begin quote from:
Meghan Markle - Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meghan_Markle
Meghan Markle
| Meghan Markle | |
|---|---|
Markle at Paley Center in January 2013
|
|
| Born | Rachel Meghan Markle August 4, 1981 Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Alma mater | Northwestern University |
| Occupation | |
| Years active | 2002–present |
| Spouse(s) | Trevor Engelson (m. 2011; div. 2013) |
Contents
Early life
Markle was born on August 4, 1981,[6] and raised in Los Angeles.[7] Of her parents she has said, "my dad is Caucasian and my mom is African-American ... I have come to embrace [this and] say who I am, to share where I'm from, to voice my pride in being a strong, confident, mixed-race woman."[8]Her mother, Doria Ragland, has a master's degree in social work from the University of Southern California and works as a psychotherapist and yoga instructor.[6][9] Her father, of Dutch and Irish descent,[10][11] is Emmy Award winner Thomas W. Markle, whose profession as a lighting director resulted in his young daughter often visiting the set of Married … with Children.[12][13][14]
Education
From age five, Markle was educated at private schools, first at Hollywood Little Red Schoolhouse[15] and later at Immaculate Heart High School, an all-girl, private Catholic school in Los Angeles.[16] She graduated in 2003 from Northwestern University, near Chicago, where she took theater studies before completing her bachelor's degree in theater and international studies; coursework included an internship at the U.S. embassy in Buenos Aires.[17][18][19]Career
Acting
To support herself between early acting jobs, Markle worked as a freelance calligrapher and took on several contract acting and modeling jobs including a stint as a 'briefcase girl' on Deal or No Deal.[20][12] In 2002, Markle appeared in an episode of the daytime soap opera, General Hospital.She appeared in Fox's series Fringe as Junior Agent Amy Jessup in the first two episodes of its second season.[21] Since July 2011 she has played the paralegal Rachel Zane, on the USA Network show Suits.
Markle appeared in two 2010 films, Get Him to the Greek and Remember Me, and one 2011 film, Horrible Bosses.[22] She appeared in the short film The Candidate (seen on the KQED public television show ImageMakers: the Company of Men) as a secretary in 2012.
She has also appeared in episodes of Century City, Cuts, Love, Inc., The War at Home, 90210, Knight Rider, Without a Trace, The Apostles, CSI: NY, The League and Castle.
Other work
Markle is the founder and editor-in-chief of lifestyle website The Tig.[23] Markle announced she was ending the website in April 2017.[24] In November 2016 Markle and Canadian clothing company Reitmans released a line of reasonably priced women's fashion workwear.[25]In 2016, Markle became a global ambassador for World Vision Canada, traveling to Rwanda for the Clean Water Campaign.[5][26] She has also worked with the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women as an Advocate.[5][27]
Markle was a counsellor for international charity One Young World, speaking at the 2014 annual summit in Dublin[28] on the topics of gender equality and modern-day slavery. She also attended the 2016 summit in Ottawa.[29]
Personal life
Markle began dating actor Trevor Engelson in 2004; they married on September 10, 2011.[30] The couple divorced in August 2013.[31]Markle has been in a relationship with Prince Harry since July 2016.[32] On November 8, 2016, an official statement was released from the Royal Family's communications secretary addressing the "wave of abuse and harassment" directed toward Harry's "girlfriend".[33] The statement spoke to the sexism, racism and defamatory stories directed at Markle and urged the press to "pause and reflect" before driving these storylines.[33]
In September 2017, during an interview with Vanity Fair, Markle spoke in public for the first time about her love for Prince Harry saying, "We're two people who are really happy and in love. We were very quietly dating for about six months before it became news, and I was working during that whole time, and the only thing that changed was people's perception."[34] Later that month, they made their first public appearances together at an official royal engagement - the wheelchair tennis event, and the closing ceremony of the Invictus Games in Toronto.[35][36]
Markle is a self-proclaimed foodie, which was incorporated into her Suits character Rachel Zane.[12] Markle is a close friend of Serena Williams,[37] Jessica Mulroney,[38] and Ben Mulroney of E! News.[39]
Filmography
Television
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 | General Hospital | Jill | 1 episode |
| 2004 | Century City | Natasha | "A Mind is a Terrible Thing to Lose" (season 1: episode 4) |
| 2005 | Cuts | Cori | "My Boyfriend's Back" (season 1: episode 5) |
| 2005 | Love, Inc. | Teresa Santos | "One on One" (season 1: episode 9) |
| 2006 | 1 vs. 100 | Herself | Mob member number 7 |
| 2006 | The War at Home | Susan | "The Seventeen-Year Itch" (season 1: episode 17) |
| 2006 | CSI: NY | Veronica Perez | "Murder Sings the Blues" (season 3: episode 7) |
| 2006 | Deceit | Gwen | TV film |
| 2007 | Deal or No Deal | Herself | Holder of Case #24; 4 episodes |
| 2008 | 90210 | Wendy | "We're Not in Kansas Anymore" (season 1: episode 1) "The Jet Set" (season 1: episode 2) |
| 2008 | 'Til Death | Tara | "Joy Ride" (season 3: episode 2) |
| 2009 | Knight Rider | Annie Ortiz | "Fight Knight" (season 1: episode 14) |
| 2009 | Without a Trace | Holly Shepard | "Chameleon" (season 7: episode 15) |
| 2009 | Fringe | Junior FBI Agent Amy Jessup | "A New Day in the Old Town" (season 2: episode 1) "Night of Desirable Objects" (season 2: episode 2) |
| 2009 | The League | Random Girl | "The Bounce Test" (season 1: episode 2) |
| 2010 | CSI: Miami | Officer Leah Montoya | "Backfire" (season 8: episode 20) |
| 2010 | The Boys and Girls Guide to Getting Down | Dana | TV film |
| 2011–present | Suits | Rachel Zane | Main Character; Series Regular |
| 2012 | Castle | Charlotte Boyd/Sleeping Beauty | "Once Upon a Crime" (season 4: episode 17) |
| 2014 | Extant | Girl at Table[citation needed] | "Extinct" (season 1: episode 2) |
| 2014 | When Sparks Fly | Amy Peterson | Hallmark Channel television movie |
| 2016 | Dater's Handbook | Cassandra Brand | Hallmark Channel television movie |
Film
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | A Lot like Love | Passenger on plane | |
| 2010 | Get Him to the Greek | Tatiana | Uncredited |
| 2010 | Remember Me | Megan | |
| 2011 | Horrible Bosses | Jamie | |
| 2015 | Anti-Social | Kirsten |
References
- "EXCLUSIVE: Inside Meghan Markle's Life in Toronto: From Prince Harry's Low-Key Visits to Cozy Yoga Classes". Etonline.com. December 15, 2016. Retrieved May 23, 2017.
External links
 |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Meghan Markle. |
Categories:
- 1981 births
- 21st-century American actresses
- Actresses from Los Angeles
- African-American actresses
- American actresses
- American film actresses
- American humanitarians
- American people of Dutch descent
- American people of Irish descent
- American television actresses
- Game show models
- Living people
- Northwestern University alumni
Meghan Markle was born in Los Angeles on August 4, 1981 and raised with her mother, a yoga instructor and clinical therapist, and father, a lighting directo, sister, Samantha Markle, and Brother, Tom Jr..
This is when (my mother) graduated from USC with a masters in social work....
Her father, Thomas W. Markle, is an Emmy Award-winning cinematographer.
She (Markle) spent time growing up on the set of Married... with Children
I was just 11 years old when I was in my classroom at Hollywood Little Red Schoolhouse ...
Both girls (i.e., Kate Middleton and Meghan Markle) were educated at private schools. Meghan attended Hollywood Little Red Schoolhouse and then later Immaculate Heart High School, an all-girls, independent Roman Catholic high school in LA. Alumni includes super model Tyra Banks and actress Mary Tyler Moore.
spring 2013... Meghan Markle (C 2003) is a cast member of the USA show Suits...
She studied at a girls' Roman Catholic college before graduating from Northwestern University School of Communication in 2003 - where she double-majored in theatre and international relations - just as her acting career was beginning
What's funny is I (Markle) probably still have some calligraphy business cards floating out in the world....
begin quote from:
How Meghan Markle's ancestor escaped shackles of slavery - Daily Mail
www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/.../How-Meghan-s-ancestor-escaped-shackles-slavery.html
Aug 14, 2017 - How Meghan's ancestor Wisdom escaped the shackles of slavery and why, if Harry makes her his bride, she'll bring the most remarkable family ...How Meghan's ancestor Wisdom escaped the shackles of slavery
https://www.pressreader.com/uk/daily-mail/20170815/281865823577415
Aug 15, 2017 - How Meghan's ancestor Wisdom escaped the shackles of slavery. If Harry makes Meghan Markle his bride, she'll bring with her the most ...
How Meghan's ancestor Wisdom escaped the shackles of slavery and why, if Harry makes her his bride, she'll bring the most remarkable family history of any royal in-law
Meghan Markle could become the next woman to marry into the British Royal Family
As speculation grows about a Royal engagement, our exclusive series looks at Meghan Markle's life.
Yesterday, we revealed the truth about her affair with a celebrity chef and rise up the social ladder.
Today, in the concluding part, we examine her intriguing family history — and why Meghan seems the perfect princess-in-waiting.
Ava
Burrows, a charming retired teacher who lives in a remote desert town
in California, is highly amused at the idea that her step-granddaughter
might one day marry into the British Royal Family.
'Meggie
marrying a prince? Who'd have thunk!' she laughs, slapping her thigh.
'I'm kind of expecting a visit from the men in black suits [the FBI] to
check us out.
'I guess it's like your Downtown Abbey — and we're the folks downstairs.' The perfect analogy, perhaps.
Mrs
Burrows was the second wife of Meghan Markle's late grandfather, Alvin,
so she would, technically, be the future princess's step-grandmother
should that day ever come — and some royal watchers think an engagement
is more likely than not later this year.
And
that's just a taster of the complex web of relationships involving
Prince Harry's possible future in-laws. Meghan's family has a
fascinating heritage, involving both poor European immigrants to the
U.S. and victims of the African slave trade.
Adjectives
such as 'dysfunctional' and 'bizarre' have been used to describe the
clan, and Mrs Burrows agrees that it's an unusual mix of individuals.
'Compared to other people's families, perhaps it is quite complicated,' she told me, chuckling at this obvious understatement.
So where exactly do these 'downstairs folk' come from?
Her mother Doria Ragland (pictured together) married Meghan's father in his home state of Pennsylvania in 1979
Meghan
descends on her father's side from Irish and Dutch immigrants who
settled in Pennsylvania, while her mother's ancestors were slaves who
toiled on the cotton plantations of the Deep South.
Her
paternal great-grandfather, 'Papa Ike' Markle, reputedly stood 7ft 2in
tall and was immensely strong — a trait passed down through the
generations.
Meghan's father, Thomas
Senior, now aged 72, stands 6ft 3in and weighs well over 20st thanks to a
weakness for junk food. While her burly brother, Thomas Junior, is only
fractionally shorter.
Meghan's
paternal grandfather, Gordon, worked on the railroads and her
grandmother, Doris — the much-loved family matriarch — served behind the
counter in what Americans used to call a 'five and dime store' — the
local equivalent of Poundland.
Share this article
They were a typical, small-town, blue-collar family: hard-working, God-fearing, self-reliant — and upwardly mobile.
(One
of Meghan's paternal uncles, Fred, 75, is an Eastern Orthodox Catholic
priest. As a young man, he would baptise new additions to the family in
the local river. Her other uncle, 77-year-old Mick, held senior public
service posts and is now comfortably retired on the Oregon coast.)
After
leaving school, Meghan's father earned a pittance setting up the pins
at the local bowling alley, but his ambition was to work as a stage
technician. By age 20, he had moved to Chicago, where he found work in
theatres and on the earliest television shows.
What
Thomas dared not tell his bosses was that he was colour-blind, though
he somehow managed to overcome this huge impediment to his craft. It
was, his family have told me, a secret he kept as he rose to become an
award-winning cinematographer.
Meghan's father was barely 20 years old when he met his first wife, Roslyn, an alluring redhead who was just out of high school.
Meghan's father, Thomas Senior (pictured together), now aged 72, stands 6ft 3in and weighs more than 20st
When
they married, she was pregnant with the first of their two children,
Samantha, who is now 52. Then came Meghan's half-brother, Thomas Jr, now
50.
They lived in the bohemian Chicago
suburb of Hyde Park, embracing the free and easy Sixties culture and
roaming around in a battered blue camper van.
According
to one source, though, Thomas Markle was not yet ready to settle down
and become a father and husband, and within eight years, the hippyish
marriage was over. Meghan's half-siblings moved to New Mexico with their
mother; her father headed for Hollywood, where he partied and worked
his way up in the movie industry with equal vigour.
He
was in his mid-30s and an established television lighting director when
he fell for Doria Ragland, a beautiful assistant make-up artist 12
years his junior.
Doria's ancestors were slaves, and her great-great-great-great grandfather had been put to work in the Georgia plantations.
He
was emancipated in 1865 after Abraham Lincoln abolished slavery.
Permitted to choose a new surname to mark his freedom, he selected
Wisdom.
Thereafter, successive
generations of the family — black, white and of mixed race — strove to
better themselves, working as maids, janitors, tailors and factory-hands
in Georgia and Tennessee, before Meghan's great-aunt, Dora, joined the
professional classes when she became a teacher.
Dora's
nephew Alvin — Meghan's maternal grandfather — was an antiques dealer
with a fine collection of vintage American cars. (He later divorced his
first wife, who is Meghan's grandmother, and married the aforementioned
Ava Burrows.)
Meghan's mother and
father, Doria Ragland and Thomas Markle — the prospective royal
parents-in-law — married in Thomas's home state of Pennsylvania in 1979.
Within two years, on August 4, 1981, Rachel Meghan Markle was born.
(Meghan went by the name Rachel until her late teens.)
Meghan's relationship with Prince Harry was made public in October last year
From her father, she inherited the distinctive Markle nose, with its quirky kink near the tip.
Her
mother gave her the dark, seductive eyes she uses to such devastating
effect on the television series Suits, in which she plays the character
Rachel Zane, along with her wavy hair (which she straightened after
becoming an actress) and what she describes as her 'caramel' complexion.
It was a magical genetic combination, and from the moment they saw Meghan, her parents adored her.
Her father, family members noted, afforded her considerably more attention than his first two children had received.
'When
Meggie was born, Dad was a completely changed man,' recalls her
half-brother, Thomas Jr, who was then 14 and had recently left New
Mexico for California to live with his father and stepmother and his new
baby sister.
'Before then, Dad's work took priority over everything, but she became his whole world.
'I remember when she came home from the hospital, he had decorated the bathroom with little angels and fairies.
'He would keep holding her up to the mirror so she could see herself in his arms.
'The look on his face was priceless.
'Dad
would take so many pictures of Meggie that she must have been the most
photographed baby in the San Fernando Valley! He must have about 50,000
pictures of her stashed away somewhere.
'Meggie was a little princess long before she met Harry — she was her Daddy's princess.'
As
Meghan's childhood progressed, her father continued to indulge her.
When he threw parties at home — the family lived on the beach at Santa
Monica before moving to affluent Woodland Hills — he would parade her
before his showbiz friends.
Going to
work on hit TV series such as General Hospital — for which he won an
Emmy Award — and Married With Children, he would take her with him on
set, and the stars made a fuss of her.
Then,
when her school — first the private Hollywood Little Red Schoolhouse
and then an exclusive all-girls Catholic school — put on plays, the
renowned Thomas Markle would volunteer to do the lighting. This led to
sniping by some parents that it was no wonder that Meghan invariably won
the leading role.
It's certainly true
that from an early age, Meghan wanted to be an actress, and her father
aimed to give her all the help he could.
Family
members say that her half-sister Samantha, who is 16 years older and
had harboured the same ambitions, felt she wasn't getting as much
assistance as Meghan, which fuelled a deepening jealousy that had been
present from the start.
Along with her brother Thomas Jr, Samantha had been raised by her mother in the backwoods of New Mexico.
Some say the couple (pictured
kissing in Ascot in May this year) were first introduced when Harry was
in Toronto, in May, 2016, to promote the Invictus Games
For her, there was no private education, and no tip-toeing downstairs to charm guests at glamorous parties.
Around
the time that Meghan was born, however, Samantha had moved back in with
her father, hoping he would give her the entrée into Hollywood that she
longed for.
With her long blonde hair
and blue eyes, Samantha certainly had the looks. And according to her
brother and mother, her father did what he could for her — but she was
not prepared to put in the required effort.
'Samantha
wanted to earn the big money — that's all she has ever been interested
in,' says Thomas Jr, who makes no secret of his loathing for his sister.
'She
thought that because she came from a showbusiness family she was going
to be a Hollywood star, and it doesn't work like that.
'The
only jobs she got were a jeans commercial and a couple of walk-on parts
in General Hospital. She became very sour — and she still is.'
The
teenage Samantha was so resentful of the infant Meghan, he says, that
one family member remarked: 'It's a wonder she didn't smother Meggie in
her sleep.'
While Thomas Jr played with
Meghan and took her to the park to feed the ducks, he claims his sister
flatly refused to have anything to do with her.
Samantha
also despised her stepmother, Doria, Thomas Jr claims, and was so
embarrassed that she was black that she'd tell people she was the maid.
He
claims his sister became so 'weird' that she would hide away in her
room, dabbling in the occult, until he scared her to her senses by
hiding behind a door in a mask.
In her late teens, Samantha moved out of the family home and has been estranged from Meghan for years.
This
explains why Samantha has said such cruel things about Meghan since her
relationship with Harry became public in October last year, Thomas Jr
says.
She accused Meghan of being 'self-obsessed' and claimed she had failed to support her family after making her name on TV.
She even said that Meghan 'hid' the fact that Samantha uses a wheelchair because she suffers from multiple sclerosis.
Though
Samantha fired off some of these barbs on social media, and they were
widely reported, she has since denied making them, and now describes
Meghan in glowing terms.
However, Thomas Jr doubts that she'll get an invite to any Royal wedding. 'I don't think she'll be there,' he grins.
But he remains convinced that he will receive an invitation, even though he hasn't spoken to Meghan for a long time, either.
Meghan,
to her immense credit, has never alluded to this domestic discord.
Instead, she paints an almost idyllic picture of her childhood.
Even her parents' divorce, in March 1987, when she was five, does not appear to have adversely affected her.
Doria
and Thomas Sr were awarded joint custody, the agreement being that she
would live mainly with her mother, and spend some weeks and summer
holidays with her father.
Family
friends say Doria worked for a time as a flight attendant — just like
the Duchess of Cambridge's mother, Carole Middleton — so she was
frequently away from home.
Although
Meghan travelled with her mother to places such as Mexico and Jamaica —
and it was the appalling conditions in some of these countries that she
has said helped to develop her social conscience — it meant that she
lived with her father for much of the time.
Thomas Markle Sr was then earning top dollar in Hollywood. Curiously, though, I am told, he has never owned his own house.
They
would live in shabby, rented apartments situated near whatever studios
he was working for, and drive around Los Angeles in clapped-out old
bangers. Between the ages of eight and 18, Meghan lived in a
second-floor flat on Vista Del Mar Street, a short walk from Hollywood
Boulevard, with its neon lights and iconic landmarks.
It
sounds like every young girl's dream. But in reality it was then a
depressingly seedy area, a short drive from the spot where British actor
Hugh Grant had his infamous encounter with prostitute Divine Brown.
However,
Meghan had much to be thankful for. Not least her first class
education. At her exclusive Catholic girls' high school, Immaculate
Heart, she was always top of the class, or near it.
When it came to voting for the school president — the equivalent of a head girl — Meghan won hands down.
She
was so popular, and pretty, that she was also crowned Homecoming Queen —
a much-coveted prize among female high school students.
So
much about her was perfect, contemporaries recall — even her
handwriting. Indeed, one of her earliest jobs was as a calligrapher.
'Meghan
was gifted in many ways, but the thing I really admired about her was
that she would fight, tooth and nail, for the things she wanted in
life,' says Sonia Ardakani, the mother of Suzy, her best friend at
school.
'And as Suzy said when I asked
her if she was surprised that Meghan was going out with a prince:
'Meghan always got what she wanted.' '
At the same time, Meghan was 'very considerate', Mrs Ardakani says.
By
Meghan's own account, her sense of social awareness developed at an
early age. At 11, she was appalled by the inherent sexism in a soap
powder advertisement, which stated that 'women all over America are
fighting greasy pots and pans'.
So she
fired off protest letters to the company and to prominent women
including Hillary Clinton. The wording of the advertisement was duly
changed to 'people'.
Meghan has also
spoken of the racial prejudice and ignorance she encountered in her
youth. In one ugly incident, she heard a white woman call her mother
'the N-word' during a parking dispute.
Miss Markle (pictured) wanted to be an actress from a young age
Mrs
Ardakani is unsurprised. Racism was still so rife in their area of Los
Angeles in the Eighties and Nineties, she told me, that non-whites faced
hostile stares when they walked into restaurants and other public
places.
Black and Hispanic parents would be told the register was full when attempting to enrol their children in certain schools.
Meghan's father did his utmost to help her deal with this prejudice and teach her to take pride in her ethnic background.
When she asked for a Barbie Doll family set for Christmas one year, he bought two — one with black figures, the other white.
On
Christmas morning, Meghan has recalled how she found 'a black mom doll,
a white dad doll and a child in each colour. My Dad had taken the sets
apart and customised my family' to mirror their own.
And
once, when she came home from school confused, having been asked to
tick a box stating her ethnicity — the options being black, white,
Hispanic or Asian — he told her: 'Next time, you draw your own box.'
Meghan took his advice.
In a revealing
article written for Elle magazine in 2015, she spoke of the struggles
growing up with a black mother and white father.
'You create the identity you want for yourself, just as my ancestors did when they were given their freedom.
'Because,
in 1865 —– which is so shatteringly recent — when slavery was abolished
in the United States, former slaves had to choose a name. A surname to
be exact.
'Perhaps the closest thing
connecting me to my ever-complex family tree, my longing to know where I
come from, and the commonality that links me to my bloodline, is the
choice that my great-great-great-great grandfather made to start anew.
He chose the last name 'Wisdom'. He drew his own box.'
Today,
Meghan is, in her own words, 'a strong, confident, mixed race woman'
who, as she recently told Pride, a lifestyle magazine for 'women of
colour', felt an 'obligation' to speak about being half-black.
She
is also very aware of her good fortune, saying in 2015: 'I dream pretty
big, but truly had no idea my life could be this awesome. I am the
luckiest girl in the world, without question.'
Should
Prince Harry propose to her later this year, as many now expect, and
Meghan accept his proposal, constitutional experts believe she will
prove a huge boon to the Royal Family, because young people, in
particular, will feel able to relate to her.
Her step-grandmother Ava Burrows thinks she has what it takes to become a valued member of the Royal family.
'Meggie
is just a wonderful person. Very clever, very pretty, a gifted actress,
and she has done incredible work for women and the UN,' she says. 'I
think she would be a great addition to anybody's family.'
Additional reporting: Hugo Daniel
No comments:
Post a Comment