Winona Ryder

Background

Winona Laura Horowitz, professionally known as Winona Ryder, was born in Winona, Minnesota. Her parents named her after her hometown. Her father, Michel Horowitz, and her mother, Cynthia Palmer, were authors and editors. Ryder’s father came from a Jewish family; Ryder considers herself Jewish. The actress has a younger brother, Uria, and two half-siblings, Jubal and Sunyata. When Ryder was only seven, her family moved to Mendocino County, California. There, they didn’t have electricity. There was no television; books were Ryder’s only distraction to spend the time, and she became an avid reader.

In 1983, when she was 12, Ryder enrolled in the American Conservatory Theatre to take acting classes. In 1986, she landed her first big-screen role in the film “Lucas;” she was only 15 years old. Ryder suffered bullying in high school. She hoped that her acting career would change that. Sadly, that didn’t happen. Still, she continued pursuing her dreams. In 1988, she had her big break in Tim Burton’s “Beetlejuice.” Ryder kept playing successful roles in several movies. She was nominated for two Academy Awards, one for her performance in “The Age of Innocence” (1993), and the other for the film adaptation of “Little Women” (1994). In 2002, Ryder decided to take a break from acting to take care of her mental health. She came back to the big screen in 2009 to work on the popular film “Star Trek.” Since 2016, Ryder has portrayed Joyce Byres in the successful Netflix series “Stranger Things.”

Ryder met actor Johnny Depp when she was 17. They started dating and got engaged in 1990. The couple broke off the engagement three years later but remained friends. Ryder has been in a relationship with Scott Mackinlay since 2011.