A Complete Guide to Every Best Actress Oscar Winner, from Reese Witherspoon to Halle Berry (2025)

In 1929, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences began awarding on- and off-screen filmmakers for their annual achievements.

Standout movies and the people who make them happen are honored with golden statuettes and coveted titles at the ceremony, including the highly sought-after Best Actress award.

Each year, another name is added to the list of actresses who've claimed the Oscar.

From four-time winner Katharine Hepburn to 21-time nominee (with 17 of those nods and two of three career wins in this category) Meryl Streep, see every leading lady who has cemented their name in Hollywood history by winning the Academy Award for Best Actress.

2024: Emma Stone, Poor Things

Emma Stone won her second Oscar in 2024 for her uninhibited role in Poor Things and accepted it while laughing off her gown's broken zipper. She thanked her family, husband and young daughter Louise Jean, saying, "And, most importantly,my daughter, who's gonna be 3 in three days and has turned our lives Technicolor, Ilove you bigger than the whole sky, my girl."

2023: Michelle Yeoh, Everything Everywhere All at Once

Michelle Yeoh made history as the first Asian actress to win in the category for her leading performance as Evelyn Wang in the absurdist action film. Everything Everywhere All at Once also won the Oscar for Best Pictureand picked up awards in five other categories.

2022: Jessica Chastain, The Eyes of Tammy Faye

Jessica Chastain nabbed Best Actress for her portrayal of the late televangelist personality Tammy Faye Bakker in the 2021 biographical film.

2021: Frances McDormand, Nomadland

Frances McDormand's award-winning character, Fern, sells her possessions and embarks on a nomadic life, driving a van around the country after the death of her husband. This marked McDormand's third Best Actress win.

Nomadland also received the Oscar for Best Picture and Best Director for Chloé Zhao (the first Asian woman to be nominated in this category and the second woman ever to win it).

2020: Renée Zellweger, Judy

Renée Zellweger's portrayal of Hollywood icon Judy Garland earned her the Best Actress Oscar for the 2019 biopic.

Zellweger honored Garland — who never won an Oscar — in her acceptance speech, saying, "I have to say that this past year of conversation celebrating Judy Garland across generations and across cultures has been a really cool reminder that it's our heroes that unite us now." This was the second Oscar win for Zellweger, having earned a Best Supporting Actress statuette in 2004 for Cold Mountain.

2019: Olivia Colman, The Favourite

As a first-time nominee, Olivia Colman took home the trophy for her performance in The Favourite as Queen Anne, the real-life ruler of Great Britain in the 18th century.

2018: Frances McDormand, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

McDormand won her second of three Best Actress accolades for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri as aggrieved mother, Mildred Hayes, whose daughter (Kathryn Newton) was raped and murdered. In the 2017 film, inspired by a true story in Texas, McDormand's character demands a thorough investigation of the crimes that took her daughter's life.

2017: Emma Stone, La La Land

In the romantic musical set in L.A., Stone's turn as aspiring actress Mia Dolan in La La Land earned her Best Actress in 2017.

2016: Brie Larson, Room

Brie Larson took home the Oscar for her role as a young woman who escapes the captivity in which she and her son (played by Jacob Tremblay) have been held for years.

2015: Julianne Moore, Still Alice

Julianne Moore won for her performance as Alice, a linguistics professor diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's disease.

2014: Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine

Cate Blanchett nabbed the Best Actress award thanks to her leading role in Woody Allen's 2013 dramedy about a New York City socialite who has fallen on hard times. She previously earned an Oscar in the Best Supporting Actress category for playing Katharine Hepburn in Martin Scorsese’s Howard Hughes biopic, The Aviator (2004).

2013: Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook

Though she famously (and elegantly) tripped on the stairs as she made her way up to the Oscars stage, Jennifer Lawrence accepted the award for her starring role as Tiffany, a young widow struggling with her mental health, in Silver Linings Playbook (2012).

2012: Meryl Streep, The Iron Lady

Streep won for her portrayal of Margaret Thatcher in the 2011 biographical drama of the first female British Prime Minister.

2011: Natalie Portman, Black Swan

Natalie Portman earned the Best Actress award for her lead performance as Nina Sayers, a professional dancer who suffers a nervous breakdown under the pressure of her lead role as the White Swan in the famed ballet Swan Lake.

2010: Sandra Bullock, The Blind Side

In the big-screen adaptation of this true story, Sandra Bullock played Leigh Anne Tuohy, the resolute Southern mother who adopts teen Michael Oher. In real life and the film, Oher went on to become a first-round NFL draft pick.

2009: Kate Winslet, The Reader

Kate Winslet won for her role as Hanna Schmitz, a former Nazi guard who is tried for the war crimes she committed at Auschwitz.

2008: Marion Cotillard, La Vie en Rose

Marian Cotillard took home the trophy for her portrayal of French singer Édith Piaf in the musical biopic named for her most famous song.

2007: Helen Mirren, The Queen

Helen Mirren earned the Oscar for her performance as Queen Elizabeth II in the British biopic set after the death of Princess Diana.

2006: Reese Witherspoon, Walk the Line

Reese Witherspoon took home the Best Actress award for her depiction of June Carter, the object of Johnny Cash's (Joaquin Phoenix) affection and his eventual wife, in both the biopic and real life.

2005: Hilary Swank, Million Dollar Baby

Hilary Swank won her second Best Actress Oscar for her role as Maggie Fitzgerald, an up-and-coming boxer, in Clint Eastwood's sports drama.

2004: Charlize Theron, Monster

In the 2003 crime drama, Charlize Theron plays real-life criminal Aileen Wuornos. Her semi-fictional portrayal of the serial killer earned Theron the coveted acting award.

2003: Nicole Kidman, The Hours

Nicole Kidman's portrayal of 20th-century writer Virginia Woolf earned her Best Actress in 2003. The Hours also starred fellow Best Actress winners Moore and Streep.

2002: Halle Berry, Monster's Ball

Halle Berry became the first Black woman to win in the category with her performance as Leticia Musgrove, the widow of a convicted murderer. Berry's character finds new love in a man whom she eventually discovers assisted in her late husband's execution.

2001: Julia Roberts, Erin Brockovich

Julia Roberts fought the Pacific Gas & Electric Company as the titular character in this dramatic portrayal of Erin Brockovich's real-life class action lawsuit against the corporation.

While accepting Best Actress onstage, Roberts, with her megawatt smile, said at the podium, "I love the whole world. I'msohappy. Thank you."

2000: Hilary Swank, Boys Don't Cry

Swank's win for playing Brandon Teena in 1999's Boys Don't Cry made her one of only three actresses to win the Best Actress award twice before the age of 30. (Luise Rainer and Jodie Foster are the other two stars to claim this achievement.)

1999: Gwyneth Paltrow, Shakespeare in Love

In the period drama Shakespeare in Love, Gwyneth Paltrow plays the muse and lover of William Shakespeare (Joseph Fiennes). Her performance as the fictional Viola de Lesseps also stole the hearts of the Academy, and Paltrow took home the Oscar for Best Actress.

1998: Helen Hunt, As Good as It Gets

Helen Hunt's portrayal of Carol Connelly, a struggling working mother, landed her the title of Best Actress in 1998.

1997: Frances McDormand, Fargo

McDormand won her very first Oscar as pregnant police chief Marge Gunderson in the 1996 crime film written, directed, and produced by brothers Ethan Coen and Joel Coen — the latter who is married to McDormand.

1996: Susan Sarandon, Dead Man Walking

Susan Sarandon snagged the Best Actress honor for her portrayal of Sister Helen Prejean, the spiritual counselor of a death row inmate (Sean Penn) in Louisiana.

1995: Jessica Lange, Blue Sky

Jessica Lange's portrayal of Carly Marshall — a woman struggling with her mental health and the domestic confines of her role as an army officer's wife living on a military base — earned her the Best Actress trophy for Blue Sky in 1995.

1994: Holly Hunter, The Piano

Holly Hunter picked up an Oscar for her performance in 1993's The Piano as Ada McGrath, a mute Scottish pianist who expresses herself through the music she plays.

1993: Emma Thompson, Howards End

Emma Thompson won Best Actress for her performance as Margaret Schlegel in the period drama based on E.M. Forster's novel of the same name.

1992: Jodie Foster, The Silence of the Lambs

Foster's iconic role as FBI trainee Clarice Starling won the actress her second Best Actress accolade, making Foster the second woman to win it twice before the age of 30 years old.

1991: Kathy Bates, Misery

Kathy Bates won for her performance as manically obsessive Annie Wilkes in the film adaptation of Stephen King's psychological thriller novel.

1990: Jessica Tandy, Driving Miss Daisy

At age 80, Jessica Tandy won the Best Actress award for her performance as Daisy Werthan in the dramedy, making her the oldest star to win in the category to date.

1989: Jodie Foster, The Accused

Foster took home her first Best Actress Oscar for her portrayal of Sarah Tobias, a victim of sexual assault, in the legal drama.

1988: Cher, Moonstruck

In Moonstruck, Cher plays Loretta Castorini, a widow engaged to a man (Danny Aiello) she doesn't love — instead, she loves his brother (Nicolas Cage). The heartfelt performance earned the "Goddess of Pop" her only Oscar win. Cher had been nominated four years prior for her supporting performance in the biographical whistleblower drama Silkwood.

1987: Marlee Matlin, Children of a Lesser God

At 21 years old, Marlee Matlin made history as the youngest person to win Best Actress in 1987 and the first deaf person to win an Oscar for her film debut in the role of janitor Sarah Norman.

1986: Geraldine Page, A Trip to Bountiful

Geraldine Page won Best Actress for her performance as Carrie Watts, an elderly woman who journeys back to her hometown — the fictional haven of Bountiful, Texas — against the advice of her doctor and family members.

1985: Sally Field, Places in the Heart

Sally Field took home her second Best Actress Oscar for her lead role as Edna Spalding, a widowed mother handling life in Texas during the Great Depression. It was during this acceptance speech where she said the often misquoted, “I can’t deny the fact that you like me. Right now, you like me.”

1984: Shirley MacLaine, Terms of Endearment

Shirley MacLaine's Best Actress-winning performance in Terms of Endearment sees her as Aurora Greenway, a mother struggling with her daughter's (Debra Winger) coming of age and the death of her husband Rudyard (Albert Brooks).

1983: Meryl Streep, Sophie's Choice

Streep's heartwrenching portrayal of Zofia "Sophie" Zawistowski earned the actress her second Academy Award.

The Hollywood icon holds the record for most nominations at 21 (and counting!) — 17 for Best Actress and four for Best Supporting Actress. She won in the latter category in 1980 for Kramer vs. Kramer, starring opposite Dustin Hoffman.

1982: Katharine Hepburn, On Golden Pond

Hepburn won her last of four total Best Actress Oscars for her performance as Ethel Thayer in On Golden Pond. Actor Jon Voight accepted the award on her behalf during the ceremony.

1981: Sissy Spacek, Coal Miner's Daughter

Sissy Spacek won for her leading performance in this 1980 biopic of Loretta Lynn's journey to country music glory.

1980: Sally Field, Norma Rae

Field nabbed her first Best Actress award for her performance as a resilient cotton mill employee who organizes a union to advocate for her fellow workers' rights.

1979: Jane Fonda, Coming Home

For her performance as disillusioned army wife Sally Hyde, Jane Fonda won her second Best Actress Oscar.

1978: Diane Keaton, Annie Hall

In this romantic comedy, Diane Keaton plays the elusive girlfriend of Woody Allen's neurotic lead role, and she took home the trophy for her spirited performance.

1977: Faye Dunaway, Network

For her role as Diana Christensen, an uptight, determined television executive, the Academy named Faye Dunaway the Best Actress of that awards season.

1976: Louise Fletcher, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Louise Fletcher earned widespread acclaim for her portrayal of heartless, hostile Nurse Mildred Ratched, who oversees the mental institution in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

The film became the second in Academy history to win the “Big Five” Oscars (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress and Best Screenplay). The only other two movies to achieve this distinction so far are It Happened One Night (1934) and The Silence of the Lambs (1991).

1975: Ellen Burstyn, Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore

Ellen Burstyn won Best Actress for her performance as Alice Hyatt, a widow who seeks a fresh start with her son in California, away from her old life in New Mexico. Burstyn didn't attend the ceremony, but her director, Martin Scorsese, accepted the statuette on her behalf.

1974: Glenda Jackson, A Touch of Class

For her role as divorced London-based mother Vickie Allessio, Glenda Jackson picked up her second Best Actress Oscar in 1974.

1973: Liza Minnelli, Cabaret

Liza Minnelli plays lively American performer Sally Bowles in the iconic Bob Fosse musical set during the rise of Nazi Germany. She took home the Oscar for her buoyant yet nuanced portrayal of the rising star.

1972: Jane Fonda, Klute

This neo-noir crime drama features Fonda in the leading role of Bree Daniels, an escort with acting aspirations who becomes entangled in a missing persons mystery. The character earned Fonda her first Academy Award.

1971: Glenda Jackson, Women in Love

Jackson won her first Best Actress Oscar for her performance as Gudrun Brangwen, an intellectual woman and artist living in England during the early 20th century.

1970: Maggie Smith, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

Maggie Smith portrays an unlikely teacher at an all-girls school in Scotland, one who often lauds the likes of Mussolini, Franco and other fascists. Her performance as the eccentric educator earned Smith her only Best Actress Oscar. (She won for Best Supporting Actress in 1979 for California Suite.)

Designing Women and Bewitched actress Alice Ghostley accepted the statuette on Smith's behalf at the 1970 ceremony.

1969: Katharine Hepburn, The Lion in Winter & Barbra Streisand, Funny Girl

Two stars took home the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1969, one of six ties in Oscars history to date: Hepburn, for her role as Eleanor Aquitaine in The Lion in Winter, and Barbra Streisand, for her portrayal of Fanny Brice in Funny Girl.

1968: Katharine Hepburn, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner

For her performance as Christina Drayton, a progressive thinker married to a conservative man, Hepburn earned her second Best Actress accolade.

1967: Elizabeth Taylor, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

After starring in the 1966 screen adaptation of Edward Albee's play, Elizabeth Taylor took home the Oscar for Best Actress for her portrayal of Martha, the daughter of a university president and wife of a history professor (Richard Burton) employed by her father.

1966: Julie Christie, Darling

Julie Christie won for her performance as Diana Scott, a British model and actress who finds fame and success in her career but questions her virtues and the depth of her relationships along the way.

1965: Julie Andrews, Mary Poppins

For her whimsical performance as the famed magical caretaker in the Walt Disney musical Mary Poppins, Julie Andrews took home the Oscar for Best Actress.

1964: Patricia Neal, Hud

In this Western drama, Patricia Neal portrays Alma Brown, the housekeeper of a rancher family and love interest of the titular character (Paul Newman). For her strong-willed performance, Neal won the Oscar for Best Actress.

1963: Anne Bancroft, The Miracle Worker

Anne Bancroft nabbed the Best Actress award for playing Anne Sullivan in this biopic of Helen Keller's tutor.

1962: Sophia Loren, Two Women

The 1961 film features Sophia Loren in the lead role of Cesira, a widow, shopkeeper and mother raising her daughter in Rome during World War II. The Italian American star took home the Best Actress award for her emotional portrayal.

1961: Elizabeth Taylor, BUtterfield 8

Taylor earned her first Academy Award as Gloria Wandrous in the 1960 drama BUtterfield 8, where she plays a beautiful yet troubled woman navigating her affair with a married man (Laurence Harvey).

1960: Simone Signoret, Room at the Top

Simone Signoret was named Best Actress for her role in the 1959 film adaptation of the eponymous book Room at the Top. Signoret stars as Alice Aisgill, a married, wealthy and unsatisfied woman who begins an affair with a younger, working-class man (Laurence Harvey).

1959: Susan Hayward, I Want to Live!

I Want to Live! sees Susan Hayward as real-life criminal Barbara Graham, who faced the death penalty after being charged with the murder of an older woman. Hayward won Best Actress for her complex portrayal of the character.

1958: Joanne Woodward, The Three Faces of Eve

In 1957'sThe Three Faces of Eve, Joanne Woodward plays a woman who suffers from dissociative identity disorder, previously known as multiple personality disorder. The star won the Best Actress Oscar for her portrayals of each of her character's personalities: Eve White, Eve Black and Jane.

1957: Ingrid Bergman, Anastasia

Ingrid Bergman won her second Best Actress Oscarfor her portrayal of the titular character in this period drama. Bergman plays a girl who claims to be the daughter of Russia's last Tsar and, therefore, the only Romanov family member who escaped execution. (She would later win a third Oscar, for her supporting role in 1974’s Murder on the Orient Express.)

1956: Anna Magnani, The Rose Tattoo

Best Actress winner Anna Magnani took home the coveted award for her on-screen work as Serafina Delle Rose, an Italian American seamstress living in Louisiana with her daughter and husband, who is killed early on in this film adaptation of the Tennessee Williams play.

1955: Grace Kelly, The Country Girl

Before she became the Princess of Monaco after marrying Prince Rainier III on April 19, 1956, Grace Kelly received the Oscar for her portrayal of Georgie Elgin, the loyal wife of an actor with an alcohol problemwho faces blame for her husband's (Bing Crosby) declining stardom.

1954: Audrey Hepburn, Roman Holiday

Audrey Hepburn won for her role as Princess Ann, a bored royal who visits Rome on stately duties but instead enjoys the Italian city alongside an American reporter (Gregory Peck).

1953: Shirley Booth, Come Back, Little Sheba

In Come Back, Little Sheba, Shirley Booth plays housewife Lola Delaney, whose troubled life has left her unhappy and lonely despite her marriage to Doc (Burt Lancaster). The heartbreaking portrayal won Booth the award for Best Actress.

1952: Vivien Leigh, A Streetcar Named Desire

Adapted for the big screen from the Tennessee Williams' play of the same name, Vivien Leigh took home Best Actress for her performance as Blanche DuBois, a former Mississippi-based schoolteacher who travels to New Orleans to live with family as she deals with her tumultuous past.

1951: Judy Holliday, Born Yesterday

Judy Holliday took home the Best Actress accolade for her portrayal of the naturally gifted (though not formally educated) Emma "Billie" Dawn. Billie falls in love with a journalist (William Holden), whom her husband, Harry Brock (Broderick Crawford), hires to teach her about manners and culture.

1950: Olivia de Havilland, The Heiress

Oliva de Havilland won her second Best Actress honor, this time for her portrayal of Catherine Sloper, the reserved and awkward daughter of a wealthy New York City doctor (Ralph Richardson) who disapproves of the young man (Montgomery Clift) with whom she falls in love.

1949: Jane Wyman, Johnny Belinda

In her Oscar-winning performance, Jane Wyman stars as Belinda MacDonald, a deaf-mute woman who finds companionship in a physician (Lew Ayres) before a tragic incident further ostracizes her from her community.

1948: Loretta Young, The Farmer's Daughter

Loretta Young was named Best Actress for her role as Katie Holstrom, a maid turned congresswoman, in The Farmer's Daughter.

1947: Olivia de Havilland, To Each His Own

For her award-winning performance in this drama set during World War II, de Havilland plays Jody Norris, a woman reckoning with her decision to give up a son she had out of wedlock.

1946: Joan Crawford, Mildred Pierce

Joan Crawford won Best Actress for her titular performance in the melodrama Mildred Pierce. Since she claimed to have pneumonia at the time of the ceremony, Crawford accepted the award from the comfort of her bed.

1945: Ingrid Bergman, Gaslight

In the psychological thriller Gaslight, Bergman plays Paula Alquist, a woman who moves into the house where her aunt was murdered. The role earned her the Oscar for Best Actress that year, her first of three Academy Awards for acting.

1944: Jennifer Jones, The Song of Bernadette

Jennifer Jones won for her portrayal of Bernadette Soubirous in the biopic of a girl who claimed to have seen visions of the Virgin Mary.

1943: Greer Garson, Mrs. Miniver

Greer Garson won Best Actress for her performance as English housewife Kay Miniver, who is coping with the ongoing global conflict of World War II while navigating family challenges.

1942: Joan Fontaine, Suspicion

Joan Fontaine plays the naive Lina McLaidlaw, a woman who falls for and marries a man (Cary Grant) whom she suspects is plotting to murder her. The actress' performance in Alfred Hitchock's psychological drama earned her an Oscar win.

1941: Ginger Rogers, Kitty Foyle

In this film adaptation, Ginger Rogers plays the titular character, a saleswoman grappling with a life-changing decision between two men and her future.

1940: Vivien Leigh, Gone with the Wind

Leigh won her first Best Actress Oscar for her role as Scarlett O'Hara, a plantation owner's daughter, in this epic (albeit controversial) romance set in the South during the American Civil War.

1939: Bette Davis, Jezebel

Bette Davis took home the Oscar for Best Actress for a second time for her performance as Julie Marsden, a Southern belle engaged to a man (Henry Fonda) whom she drives away with her promiscuous behavior. She would not win again in this category, despite an additional eight nominations, bringing her total career nods to 11. (She did win twice, though!)

1938: Luise Rainer, The Good Earth

Rainer became the first woman to win two Best Actress Oscars before the age of 30, following her award-winning performance as O-Lan in The Good Earth.

1937: Luise Rainer, The Great Ziegfeld

In the musical drama, Rainer plays Anna Held, a French star who falls for an American performer (William Powell). The role won Rainer her first Oscar.

1936: Bette Davis, Dangerous

Davis won her first Best Actress Oscarfor her portrayal of Joyce Heath, an actress pushed out of the Hollywood mainstream due to her scandalous streak.

1935: Claudette Colbert, It Happened One Night

Shirley Temple presented Claudette Colbert with her Best Actress Oscar when she won for her portrayal of heiress Ellie Andrews in the 1934 romantic comedy. It Happened One Night was the first film to win the “Big Five” Oscars.

1934: Katharine Hepburn, Morning Glory

Hepburn, who still holds the record for most Best Actress wins, started her winning streak when she received the award for her performance in Morning Glory. She played the determined, aspiring actress Eva Lovelace in the drama.

1933: Helen Hayes, The Sin of Madelon Claudet

Helen Hayes won for her portrayal of Madelon Claudet, a French woman who turns to a life of crime to support her son after she is wrongly imprisoned.

1932: Marie Dressler, Min and Bill

Marie Dressler's award-winning performance as Min Divot sees her running a dockside inn and caring for her daughter.

1931: Norma Shearer, The Divorcee

In The Divorcee, Norma Shearer plays Jerry Martin, a woman who discovers her husband (Chester Morris) is having an affair and has her own in retaliation.

1930: Mary Pickford, Coquette

Mary Pickford's winning performance in Coquette sees her as a headstrong, wealthy woman who falls in love with a simple man (Johnny Mack Brown) of whom her father doesn't approve.

1929: Janet Gaynor, 7th Heaven, Street Angel and Sunrise

At the first-ever Academy Awards in 1929, Janet Gaynor took home the Best Actress award for three different characters she'd played in the two years prior: Diane in the 1927 film 7th Heaven, Angela in the 1928 drama Street Angel and the Wife in Sunrise.

The 97th annual Academy Awards, hosted by Conan O'Brien, airs on Sunday, March 2, at 7 p.m. ET on ABC and streams on Hulu.