Meg Ryan was born Margaret Mary Emily Anne Hyra in Fairfield, Connecticut. At home, she was lovingly called as "Peggy" and later "Meg", when she was a child. Her mother, Susan, left them to pursue her dreams of being an actress. At that time, Meg was all of fifteen years old. Her father, Harry, was a high school math teacher. Ryan enrolled at the University of Connecticut to study journalism. She needed money to meet the inflating university expenses and therefore tried her hands at acting, practicing after her college hours. but she dropped out to pursue a career in acting

Here, she was helped by her mother who helped her get a Screen Actors Guild Card under her maiden name, Ryan. Her mother used to act on  AS THE WORLD TURNS from 1982 and continued to work for the next two  years. The film that made her very successful was TOP GUN, in which she played the wife of Tom Cruise's best friend. In the movie, WHEN HARRY MET SALLY Meg got the lead role of the first time and she even portrayed it with full justice to her character. She has since been cast in numerous successful romantic comedies which have become her mainstay. The few dramas she has appeared in have not met with quite the critical acclaim as have the comedies. In 1993 Ryan established a production company called Fandango Films, now Prufrock Pictures.

After doing Amityville 3-D (1983), she got to act as the spouse of doomed flyboy Goose (Anthony Edwards) in Top Gun (1986). She did not had a major role in the film. Nevertheless, she was appreciated for her role and got a number of mew roles based upon her performance.

Her next job was to act in Innerspace, in this comedy she played the role of Dennis Quaid's girlfriend. The on screen romance matured into off screen love which went on for a long time. The couple then starred together in D.O.A. (1988), and finally the two married in 1991.

In 1989, Ryan had her luck rolling as she got a role as Sally Albright in Rob Reiner's When Harry Met Sally and in 1990, she starred opposite Tom Hanks in Joe Versus the Volcano. The film did not do as well as was expected out of it but it secured the onscreen casting of Meg Ryan with Tom Hanks. This pair would later star in a couple of hits.

Quite unexpectedly, Ryan played Jim Morrison's drug-addicted wife Pamela in Oliver Stone's The Doors (1991). She was critically applauded for her role, and proved for once that she is capable of carrying serious roles apart from doing light romantic comedies. Her next step was to do drama Flesh and Bone opposite her husband Quaid.