Scarlett Johansson American Actress Born 1984 in Manhattan

Scarlett Ingrid Johansson, born in Manhattan on 22 November 1984, is an American actress and singer who also works as a producer and director. She began as a child performer and has since appeared in independent dramas, large franchise films, stage productions and recorded music.

Early life

Johansson was born in the Manhattan borough of New York City. Her father, Karsten Johansson, is an architect from Copenhagen, and her mother, Melanie Sloan, has worked as a producer. Her paternal grandfather, Ejner Johansson, was an art historian, screenwriter and film director. She has an older sister, Vanessa, who is also an actress, an older brother, Adrian, and a twin brother, Hunter. She holds both American and Danish citizenship.

She attended P.S. 41, an elementary school in Greenwich Village, took tap lessons, and enrolled at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute. Her first stage appearance was in the off-Broadway play Sophistry, where she acted opposite Ethan Hawke. She later studied at the Professional Children's School in Manhattan, from which she graduated in 2002.

Career

Johansson's first paid role was a sketch appearance on Late Night with Conan O'Brien when she was nine. Her film debut came the same year in the fantasy comedy North (1994), in which she played the daughter of John Ritter's character. She had her first leading role in Manny & Lo (1996), a part that earned her an Independent Spirit Award nomination, and drew wider attention in The Horse Whisperer (1998), directed by and co-starring Robert Redford. Ghost World (2001) is regarded as her breakthrough, and it won her a Toronto Film Critics Association award for supporting actress.

In 2003 she moved toward adult roles with Lost in Translation, as Charlotte, and Girl with a Pearl Earring. She won the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for Lost in Translation. She went on to appear in Match Point (2005) and Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008), both directed by Woody Allen, and in The Prestige (2006), where she played Olivia Wenscombe. During the same period she turned to music, releasing the albums Anywhere I Lay My Head (2008), a collection of Tom Waits songs, and Break Up (2009); both reached the Billboard 200. Her stage work includes Broadway revivals of A View from the Bridge (2010) and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (2013).

From Iron Man 2 (2010) onward she played Natasha Romanoff, known as Black Widow, in eight Marvel Cinematic Universe films, including 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). She starred in a solo feature, Black Widow, in 2021. Away from the franchise she gave a voice performance as Samantha in Her (2013), starred in Under the Skin (2013) and Lucy (2014), voiced the snake Kaa in The Jungle Book (2016), and played Rosie Betzler in Jojo Rabbit (2019). Her listed credits run through Paper Tiger, dated 2026.

Recognition

In the 2020 awards cycle Johansson received two Academy Award nominations in a single year: Best Actress for Marriage Story and Best Supporting Actress for Jojo Rabbit. The same two performances brought BAFTA nominations in the leading and supporting categories. Earlier, Girl with a Pearl Earring earned her a BAFTA nomination in 2004, the year she won for Lost in Translation. In 2010 she won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play and a Theatre World Award for A View from the Bridge. She received the Hasty Pudding Woman of the Year title in 2007, an Honorary César in 2014 and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Time magazine placed her on its Time 100 list of influential people in 2021 and again in 2025.

Personal life

Johansson has been married three times: to Ryan Reynolds from 2008 to 2011, to Romain Dauriac from 2014 to 2017, and to Colin Jost since 2020. She has one child.