
Winona Ryder
Department: 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.
Known For

Edward Scissorhands
1990

Night on Earth
1991

The House of the Spirits
1993

Gone in the Night
2022

A Scanner Darkly
2006

Autumn in New York
2000

Girl, Interrupted
1999

Heathers
1989

Mr. Deeds
2002

Lost Souls
2000

Beetlejuice
1988

Reality Bites
1994

The Age of Innocence
1993

Mermaids
1990

The Private Lives of Pippa Lee
2009

The Crucible
1996

Stay Cool
2011

Great Balls of Fire!
1989

Alien Resurrection
1997

Welcome Home, Roxy Carmichael
1990

How to Make an American Quilt
1995

Celebrity
1998

S1m0ne
2002

Little Women
1994

Zoolander
2001

Lucas
1986

The Ten
2007

Star Trek
2009

Sex and Death 101
2007

Looking for Richard
1996

Boys
1996

The Dilemma
2011

Frankenweenie
2012

Black Swan
2010

The Informers
2008

The Last Word
2008

The Darwin Awards
2007

1969
1988

The Iceman
2012

When Love Is Not Enough: The Lois Wilson Story
2010

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
2024

One Step Beyond: The Making of Alien Resurrection
2003

The Mojo Manifesto: The Life and Times of Mojo Nixon
2022

Marc Jacobs & Louis Vuitton
2007

Square Dance
1987

The Letter
2012

Winona Ryder: The Ghosts She Called
2022

Welcome
2007

Homefront
2013

Hannibal Hopkins & Sir Anthony
2021

Turks & Caicos
2014

The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things
2004

Cabin Fever: Beneath the Skin
2004

Swatch Dogs and Diet Coke Heads
2001

Haunted Mansion
2023

Ben Lee: Catch My Disease
2012

Experimenter
2015

Nos Bastidores de Hollywood
2005

Blood Lines: Dracula - The Man. The Myth. The Movies.
1992

Declaration of Independence
2003

Author: The JT LeRoy Story
2016

Destination Wedding
2018

Innocence and Experience: The Making of 'The Age of Innocence'
1993

Black Swan: Metamorphosis
2011

Voom Portraits
2007

The Day My God Died
2003

One Summer in Austin: The Story of Filming 'A Scanner Darkly'
2006

The Making of Edward Scissorhands
1990

Bram Stoker's Dracula
1992

Sarah Cooper: Everything's Fine
2020

The Blood Is the Life: The Making of 'Bram Stoker's Dracula'
2007

Water Pills
2009

Scorsese's Women
2014

The Weight of the Line: Animation Tales
2006

Linklater: St. Richard of Austin
2004

101 Most Shocking Moments in Entertainment
2003

Tim Burton: Life in the Line
2024

One Last Adventure: The Making of Stranger Things 5
2026

Beetlejuice 3
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The Simpsons
1989

Friends
1994

Strangers with Candy
1999

The Larry Sanders Show
1992

Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist
1995

Celebrities Uncensored
2003

The Oscars
1953

Show Me a Hero
2015

Saturday Night Live
1975

Late Night with Seth Meyers
2014

Stranger Things
2016

E! True Hollywood Story
1996

The Plot Against America
2020

Saturday Night Live
1975

Drunk History
2013

Late Night with Jimmy Fallon
2009

The Entertainment Biz
1998

Hot Ones
2015

Tim Burton: Life in the Line
2025

The Ellen DeGeneres Show
2003