Winona Ryder

Winona Ryder (born Winona Laura Horowitz) is an actress best known for her roles in Beetlejuice, Little Women and Netflix’s Stranger Things. Ryder was born in Winona, Minnesota, after which she was named, and later moved to a commune near Elk, California. She later settled in Petaluma, California, and, at age 12, she began taking acting classes at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco. She attended Petaluma High School and graduated in 1989.

Ryder made her film debut in Lucas in 1986 at age 15. She gained wider attention in Beetlejuice in 1988 before starring in Heathers (1989) and Edward Scissorhands (1990). Her later performances in The Age of Innocence (1993) and Little Women (1994) earned her Academy Award nominations for Best Supporting Actress and Best Actress, respectively. She was awarded a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture for The Age of Innocence. In 2016, she earned renewed attention for her role as Joyce Byers on Stranger Things, for which the ensemble won a Screen Actors Guild Award.

Throughout her career, Ryder’s film credits have included Mermaids (1990), Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992), Reality Bites (1994), Girl, Interrupted (1999), Black Swan (2010) and Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024).

Ryder was engaged to Johnny Depp from 1990 to 1993 and later dated Matt Damon from 1998 to 2000. She has been in a relationship with fashion designer Scott Mackinlay Hahn since 2011.