantic drama When a Man Loves a Woman, also starring Andy Garcia. The film and her performance were both well received by critics. A critic for Variety called the film "a first-class production, accentuated by fine performances and an unflinching script," and another praised Ryan for her "roller-coaster role". The film was a notable success, grossing $50 million in the United States alone, and garnered Ryan a nomination for the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role. The same year, Ryan returned to type, starring alongside Tim Robbins in Fred Schepisi's romantic comedy I.Q. The film centers on a mechanic and a Princeton doctoral candidate who fall in love, with the aid of the graduate student's uncle, Albert Einstein (played by Walter Matthau). Ryan later won Harvard's Hasty Pudding Woman of the Year award, and People Magazine dubbed her one of "the 50 most beautiful people in the world".
