Meghan Markle

Actress • Royal

Birth Name: Rachel Meghan Markle

Birth Date: August 4, 1981

Age: 43 years old

Birth Place: Los Angeles, California

Meghan Markle was born Rachel Meghan Markle on Aug. 4, 1981, in Los Angeles, CA. She inherited an affinity for show business from her father, cinematographer Thomas W. Markle, who worked on popular series like "The Facts of Life" (NBC 1979-1988) and "Married with Children" (Fox 1987-1997).

Intrigued foremost by performance, Meghan Markle studied theater at Northwestern University before pursuing screen acting professionally. Markle made her career debut on an episode of "General Hospital" (ABC 1963-), following up the part with a number of minor roles in films like "A Lot Like Love" (2005) and on series like "CSI: NY" (CBS 2004-2013).

Her earliest recurring parts came on "90210" (The CW 2008-2013) and "Fringe" (Fox 2008-2013), after which jobs became more and more frequent; among these were small roles in the popular comedy films "Get Him to the Greek" (2010) and "Horrible Bosses" (2011). Around the same time, Markle landed her first major role: a costarring position on the comedy-drama series "Suits" (USA 2011-), on which she played driven paralegal Rachel Zane.

Markle has been active in a number of areas outside of the realm of acting, founding the lifestyle website The Tig in 2014 and working with philanthropic groups like World Vision Canada and the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. In 2016, Markle began a romantic relationship with Prince Harry of the British royal family; the royal couple announced their engagement in November 2017, at which point Markle also revealed that she was leaving "Suits" at the end of the show's seventh season.

The Royal Wedding, which took place on May 19, 2018, at Windsor Castle, was greeted by the British public with delight and happiness for the charming couple. In October of the same year, it was announced that the couple were expecting their first baby in spring 2019.