Meghan: A Hollywood Princess(75)

Meghan and her lighting-director father, Tom Markle, Sr., enjoying the sunshine at a school picnic. He was devoted to his daughter, spending hours setting the stage lights for her many theater performances. A keen photographer, he took hundreds of pictures of his darling daughter. (? John Dlugolecki / Contact Press Images)


Meghan and her fellow thespians are given a standing ovation by the appreciative audience at St. Francis High School. (Courtesy of Emmanuel Eulalia)


Meghan, starring as Jocasta in the Greek tragedy Oedipus Rex, kisses Oedipus, played by Alejandro Santiago Fresquez, in the dramatic last act. The play, which was staged at Flintridge Prepatory School in La Ca?ada Flintridge, was a sellout, largely because Meghan, that year’s homecoming queen, was the star. Fresquez went on to study theater in college and now lives in New York. (Courtesy of Emmanuel Eulalia)


Meghan, as Jocasta, expresses her tearful despair when she realizes that she had committed incest with her son. She later hangs herself. (Courtesy of Emmanuel Eulalia)


The young actors take a break between rehearsals. Megan hitches a ride on the back of a grinning Danny Segura, kid brother of her boyfriend Luis, while Brent Giannotta, who played a shepherd, makes a mock attack with his staff. (Courtesy of Emmanuel Eulalia)


A delightful black-and-white portrait of Meghan. It is easy to see why she was voted homecoming queen. (Courtesy of Emmanuel Eulalia)


On the day of her graduation, which was held at the Hollywood Bowl in the summer of 1999, Meghan collected a raft of awards for academic ability and community service. She had proven herself an outstanding student, intellectually and socially. (? John Dlugolecki / Contact Press Images)


Homecoming queen Meghan is all smiles at the St. Francis High School homecoming dance. She won the honor not only because of her beauty but also her community work and her leadership ability. Here she is clearly enjoying herself, dancing cheek to cheek with Giancarlo Boccato. (? John Dlugolecki / Contact Press Images)


Meghan customized her room on campus at Northwestern by painting the walls in vivid colors. Before she handed back the keys she had to repaint the walls standard white. She typically turned routine decoration into a party. (Splash News)


Meghan celebrated her graduation from Northwestern with Ninaki Priddy and other college friends. She graduated with degrees in theater arts and international relations. Other successful Northwestern graduates include actors Warren Beatty and David Schwimmer. (Splash News)


After Meghan graduated college, she and her friend Ninaki Priddy took a road trip back to Los Angeles, stopping off at the Hotel Bellagio in Las Vegas, the setting for her favorite film, Ocean’s Eleven. (Splash News)


Meghan backstage on Deal or No Deal in one of the show’s less revealing and more comfortable costumes. The low-heeled saddle oxfords were a definite change from the cheap high heels the briefcase girl usually wore for tapings. (? Tameka Jacobs)


Meghan and her husband film producer Trevor Engelson, seen here enjoying a break on a Greek island, worked hard and played hard. Engelson boasted that even on the plane he was working. “But I’m always having a lot more fun than most other people I know.” (Splash News)


Meghan and her husband Trevor Engelson enjoy a candlelit dinner for two during a romantic vacation on the island of Santorini in the Mediterranean. (Splash News)


In 2008, when Meghan appeared as junior FBI agent Amy Jessup in director J. J. Abrams’s sci-fi drama Fringe, she hoped that she would last the series. That she lasted only two episodes came as a disappointment, one of many she faced as an aspiring actor. (Moviestore REX Shutterstock)


Suits producers cast Gina Torres (left) as a founding partner of the fictional law firm; Rick Hoffman as her devious colleague, Louis Litt; Meghan Markle as the sophisticated paralegal Rachel Zane; Gabriel Macht as hot-shot lawyer Harvey Specter; and Patrick J. Adams as brilliant lawyer Mike Ross, Rachel’s love interest. (Frank Ockenfels Dutch Oven Kobal REX Shutterstock)


In 2011 Meghan got her big break in the legal drama Suits, a TV series in which the designer clothes were as important as the script. Meghan’s sleek, sophisticated look attracted a huge fan following. Her hair was so important to her character, Rachel Zane, that she was contractually obligated to wear it down on camera. (Dutch Oven Kobal REX / Shutterstock)


Meghan visited New Mexico with her father when her older half sister, Samantha Markle Grant, graduated from the University of New Mexico with a degree in criminology. During the trip she met her father’s first wife, Roslyn Loveless, and Samantha’s daughter Noel Rasmussen. Their meeting, in 2008, was one of the last times Meghan would see her half sister. (Mail on Sunday / Solo Syndication)


Meghan and her mother, Doria, in Jamaica during Meghan’s destination wedding weekend in 2011. Meghan’s love of travel began as a child when Doria, then a travel agent, took her to the Caribbean and Mexico. While Meghan’s love of travel is lifelong, her first marriage lasted only two years before she abruptly divorced her husband Trevor Engelson. (Splash News)


Meghan’s last small role before she was hired for Suits was playing an attractive FedEx delivery girl, opposite the leering comedian Jason Sudeikis, in the comedy Horrible Bosses. During filming she met her dream actor Donald Sutherland. (Alpha Press)


Meghan mans the phone at a fund-raiser for the 2013 annual Charity Day, hosted by brokers Cantor Fitzgerald and held each year to commemorate their friends and colleagues who perished in the September 11 terrorist attack. (Mike McGregor / Getty Images for Cantor Fitzgerald)