She finally made a modest breakthrough by winning a Greenwich Village nightclub contest and after gaining some recognition on the nightclub circuit and appearing in an off-Broadway revue, she made her Broadway debut in I Can Get It for You Wholesale in 1962. The musical wasn't very successful and her role in it, as Yetta Tessye Marmelstein, not too big. But she stole the show with her clowning and singing, won the New York Critics Award, and almost overnight was catapulted to superstardom.

Compensating for an imperfect face and a kookie Brooklynese personality with a throbbing, ranging voice and glowing magnetism, she became enormously popular in supper clubs and in TV guest appearances, capping her success in 1964 with a glittering performance in the role of Fanny Brice in the Broadway musical Funny Girl. She was signed by CBS on a multiyear, multimillion-dollar contract and enjoyed tremendous success with a string of recordings and elaborate TV specials.

Streisand was firmly entrenched at the apex of the American entertainment industry by the time she made her film debut in 1968, repeating her stage role in Funny Girl. She proved herself equally in command of the film medium as she had been as a stage and recording star and won an Academy Award for her performance, in a tie with Katharine Hepburn. In 1970 she was presented with a special Broadway Tony Award as Actress of the Decade. Other films followed, all dominated by her vibrant personality and enormous talent. Despite the mediocrity of most of her vehicles of the 70s, and growing criticism of her as a megalomaniac and a tyrant on the set who interferes with every detail of production, she remained a top box-office attraction and the leading female screen personality. She won an Oscar in 1977 for composing the music to the song Evergreen for the film A Star Is Born.

In the 80s, Streisand turned her hand to directing. Directing herself in an adaptation of Isaac Bashevis Singer's Yentl (1983), she played a young Jewish woman who longs to study the Talmud and so disguises herself as a man. Her appearance is so convincing she attracts romantic interest from Amy Irving, and goes through with a comic marriage. After Yentl, Streisand concentrated on projects with her production company, Barwood Films. She starred in Nuts (1987), playing a high-class prostitute whose sanity is in question, then again directed herself in 1991's The Prince of Tides. The latter was widely praised and received several Oscar nominations including one for Best Film. The Best Director nomination, however, has proven elusive; she, along with her supporters, has accused the Academy of overlooking her for her sex and her maverick sensibilities. She is active in liberal political causes. Despite a well-known problem with stage fright, she has begun to make more concert appearances in the 90s, including an appearance at the inaugural concert for President Bill Clinton.

She is divorced from Elliott Gould, who was her co-star in I Can Get It for You Wholesale, the musical that started it all. Her son, Jason Gould, is an actor who appeared with his mother in The Prince of Tides.