Meghan, Duchess of Sussex is an American member of the British royal family and a former actress. She is married to Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, the younger son of King Charles III.

Markle, who grew up in View Park–Windsor Hills, Los Angeles, went to Hollywood Little Red Schoolhouse. When she was eleven years old, she and her classmates sent a letter to Procter & Gamble requesting a dishwashing soap commercial to be made gender-neutral for national TV. She was brought up in the Protestant faith but completed her education at Immaculate Heart High School (Los Angeles), a private all-girl Catholic school. Markle participated in school plays and musicals, with her father assisting with lighting. She gained admission to Northwestern University (NU) in Evanston, Illinois and became a member of Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority in 1999. Markle volunteered with the Glass Slipper Project alongside fellow Kappa Kappa Gamma members. Following her third year of college, her uncle Michael Markle assisted her in obtaining a position as a junior press officer at the American embassy in Buenos Aires, sparking an interest in a potential future in politics. In 2003, Markle earned her bachelor's degree with a double major in theater and international studies from Northwestern's School of Communication.

To sustain herself during breaks from acting, she freelanced as a calligrapher and gave lessons in bookbinding. Her debut on screen was in a minor role as a nurse on an episode of the daytime soap opera General Hospital, a program her father worked on as a lighting director. Markle had minor appearances on the TV shows Century City (2004), The War at Home (2006), and CSI: NY (2006). During the casting for Century City, she falsely claimed to be a SAG-AFTRA member, but once she got the part, the employers were required by the Taft-Hartley Act to assist her in becoming a member. Markle also took on multiple temporary acting and modeling contracts. From 2006 to 2007, she was a "briefcase girl" on 34 episodes of the American rendition of the game show Deal or No Deal. She received $187,000 for Remember Me and $171,429 for The Candidate. She became a part of the cast of the show Suits on the USA Network in July 2011 and remained until late 2017, including the seventh season. The role she played, Rachel Zane, started off as a paralegal but progressed to become a lawyer. During her time on the show Suits, she resided in Toronto for nine months annually. Fortune magazine calculated that she earned $50,000 for each episode, totaling a yearly salary of $450,000.

Markle started working as a One Young World counsellor in 2014, giving a speech at the Dublin summit and participating in the Ottawa opening ceremony in 2016. In 2016, Markle was appointed as a worldwide spokesperson for World Vision Canada, journeying to Rwanda to support the Clean Water Campaign. Following a visit to India to bring attention to women's issues, she wrote an article for Time magazine addressing the stigma around women's menstrual health. She also has experience as an advocate with the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. It was revealed in March 2020 that Meghan would be narrating Disneynature's documentary Elephant as her initial project following her departure from the royal family; the documentary premiered on April 3. Disneynature and the Disney Conservation Fund will provide donations to Elephants Without Borders in Botswana to help with elephant conservation efforts. During June 2020, the pair supported the Stop Hate for Profit initiative and urged CEOs from various corporations to participate in the cause. In July 2020, she voiced her support for the Black Lives Matter movement.