Before securing her famous role as Rachel Zane on Suits, Meghan Markle was unwavering in her pursuit of an acting career, even in the face of numerous setbacks.

She has spoken about her struggles with auditioning and the difficulty of landing a role, taking odd jobs to make an income on the side.

Eager for any opportunity, the 24-year-old Northwestern alum seized the chance to join the cast in a minor role with People’s Choice Award recipient Ashton Kutcher.

Despite having just under two minutes on screen, Meghan’s early career included a couple of episodes on General Hospital in 2001 and a part in CBS’s sci-fi legal series, Century City, in 2004.

As recounted in Sean Smith’s biography, Meghan Misunderstood, not long after her graduation, Meghan was back in Los Angeles, eager to embark on her journey to become a recognized actress.

According to her previous theatre professor, Dr. Harvey Young, ‘She’s a wonderful person with determination – the latter being essential for achieving success.’

Smith wrote: ‘He wasn’t the only one from Northwestern following her progress. 

‘The young women from her sorority cheered when Meghan’s first movie scene came up.

‘They were sitting in the cinema in Evanston watching A Lot Like Love, a rom-com starring Ashton Kutcher and Amanda Peet.

‘Meghan was nowhere near the top of the cast list, of course. 

‘Her audition itself was like a scene from a satire on Hollywood.’

The biographer wrote: ‘From Meghan’s point of view, the important consideration was that she did not give up.’

The British director Nigel Cole, whose recent credits included Saving Grace and Calendar Girls, was sitting in and said to her, ‘Can you say “Hi”?’

Meghan reportedly responded: ‘I can. However, I’ve read the script and I really respond to this other role and I’d like to audition for that.’ 

Smith wrote: ‘This was not how auditions worked. She observed, “This panic spread across the room because who does that? Who takes that sort of risk?”

‘She didn’t get the part she wanted, but she did secure Hot Girl #1. 

‘The one small consolidation was that she said a few more words than “Hi”, although that was her first.

‘She sits beside Ashton on a plane and says “Hi”, but then has a brief exchange with the passenger sitting across the gangway and tells him her name is Natalie.

‘Lindsay Roth, who had also travelled west after university, had told Meghan about the audition, but her walk-on part did not make the final cut.’

‘The film is one of those light and airy passages-of-time romances that sprang up following the success of When Harry Met Sally and Serendipity.

‘The movie was not a complete flop, largely owing to the popularity of Ashton Kutcher.

‘These days, it’s mainly remembered as Meghan’s film debut.’ 

Meghan’s tenacity when it came to pursuing her dream of becoming an actress began when she was in high school. 

As a teenager, Meghan participated in high school theatrical productions and school reports mentioned her starring role in a three-day sell-out of the Athenian tragedy Oedipus Rex.

Her father, Thomas Markle, told biographer Tom Bower: ‘She wants to be the star of the stage and the star in life.’ 

Markle, who has been estranged from his daughter after he didn’t attend her May 2018 wedding, helped Meghan launch her acting career through his Hollywood connections.

Meghan reportedly loved glamour and celebrity and her father took her to the Emmy awards ceremony when he was nominated for best lighting director.

After they walked down the red carpet, the 17-year-old said, ‘Daddy, I want to be famous just like you one day.

Markle nodded and went on to do anything he could to help make that dream come true, according to Bower.

Over the years, Meghan began to slowly build on her experience, including playing Cori in an episode of the Shannon Elizabeth series Cuts in 2005 and featuring as a briefcase model on Deal or No Deal.

In 2011, she secured her role as Rachel Zane, a paralegal, in Suits. She starred in the series for seven seasons until her engagement to Prince Harry.

And from 2010 to 2012, Meghan ran an anonymous blog called Working Actress, which predated The Tig and chronicled the ups and downs of life in the industry. 

Smith wrote that this was part of her ‘new resolution to be more than a pretty face’.

He added: ‘She described herself back then: “I am a working actress. And I don’t have an entourage. Not in the tabloids: the kind of girl who is recognisable-ish.

‘How times have changed for Meghan.’

The blog is discussed in Carolyn Durand and Omid Scobie’s biography Finding Freedom. 

The Working Actress was set up by the future Duchess as a way of detailing ‘the pitfalls and triumphs of struggling to make it in Hollywood,’ according to the book.

The former actress’s anonymous blog apparently ‘captured the heartfelt moments of joy when she booked a job and the despair and rejection actors felt each time a role was lost in an industry often driven by appearance rather than talent.’

While Meghan never publicly acknowledged that The Working Actress blog was hers, Scobie and Durant write in the book that it was ‘one of the industry’s worst-kept secrets that she was the face behind it – and she quickly became recognised for its clever advice and honest anecdotes.’

It is clear that Meghan was both ambitious and proactive in her search for her big break into the acting world. 

After years of rejections, dropped pilots and playing the ‘hot girl’, her hard work came to fruition with Suits, which became her first successful, long-running TV series.

The show’s popularity helped make her a recognisable figure worldwide, and she continues to receive royalties from the show’s reruns and streaming.

And the duchess recently dropped the new trailer for the second season of her Netflix show, With Love, Meghan, which returns on August 26. Season two guests include Chrissy Teigen and Jamie Kern Lima.  

But season one of the lifestyle show failed to break into Netflix’s top 300 programmes for the first half of 2025 – and was even beaten by multiple seasons of Suits. 

Meghan has also filmed a Christmas special for broadcast in December, in a potential clash with the Princess of Wales’s annual carol concert at Westminster Abbey.