Biography of Scarlett Johansson

Born and raised in Manhattan, New York City, Johansson aspired to be an actress from a young age and first appeared on stage in an Off-Broadway play as a child actor. She made her film debut in the fantasy comedy North , and gained early recognition for her roles in Manny & Lo, The Horse Whisperer, and Ghost World. Johansson shifted to adult roles in 2003 with her performances in Lost in Translation, which won her a BAFTA Award for Best Actress, and Girl with a Pearl Earring. She was nominated for Golden Globe Awards for these films, and for playing an estranged teenager in the drama A Love Song for Bobby Long, and a seductress in the psychological thriller Match Point. Other works during this period include The Prestige and Vicky Cristina Barcelona; and the albums Anywhere I Lay My Head and Break Up, both of which charted on the Billboard 200.

In 2010, Johansson debuted on Broadway in a revival of A View from the Bridge, which won her a Tony Award for Best Featured Actress, and began playing the role of Black Widow in the Marvel Cinematic Universe with Iron Man 2. Johansson went on to star in the science fiction films Her , Under the Skin , Lucy , and Ghost in the Shell . She received critical acclaim and two Academy Award nominations for playing an actress going through a divorce in the drama Marriage Story and a single mother in Nazi Germany in the satire Jojo Rabbit .

As a public figure, Johansson is a prominent brand endorser and supports various charities. She has been cited as a Hollywood sex symbol by various media outlets. She was married to Canadian actor Ryan Reynolds from 2008 to 2011, and to French businessman Romain Dauriac, with whom she has a child, from 2014 to 2017. Johansson's first leading role was as Amanda, the younger sister of a pregnant teenager who runs away from her foster home in Manny & Lo alongside Aleksa Palladino and her brother, Hunter. Her performance received positive reviews: one written for the San Francisco Chronicle noted, " grows on you, largely because of the charm of ... Scarlett Johansson," while critic Mick LaSalle, writing for the same paper, commented on her "peaceful aura", and believed, "If she can get through puberty with that aura undisturbed, she could become an important actress." Johansson earned a nomination for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Lead Female for the role.

After appearing in minor roles in Fall and Home Alone 3 ,Johansson attracted wider attention for her performance in the film The Horse Whisperer, directed by Robert Redford. The drama film, based on the 1995 novel of the same name by Nicholas Evans, tells the story of a talented trainer with a gift for understanding horses, who is hired to help an injured teenager played by Johansson. The actress received an "introducing" credit on this film, although it was her seventh role. On Johansson's maturity, Redford described her as "13 going on 30". Todd McCarthy of Variety commented that Johansson "convincingly conveys the awkwardness of her age and the inner pain of a carefree girl suddenly laid low by horrible happenstance". For the film, she was nominated for the Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Most Promising Actress. She believed that the film changed many things in her life, realizing that acting is the ability to manipulate one's emotions. On finding good roles as a teenager, Johansson said it was hard for her as adults wrote the scripts and they "portray kids like mall rats and not seriously ... Kids and teenagers just aren't being portrayed with any real depth".

Johansson later appeared in My Brother the Pig and in the neo-noir, Coen brothers film The Man Who Wasn't There . Her breakthrough came playing a cynical outcast in Terry Zwigoff's black comedy Ghost World , an adaptation of Daniel Clowes' graphic novel of the same name. Johansson auditioned for the film via a tape from New York, and Zwigoff believed her to be "a unique, eccentric person, and right for that part". The film premiered at the 2001 Seattle International Film Festival; it was a box office failure, but has since developed a cult status. Johansson was credited with "sensitivity and talent belie her age" by an Austin Chronicle critic, and won a Toronto Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance. With David Arquette, Johansson appeared in the horror comedy Eight Legged Freaks , about a collection of spiders that are exposed to toxic waste, causing them to grow to gigantic proportions and begin killing and harvesting. After graduating from Professional Children's School that year, she applied to New York University's Tisch School of the Arts; she decided to focus on her film career when she was rejected.

Full name: Scarlett Johansson

Born: November 20, 1984

Birthplace: New York City, New York, USA