Age, Biography, and Wiki
Winona Ryder, born on October 29, 1971, is a celebrated American actress. Her career spans over three decades, with a biography marked by iconic roles that have cemented her status as a Hollywood legend. Ryder's early life was marked by a bohemian upbringing, which influenced her eclectic taste in film roles. She made her film debut in 1986 with the movie "Lucas" and quickly rose to fame in the late 1980s and 1990s with roles in "Beetlejuice," "Heathers," and "Edward Scissorhands" .
| Occupation | Voice Actress |
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| Date of Birth | 29 October 1971 |
| Age | 53 Years |
| Birth Place | Winona County, Minnesota, U.S. |
| Horoscope | Scorpio |
| Country | U.S |
Height, Weight & Measurements
Ryder stands at a height of 5 feet 4 inches (162.56 cm). Her weight is not frequently updated, but she is known for her slender build. These physical attributes have contributed to her versatility in playing a wide range of characters.
| Height | 5 feet 4 inches |
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Dating & Relationship Status
Winona Ryder has been in several high-profile relationships. Her most notable past relationships include Johnny Depp and Matt Damon. Currently, she maintains a private personal life, focusing more on her career and family.
Horowitz. Winona's mother is an author, video producer, and editor, and her father is an author, editor, publisher, and antiquarian bookseller. He also worked as an archivist for psychologist Timothy Leary (Ryder's godfather). Winona's father's family is of Ashkenazi Jewish descent and hails from Ukraine, Romania and Russia. Growing up, Winona visited her paternal grandparents in Brooklyn for the Jewish Holiday of Passover, every year.
Named after Winona, Minnesota, Winona Ryder was given her middle name, Laura, because of her parents' friendship with Laura Huxley, writer Aldous Huxley's wife. Winona's stage name derives from Mitch Ryder, a soul and rock singer of whom her father was a fan. Her father is an atheist and her mother is a Buddhist. Winona has a younger brother, Urie (named in honor of the first man in space, Yuri Gagarin), and two older half-siblings from her mother's prior marriage: half-brother Jubal Palmer and half-sister Sunyata Palmer. Winona's family friends were her godfather Timothy Leary, the Beat Movement poets Allen Ginsberg and Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and the science fiction novelist Philip K. Dick. In 1978, when she was seven years old, she and her family relocated to Rainbow, a commune near Elk, Mendocino County, California, where they lived with seven other families on a 300 acre plot of land. As the remote property had no electricity or television sets, Winona began to devote her time to reading and became an avid fan of J. D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye.
In 1985, Ryder sent a videotaped audition, where she recited a monologue from the novel Franny and Zooey by J. D. Salinger, to appear in the film Desert Bloom. Although the role went to Annabeth Gish, writer/director David Seltzer cast her in his high school drama Lucas (1986), which starred Corey Haim, Charlie Sheen, and Kerri Green. When asked how she wanted her name to appear in the credits, she suggested "Ryder" as her surname because a Mitch Ryder album that belonged to her father was playing in the background. Winona's next film was Square Dance (1987), where her teenage character creates a bridge between two different worlds—a traditional farm in the middle of nowhere and a large city. She won acclaim for the performance, with the Los Angeles Times calling it "a remarkable debut." Both films were only marginally successful commercially.
Ryder began the 1990s with three starring roles. In the fantasy film Edward Scissorhands (1990), she reunited with director Tim Burton to play the female lead alongside her then-boyfriend Johnny Depp. The film was a significant box office success, grossing $86 million and receiving much critical devotion. Ryder's second role of the year was in the family comedy-drama Mermaids (1990), which co-starred Cher, Bob Hoskins, and Christina Ricci. Mermaids was a moderate box-office success and Ryder's performance was acclaimed; critic Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times wrote: "Winona Ryder, in another of her alienated outsider roles, generates real charisma." For her performance, Ryder received a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Actress in a Supporting Role and a National Board Review award for the same category. Following Mermaids, Ryder had the lead role as a troubled teenager in the comedy-drama Welcome Home, Roxy Carmichael (1990). The film co-starred Jeff Daniels and was deemed a commercial flop. In 1990, Ryder also made a cameo in Roy Orbison's music video "A Love So Beautiful" with Matthew Modine, and was awarded 'ShoWest's Female Star of Tomorrow' by The National Association of Theatre Owners. She was next slated to appear as Mary Corleone in Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather Part III, but withdrew from the project in the beginning of filming in 1990 due to nervous exhaustion.
Ryder next starred alongside Meryl Streep, Jeremy Irons, Antonio Banderas, and Glenn Close in the melodrama The House of the Spirits (1993), based on Isabel Allende's novel. Also released in October 1993, the film was poorly reviewed and a box-office flop, grossing just $6 million on its $40 million budget. Ebert wrote that Ryder "seems an unlikely casting choice but she is more convincing, with more abandon and passion, and she makes her character work." Ryder was next set to star in Broken Dreams with actor River Phoenix. The project was put on hold due to his death on October 31, 1993. In 1993, Ryder also appeared on the music video "Without a Trace" by Soul Asylum, whose member Dave Pirner was her boyfriend at the time.
In 2008, Ryder played the female lead opposite Wes Bentley and Ray Romano in Geoffrey Haley's offbeat romantic drama The Last Word. She then starred as a newscaster in the film adaptation of The Informers. She also appeared in director J. J. Abrams's Star Trek, as Spock's human mother Amanda Grayson. Several media outlets noted Ryder's return to film during this time. In 2009, Ryder starred alongside Robin Wright and Julianne Moore in Rebecca Miller's The Private Lives of Pippa Lee (2009).
The next year, Ryder had a prominent supporting role as an aging ballet star in Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan. She also starred in the independent film Stay Cool alongside Hilary Duff, Mark Polish and Chevy Chase, and in the television movie When Love Is Not Enough: The Lois Wilson Story. For her performance as Lois Wilson, whose husband co-founded Alcoholics Anonymous in 1930s, Ryder was nominated for the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries. Entertainment Weekly wrote, "Ryder played her character with wide eyes of both innocence and terror." Ryder next appeared in a leading role in Ron Howard's The Dilemma (2011), co-starring Vince Vaughn and Kevin James. Ryder then played Deborah Kuklinski, the wife of contract killer Richard Kuklinski, in the thriller The Iceman (2012), co-starring Michael Shannon. She also appeared with her The Iceman co-star James Franco in The Letter (2012). She reunited with director Tim Burton, who directed her in the music video for The Killers' single, "Here with Me", and cast her in the animated 3D feature film Frankenweenie (2012). Ryder also worked with the classic film channel TCM in 2012, guest hosting for a week in September, while Robert Osborne was on vacation, and introducing some of her favorite classic films in December.
In 2013, Ryder appeared in the action thriller Homefront (2013), again opposite James Franco, this time playing a meth-addicted woman. Steven Boone of RogerEbert.com wrote: "Ryder often seems on the verge of laughing in Franco's face as he attempts to manhandle and pimp-talk her. But it's nice to see her raven eyes and regal cheekbones on a big screen again, in whatever capacity." Ryder also starred in a segment of the Comedy Central television series Drunk History (2013) called "Boston". She played religious protester Mary Dyer opposite stern Puritan magistrate John Endicott, played by Michael Cera. She then took on the role of Peggy Shippen, the wife of Benedict Arnold, in her appearance of the second season of Drunk History (2014). In 2014, Ryder appeared in the British television film Turks & Caicos (2014) and modeled in the Fall advertising campaign of fashion label Rag & Bone.
In 2015, Ryder was a juror at the Sundance Film Festival. She continued her work in television with the HBO miniseries Show Me a Hero (2015), in which she played the president of the Yonkers City Council. She then starred alongside Peter Sarsgaard in the biopic Experimenter, playing the wife of Stanley Milgram. Experimenter was released to positive reviews in October 2015. Ryder also appeared in advertisements for Marc Jacobs, both for their cosmetics and for their spring 2016 collection.
Since 2016, Ryder has starred in the Netflix science fiction-horror series Stranger Things, created by The Duffer Brothers, playing Joyce Byers, a single mother whose 12-year-old son Will vanishes mysteriously. The Duffer brothers said that Ryder "has a very intense energy about her ... a wiry unpredictability, a sort of anxiousness that we thought we'd really lean into." The series' first season premiered in July 2016 to critical acclaim and high audience ratings. Ryder also received praise for her performance, and the cast won the SAG Award for Best Ensemble in a Drama Series in 2017. The second and third seasons of the series were released in October 2017 and July 2019. For season 3, she was paid a reported $350,000 per episode. The filming for the fourth season had been halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but resumed in September 2020. The first volume of season 4 premiered on May 27, 2022, and the second volume on July 1, 2022. Kate Bush's 1985 song "Running Up That Hill" reached number one on iTunes after the song was included in scenes of Stranger Things, after Ryder frequently wore Kate Bush T-shirts and lapel badges on set.
Ryder met Johnny Depp at the Great Balls of Fire! premiere in June 1989. In February 1990, the 18-year-old Ryder began dating the 26-year-old Depp after they were reintroduced by a mutual friend. They became engaged in July of that year, but split up in June 1993. She dated Soul Asylum band member Dave Pirner and Helmet frontman Page Hamilton. She dated actor Matt Damon from 1998 to 2000. Since 2011, she has been in a relationship with fashion designer Scott Mackinlay Hahn.
During a sentencing hearing related to her 2001 shoplifting incident, Ryder's attorney, Mark Geragos, referred to her work with the Polly Klaas Foundation and other charitable causes. In response, Deputy District Attorney Ann Rundle said, "What's offensive to me is to trot out the body of a dead child." Polly's father, Marc Klaas, defended Ryder and expressed outrage at the prosecutor's comments.
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Net Worth and Salary
As of 2025, Winona Ryder's net worth is estimated to be approximately $18 million, reflecting her earnings from a successful acting career, television roles, endorsements, and real estate investments . Her salary for "Stranger Things" has significantly increased over the seasons, with reports indicating she earns nearly $1.2 million per episode in the final season .
Ryder has been involved in philanthropic work since her twenties for the American Indian College Fund, which sends low-income Native Americans to universities.
Career, Business, and Investments
Ryder's career highlights include her iconic roles in "Little Women," "Girl, Interrupted," and "The Age of Innocence." Her recent role as Joyce Byers in "Stranger Things" has introduced her to a new generation of fans. Besides acting, Ryder has been involved in several brand partnerships, leveraging her status as a '90s fashion icon to endorse brands like Marc Jacobs and H&M . She also invests in real estate, maintaining a private lifestyle.
Ryder made several film appearances in 1996, the first in Boys. The film failed to become a box office success and attracted mostly negative critical reaction. Ebert wrote: "Boys is a low-rent, dumbed-down version of Before Sunrise, with a rent-a-plot substituting for clever dialogue", calling the film a waste of Ryder's talent. Her next role was in Looking for Richard, Al Pacino's meta-documentary on a production of William Shakespeare's Richard III, which grossed only $1 million at the box office but drew moderate critical acclaim. She starred in The Crucible with Daniel Day-Lewis and Joan Allen. The film, an adaptation of Arthur Miller's play, centered on the Salem witch trials. It was expected to be a success, considering its budget, but was a commercial failure. Despite this, it was well received and Ryder's performance was lauded, with Peter Travers of Rolling Stone writing, "Ryder offers a transfixing portrait of warped innocence." Ryder later claimed that the role of Abigail Williams was the hardest in her whole career.
In 1999, Ryder starred in and served as an executive producer for Girl, Interrupted, based on the 1993 memoir of the same name by Susanna Kaysen. The film had been in development since late 1996, but took time to begin filming. Ryder was deeply attached to the project, calling it her "child of the heart." She played Kaysen, who has borderline personality disorder and was admitted to a psychiatric hospital for recovery. Directed by James Mangold and co-starring Angelina Jolie, the film was expected to mark Ryder's comeback playing leading roles. Instead, it turned out to be the "welcome-to-Hollywood coronation" for Jolie, who won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance. Ebert wrote: "Ryder shows again her skill at projecting mental states; one of her gifts is to let us know exactly what she's thinking, without seeming to." He later called Ryder one of the reasons to see the film. The same year, Ryder was parodied in South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut. She also started her own music company, Roustabout Studios, in 1999.
In April 2000, Ryder was awarded the Peter J. Owens Award at the San Francisco Film Festival. Her next film, the melodrama Autumn in New York, co-starring Richard Gere, was released in August. The film received mixed reviews, but was a commercial success, grossing $90 million at the worldwide box office. In September, Ryder made a guest appearance in the series finale of Comedy Central's Strangers with Candy. She then played a nun of a secret society loosely connected to the Roman Catholic Church and determined to prevent Armageddon in Lost Souls (2000), a commercial failure. Ryder refused to do commercial promotion for the film. She later said, "I was attracted to Lost Souls because I know nothing about this subject. I personally don't believe in demonic possession. For me to play this woman was a real challenge. She is the ultimate believer. Most of all, I just wanted to do a movie in the thriller genre, at least one." On October 6, 2000, Ryder received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
In 2001, Ryder began a four-year career hiatus. Apart from a guest appearance on NBC's sitcom Friends, playing Rachel's college sorority sister, and a brief cameo in Ben Stiller's comedy Zoolander (2001), she appeared in no new releases in 2001. She was scheduled to appear in Lily and the Secret of Planting, but withdrew from the project after being hospitalized for a severe stomach-related disorder in August 2001.
Ryder made a career return with appearances in several independent films in 2006 and 2007. The first was The Darwin Awards (2006), in which she acted alongside Joseph Fiennes. The second was Richard Linklater's A Scanner Darkly, a film adaptation of Philip K. Dick's novel, in which she co-starred opposite Keanu Reeves, Robert Downey, Jr. and Woody Harrelson. The film was made entirely with rotoscope software, which was used to turn live-action scenes into animation. The next year, Ryder appeared in David Wain's comedy The Ten, and reunited with Heathers screenwriter Daniel Waters for the surreal black comedy Sex and Death 101. She also starred in the Kirsten Dunst-directed short horror film Welcome and made a brief appearance in the music video for "We're All Stuck Out In The Desert" by Jonathan Rice.
Social Network
Winona Ryder is not highly active on social media platforms, preferring to keep a low profile. She is more focused on her acting career and personal life than on building a large social media presence.
When she was ten, Winona Ryder and her family moved to Petaluma, California. During her first week at Kenilworth Junior High, she was bullied by children who mistook her for an effeminate boy. In 1983, 12-year-old Ryder enrolled at the American Conservatory Theater in nearby San Francisco, where she took her first acting lessons. During the same year, she nearly drowned; the experience caused her to develop aquaphobia. The psychological trauma caused problems later in her life during the underwater scenes in Alien Resurrection (1997), some of which had to be reshot numerous times. Ryder continued to be bullied through high school, when she achieved early film success with Beetlejuice: "I remember thinking, 'Ooh, it's like the number-one movie. This is going to make things great at school.' But it made things worse. They called me a witch."
Ryder next starred in the independent film Heathers (1989). The film, a satirical take on teenage life, featured Ryder and Christian Slater as high school sweethearts who begin killing off popular students. Her agent initially begged her to turn the role down, saying the film would "ruin her career". Critical reaction to the film was largely positive, and Ryder's performance was positively received, with The Washington Post calling Ryder "Hollywood's most impressive ingénue […] Ryder […] makes us love her teen-age murderess, a bright, funny girl with a little Bonnie Parker in her. She is the most likable, best-drawn young adult protagonist since the sexual innocent of Gregory's Girl." Despite its critical success, Heathers was a box-office flop, but has achieved the status of a cult film in following decades. Ryder's other 1989 starring role was in the biopic Great Balls of Fire!, in which she played the 13-year-old bride (and cousin) of rock'n'roll idol Jerry Lee Lewis. The film was a box-office failure and received mixed reviews from critics. Ryder also appeared in 1989 in the music video for Mojo Nixon's "Debbie Gibson Is Pregnant with My Two-Headed Love Child".
Education
Ryder attended the Kenilworth Middle School in Petaluma, California. She later enrolled in the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco for her acting training. Her education in acting laid the foundation for her successful career in Hollywood.
In conclusion, Winona Ryder's enduring career and net worth reflect her talent, versatility, and timeless appeal in the entertainment industry.
Ryder's next film, the Generation X drama Reality Bites (1994), marked a departure from period films. Directed by Ben Stiller and co-starring Ethan Hawke, the film featured Ryder as a recent college graduate searching for direction in life. According to Hawke and Stiller, the film got greenlit only due to Ryder's star status. Her performance received acclaim but the film did not meet its studio's expectations in the box office. Ryder returned to period films later that year, appearing as Jo March in Little Women, an adaptation of Louisa May Alcott's novel. The film received widespread praise; critic Janet Maslin of The New York Times wrote that it was the greatest adaptation of the novel and that "Ms. Ryder, whose banner year also includes a fine comic performance in Reality Bites, plays Jo with spark and confidence. Her spirited presence gives the film an appealing linchpin, and she plays the self-proclaimed 'man of the family' with just the right staunchness." Ryder received her second Oscar nomination for the role, this time as Best Actress. In 1994, Ryder also made a guest appearance in The Simpsons episode "Lisa's Rival" as Allison Taylor, whose intelligence and over-achieving personality makes her an adversary of Lisa.
