Background

Ethnicity: Scarlett Johansson’s father was originally from Copenhagen, Denmark. The Johansson family also has Swedish ancestry, and her mother has Jewish heritage.

Scarlett Johansson was born on November 22, 1984, in New York City, New York, the United States, to Karsten Johansson and Melanie Sloan. Scarlett Johansson comes from a long line of creative artists. Her Danish grandfather worked as a screenwriter and director, and her mother worked as a producer. She grew up in a humble environment, in a household with limited means.

Scarlett and her twin brother, Hunter (who is younger by three minutes), have an older sister, Vanessa, who is also an actress, and an older brother Adrian. Johansson’s parents split when she was 13, and she became very close to her grandmother, whom she has called her best friend.

Education

Johansson's interest in acting surfaced at an early age. When she was eight years old, she appeared in an off-Broadway production of Sophistry with Ethan Hawke. Scarlett Johansson went to Simon Baruch Middle School and then to P.S. 41 Greenwich Village School in the upper-middle-class in New York. After that, she began theatrical training by attending and graduating from Professional Children’s School in Manhattan, New York City in 2002. She also planned to attend Purchase University to study film.

Career

During her school years, Johansson landed some acting roles, including her film debut in 1994's North with Elijah Wood. Johansson subsequently appeared in Just Cause (1995), but her first breakthrough came with Manny & Lo (1996), a coming-of-age film about orphaned sisters who run away. For her performance, twelve-year-old Johansson earned an Independent Spirit Award nomination. The Independent Spirit Awards are given annually to honor small films that are made outside the large Hollywood system.

In 1997 Johansson did appear in one bit of family fare, Home Alone 3, where she played Molly Pruitt, sister of the movie's child star, Alex Linz. But even at the age of thirteen Johansson exhibited a quiet, intense style of acting, and she already had a raspy, edgy quality to her voice that would eventually become her trademark. She next earned critical acclaim for her role as a teenager who has suffered a disfiguring accident in The Horse Whisperer (1998).

Her portrayal of a young amputee won over many fans, including the film's star and director. Redford commented on Johansson's remarkable maturity, saying that she was "13 going on 30." In 2001 the actress received even more positive attention from critics with her supporting role in Ghost World, despite its tepid box office success. After graduating from Professional Children's School in 2002, Johansson found herself as one of Hollywood's top up-and-coming actresses.

Johansson came into her own playing more adult roles, notably that of the disillusioned Charlotte, a young woman bored with her life and her marriage who starts a complicated relationship with a middle-aged man (played by Bill Murray) in Lost in Translation (2003). Johansson also gave an impressive performance as a servant girl who is painted by famed artist Johannes Vermeer (played by Colin Firth) in Girl with a Pearl Earring.

In 2005, she played 'Nola Rice' in the Academy Award-nominated thriller film Match Point, which was directed by Woody Allen. It was screened at the Cannes Film Festival, the same year. Johansson took on a variety of projects after these early successes. She worked with director Brian De Palma on the 2006 crime thriller The Black Dahlia and tried her hand at comedy with 2007's The Nanny Diaries.

A frequent collaborator with director Woody Allen, Johansson has appeared in several of his films, including 2008's Vicky Cristina Barcelona, opposite Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz. Johansson continued to explore her acting range in the period drama The Other Boleyn Girl (2008).

Around this time, Johansson branched out into new territory when she joined forces with Pete Yorn for an album of duets, which were recorded in 2007. The pair finally released their collaborative efforts in 2009 with the album Break Up, and Johansson wrote several tracks for the recording. In 2008 Johansson released her first album, Anywhere I Lay My Head, which featured cover versions of songs by Tom Waits. The recording proved to be a critical and commercial disappointment.

Johansson soon took on a new career challenge. In 2009 she made her Broadway debut in a revival of Arthur Miller's drama A View from the Bridge opposite Liev Schrieber. Johansson earned positive reviews for her convincing performance as Catherine, a teenage girl who is raised by her aunt and uncle. For her work on the show, Johansson won a Tony Award.

That same year she appeared in the action film Iron Man 2 as Natasha Romanoff, a secret agent otherwise known as the Black Widow, a role she went on to reprise in the superhero blockbusters The Avengers (2012), Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014), Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), Captain America: Civil War (2016), Avengers: Infinity War (2018), and Avengers: Endgame (2019).

Her involvement in the franchise proved highly lucrative, fueling her rise to the top spot in Forbes' ranking of the world's highest-paid actresses in the summer of 2018. Johansson then prepared to fly solo with the scheduled April 2020 release of Black Widow.

Johansson remained busy onscreen outside of her commitments to Marvel. She co-starred in Cameron Crowe's dramatic comedy We Bought a Zoo with Matt Damon in 2011, and the following year she took on the character of real-life film star Janet Leigh in Hitchcock, which explores the life of director Alfred Hitchcock during the making of the horror classic Psycho.

In 2013 Johansson lent her distinctive voice to Her, as an intelligent operating system that draws the affection of Joaquin Phoenix's lonely character. She went on to take a supporting role in Jon Favreau's dramatic comedy Chef (2014) and starred as the title character in Luc Besson's sci-fi thriller Lucy (2014). In 2016 she rejoined Favreau to voice the character of Kaa in The Jungle Book.

Johansson’s 2017 credits included Ghost in the Shell, in which she portrayed a cyborg woman who battles criminals, and Rough Night, a comedy about a bachelorette party. Two years later she played a mother harboring a Jewish girl in the Nazi satire Jojo Rabbit and a woman undergoing a divorce in Marriage Story. Her performances earned Johansson her first Academy Award nominations; for the former film she received a nod for supporting actress, and the latter movie netted her a lead actress nomination.

In July 2018 Johansson found herself in the middle of another casting controversy when she was tapped to play transgender massage parlor owner Dante "Tex" Gill in Rub & Tug, from Ghost in the Shell director Rupert Sanders. After initially dismissing the concerns through a spokesperson, Johannson acknowledged the "insensitive" nature of her response and announced she was withdrawing from the film.

Achievements

• 

  Scarlett Johansson was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6931 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California on May 2, 2012. Johansson earned a BAFTA for her role in Lost in Translation as Charlotte. She also has five Golden Globes nominations and two Academy Awards.
  
  Scarlett was announced as the highest-grossing film actress of all-time by Box Office Mojo in July 2016. She was also the world's highest-paid actress in 2018 and 2019 and has featured multiple times on the Forbes Celebrity 100 list. Her works have grossed over $14.3 billion worldwide.

Works

More photos

• movie

  • The Whale

    (Narrated by Ryan Reynolds, The Whale tells the remarkable...)

    2011
  • The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie

    (He’s the wacky underwater star of an ocean full of advent...)

    2004
  • Captain America: The Winter Soldier

    (In Marvel's Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Steve Ro...)

    2014
  • An American Rhapsody

    (A young Hungarian girl struggles to find her place in the...)

    2001
  • Captain Marvel

    (Marvel Studios' Captain Marvel takes you on a spectacular...)

    2019
  • Vicky Cristina Barcelona

    (Two girlfriends on a summer holiday in Spain become enamo...)

    2009
  • A Love Song for Bobby Long

    (Upon hearing of her mother's death, jaded teenage loner P...)

    2004
  • Just Cause

    (Sean Connery and Laurence Fishburne star in this psycholo...)

    1995
  • Girl With a Pearl Earring

    (Nominated for three Academy Awards, Girl With a Pearl Ear...)

    2003
  • The Perfect Score

    (Scarlett Johansson, Erika Christensen, Chris Evans, and D...)

    2004
  • Her

    (Academy Award winner for Best Screenplay Directed by Spik...)

    2013
  • Avengers: Infinity War

    (With the powerful Thanos on the verge of raining destruct...)

    2018
  • If Lucy Fell

    (If Lucy Fell is a romantic free-for-all starring Sarah Je...)

    1996
  • A Good Woman

    (A notorious seductress enters a gossipy society and entic...)

    2004
  • North

    (An eleven-year-old boy, ignored by his parents, goes to c...)

    1994
  • Under the Skin

    (A voluptuous woman of unknown origin (Scarlett Johansson)...)

    2013
  • Eight Legged Freaks

    (The residents of a rural mining town discover that an unf...)

    2002
  • My Brother The Pig

    (Being a teen is tough enough for Kathy Cauldwell (Scarlet...)

    1999
  • The Black Dahlia

    (Two ambitious cops, Lee Blanchard (Aaron Eckhart) and Buc...)

    2006
  • The Spirit

    (In the vein of Batman Begins and Sin City, The Spirit tak...)

    2008
  • Lost in Translation

    (A seen-better-days American actor and a newly married wom...)

    2003
  • Lucy

    (Lucy (Scarlett Johansson) is tricked by her boyfriend int...)

    2014
  • Match Point

    (Woody Allen serves up a dramatic race in this engrossing ...)

    2005
  • The Island

    (Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson star in director Mic...)

    2005
  • Jojo Rabbit

    (A fanatical Nazi youth with Adolf Hitler as an imaginary ...)

    2019
  • Home Alone 3

    (A precocious eight-year-old boy who is stuck at home with...)

    1997
  • We Bought A Zoo

    (Widower Matt Damon comes up with a unique plan to lift hi...)

    2011
  • Scoop

    (Woody Allen's hilarious murder mystery about a student re...)

    2006
  • Captain America: Civil War

    (When an incident involving the Avengers results in collat...)

    2016
  • Avengers: Endgame

    (The fourth installment in the Avengers saga is the culmin...)

    2019
  • The Other Boleyn Girl

    (An engrossing and sensual tale of intrigue, romance, and ...)

    2008
  • Hail, Caesar!

    (A harried 1950s movie studio 'fixer' deals with several c...)

    2016
  • The Prestige

    (Two brilliant magician partners in Victorian London devel...)

    2006
  • The Horse Whisperer

    (After a riding accident, a young girl and her horse are b...)

    1998
  • The Man Who Wasn't There

    (The story of a seemingly simple barber, who turns to blac...)

    2001
  • Hitchcock

    (Anthony Hopkins stars as Alfred Hitchcock in this drama a...)

    2012
  • Ghost World

    (Neo-cool Enid and Rebecca graduate and wryly observe the ...)

    2001
  • Ghost in the Shell

    (Major (Scarlett Johansson) is the first of her kind: a hu...)

    2017
  • Manny & Lo

    (Manny and Lo are a two-person crime-wave - on the lam and...)

    1996
  • The Avengers

    (Marvel makes cinematic history as it unites the superhero...)

    2012
  • Avengers: Age of Ultron

    (Good intentions wreak havoc when Tony Stark (Robert Downe...)

    2015
  • Nanny Diaries

    (A comedy about life at the top, as seen from the bottom. ...)

    2007
  • Rough Night

    (Best friends reunite for a wild weekend in Miami. Their o...)

    2017
  • In Good Company

    (Dan Foreman is headed for a shakeup. He is demoted from h...)

    2004
  • Iron Man 2

    (Robert Downey Jr. returns as billionaire Tony Stark in th...)

    2010

• music

  • Anywhere I Lay My Head 2008
  • Break Up 2009

Religion

Johansson identifies as Jewish (on her mother’s side), and celebrates both Christmas and Hannukah during the holidays.

Politics

Scarlett Johansson campaigned for John Kerry in the 2004 Presidential Election. She also showed her support for Barack Obama throughout both of his presidential campaigns and was also behind Hillary Clinton during the 2017 race. She’s considering a career in politics in the future.

Views

Scarlett Johansson has been an ambassador for Oxfam International since 2005. Oxfam is a global movement of people who are fighting inequality to end poverty and injustice. Scarlett raised money for Oxfam by auctioning off two tickets for He's Just Not That Into You on eBay, giving the winning bidders the opportunity to mingle with her. She also donated many items to Rocky Stone to be given to less fortunate kids as part of the Toy Mountain Campaign.

Quotations: "It's a great thing to get older and learn. I don't feel bound in any way by how many years I've lived. I identify just as much with my 86-year-old grandmother as I do with my sister."

"People forget what it's like to be a child. When you're a child actress, people sometimes regress into being obnoxious and patronizing. But there's no reason to dumb things down just because you're working with kids."

"As long as people keep buying tabloids, they will keep harassing people in the public eye. They will make up stories."

Personality

Johansson picked up the habit of smoking when she was 15 and has found it difficult to kick the addiction. She spends much of her time watching medical documentaries, so in case if she wasn’t an actress then she might be a dermatologist.

Interests

• beekeeping

• Politicians

  John Kerry, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton

• Writers

  The Fantastic Mr. Fox by Roald Dahl, Summer Crossing by Truman Capote, Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides, The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, Marjorie Morningstar by Herman Wouk, Middlemarch by George Eliot

• Sport & Clubs

  tennis

• Music & Bands

  Edith Piaf, Tom Waits, Miles Davis, Billie Holiday, Anita O’Day, Rosemary Clooney

Connections

Scarlett Johansson married Canadian actor Ryan Reynolds on September 27, 2008, after starting dating in April 2007. They split on December 14, 2010, after more than 2 years of married life. The relationship ended on July 1, 2011, officially, after their divorce.

In November 2012, Scarlett started dating a Frenchman who runs an independent advertising agency, Romain Dauriac. They engaged in September 2013. She gave birth to the couple’s only child, girl Rose Dorothy Dauriac, who was born on September 4, 2014. The duo got married on October 1, 2014, in Philipsburg, Montana. They split in the summer of 2016 which was announced publicly in January 2017.

On May 21, 2017, Scarlett went to the Saturday Night Live after-party with actor, comedian, and screenwriter, Colin Jost. They got engaged to each other in April 2019 after dating for almost two years. The couple got married in October 2020 in a private ceremony.

Father:

Karsten Johansson

Mother:

Melanie Sloan

Ex-husband:

Ryan Reynolds

Ex-husband:

Romain Dauriac

Daughter:

Rose Dorothy Dauriac

husband:

Colin Jost

Brother:

Hunter Johansson

Sister:

Vanessa Johansson

Half-brother:

Christian Johansson

Half-brother:

Adrian Johansson

Friend:

Chris Evans

Friend:

Chris Hemsworth

Friend:

Mark Ruffalo

Friend:

Robert Downey Jr.

Friend:

Samuel Jackson

Friend:

Sebastian Stan

References

• Scarlett Johansson The book describes the life and career of movie star Scarlett Johansson.
  2019