Before achieving global recognition as the Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle built a career as a working actress in Hollywood, navigating the competitive television and film industry for over a decade. Her journey from commercial auditions and guest-starring television roles to a starring part on the USA Network legal drama Suits highlights the standard trajectory of a jobbing actor in the mid-2000s and early 2010s.
Early Career and Minor Roles
According to her official screen credits and industry profiles, Markle earned her Screen Actors Guild card in the early 2000s. Her early television appearances included a 2002 episode of the daytime soap opera General Hospital, followed by guest roles in network series such as CSI: NY, Without a Trace, and Castle. She also appeared in small parts in feature films including Get Him to the Greek (2010) and Horrible Bosses (2011), alongside commercial print work and a stint as a briefcase model on the game show Deal or No Deal during the 2006–2007 season.
Breakthrough on Suits
Markle secured her most prominent acting role in 2011 as Rachel Zane, a paralegal turned attorney, in the USA Network series Suits. According to production records from NBCUniversal, she appeared in more than 100 episodes across the first seven seasons of the show. She relocated to Toronto, Canada, where the series was filmed, and maintained her role until 2017. Her departure from the series coincided with her engagement to Prince Harry and her transition to full-time royal duties, leading to the write-out of her character at the end of Season 7.
Transition from Entertainment to Public Service
Following her marriage to Prince Harry in May 2018 at St George’s Chapel, Windsor, Markle stepped back from commercial acting and closed her lifestyle website, The Tig. Since relocating to Southern California in 2020, she and Prince Harry launched Archewell Productions, signing a multi-year content partnership with Netflix to produce documentaries, docuseries, scripted shows, and features. Through Archewell, she executive produced the docuseries Harry & Meghan, which premiered on Netflix in December 2022, marking a return to media production from behind the camera rather than in front of it.
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