Scarlett Johansson
Birthdate: Nov 22, 1984
Birthplace: Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA
The striking quality in Scarlett Johansson’s (birthname: Scarlett Ingrid Johansson) movie career is one of adaptability. But just as striking is how Johansson’s achievements, perhaps most dramatically with her starring role in the MCU blockbuster Black Widow as a female superhero--run against the dominant trends in the movie business. These include the notions that child actors rarely make the transition to adult roles and that female actors have a narrow time window in which to sustain a career.
Her debut role at 9 years old in North (1994), under Rob Reiner’s direction, underlines how Scarlett Johansson violated yet another supposed rule-of-thumb—when you’re starting, you have to begin with small, indie movies and build from there.
Robert Redford was another major actor-turned-director with whom Johansson collaborated as a precocious young actor in The Horse Whisperer (1998). Nevertheless, as a teen actor, she made an early impact in American indie cinema with such striking work as her co-starring roles in Lisa Krueger’s Manny & Lo (1996), Terry Zwigoff’s Ghost World (2001), and Sofia Coppola’s Lost in Translation (2003).
2003 marked a major turning point in Scarlett Johansson’s career when she also starred in Girl with a Pearl Earring opposite Colin Firth. While remaining consistent in her taste for alternating comic and dramatic characters, Johansson’s choices in roles shifted toward a far more adult tone, including a string of movies in which she became Woody Allen’s favored female actor: Match Point (2005), Scoop (2006) and Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008).
The following twelve years also linked Johansson with major writer-directors (Christopher Nolan’s 2006 The Prestige, Spike Jonze’s 2013 Her, Jonathan Glazer’s Under the Skin (2013), the Coen Brothers’ Hail, Caesar! (2016), and Wes Anderson’s Isle of Dogs (2018)), which also showcased her ongoing interest in performing as a voice actor for animation features.
But it’s with Scarlett Johansson’s aggressive shift in the past decade into roles with superhuman—and even alien—powers, including Under the Skin, Luc Besson’s Lucy (2014), and especially the massively successful Marvel Cinematic Universe as the character of Black Widow that she became the world’s highest-paid, top-earning female star.
The series includes the second highest-grossing movie on record, Avengers: Endgame (2019), which triggered momentum for an unprecedented MCU move and a sign of Johansson’s star power: Her leading role in Black Widow (2021), the first MCU project top-lining a woman.
And yet during the height of her MCU fame and typical of Johansson’s malleable durability, she enjoyed a stunning double-Oscar nomination year in 2019 with Noah Baumbach’s Marriage Story and Taika Waititi’s Jojo Rabbit.
Johansson was executive producer and star of the MCU Avengers spin-off, Black Widow (2021), with Florence Pugh, David Harbour, O-T Fagbenle, Olga Kurylenko, William Hurt, Ray Winstone, and Rachel Weisz under Cate Shortland’s direction, and making $380 million theatrically while simultaneously streaming on Disney+, thus blunting the full potential of the movie’s theatrical box-office, which was the basis of a highly publicized lawsuit which Johansson filed against Disney in July 2021 (and settled two months later).
Scarlett Johansson performed the same voice character in Illumination/Universal Pictures’ animated Sing 1 (2016) and Sing 2 (2021), both written and directed by Garth Jennings and co-starring Matthew McConaughey, Reese Witherspoon, Taron Egerton, Tori Kelly, Nick Kroll, Bobby Cannavale, Pharrell Cannavale, Nick Offerman, Letitia Wright, and Bono, and returning a combined gross of just over $1 billion worldwide.
Johansson delivered a standout performance in the sprawling ensemble of Wes Anderson’s droll Atomic Age Asteroid City (2023), with Jason Schwartzman, Tom Hanks, Jeffrey Wright, Tilda Swinton, Bryan Cranston, Edward Norton, Adrian Brody, Liev Schreiber, Hope Davis, Stephen Park, Rupert Friend, Maya Hawke, Steve Carell, Matt Dillon, Hong Chau, Willem Dafoe, Margot Robbie, and Jeff Goldblum, and which premiered at the Cannes film festival before a fair box office return of $54 million.
Johansson was cast by director/writer/star Kristen Scott Thomas for her British family drama, North Star (2023), co-starring Freida Pinto, Sienna Miller, and Emily Beecham and premiering at the Toronto Film Festival. Johansson returned to comedy mode in the Apollo 11 moon landing-themed movie, Fly Me to the Moon (2024), co-starring Channing Tatum, Jim Rash, Ray Romano, and Woody Harrelson under Greg Berlanti’s direction, and released by Columbia Pictures/Sony Releasing.
Scarlett Johansson joined her next franchise project as Elita in the Optimus Prime original tale, Transformers One (2024), directed by Josh Cooley and co-starring Chris Hemsworth, Brian Tyree Henry, Keegan-Michael Key, Steve Buscemi, Laurence Fishburne, and Jon Hamm, and produced via Paramount Animation/Hasbro Entertainment/New Republic Pictures/Di Bonaventura Pictures/Bayhem Films for distributor Paramount Pictures. Johansson led the cast of Mahershala Ali, Rupert Friend, Jonathan Bailey, and Manuel Garcia-Rulfo in Universal Pictures’ third installment, Jurassic World (2025), under the helmsmanship of series director Gareth Edwards and writer David Koepp.
Johansson made her feature directorial debut with the drama, Eleanor the Great (date to be announced), starring June Squibb in the title role, with Chiwetel Ejiofor, Jessica Hecht, and Erin Kellyman, and released (for the first time) by TriStar Pictures and Sony Pictures Classics. Johansson reunited with filmmaker Wes Anderson and his wide ensemble for The Phoenician Scheme (date to be announced), co-starring Benicio del Toro, Michael Cera, Bill Murray, Riz Ahmed, Tom Hanks, Benedict Cumberbatch, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Rupert Friend, Willem Dafoe, and Bryan Cranston, and produced by American Empirical Pictures and Indian Paintbrush.
Scarlett Johansson took on the dual positions of star and producer on director Andrea Arnold’s biographical thriller, Featherwood (date to be announced), about Carol Blevins, who became an FBI informant on the neo-Nazi Aryan Brotherhood of Texas. Johannson co-starred with Tom Cruise in the Christopher McQuarrie-directed remake of the 1977 Clint Eastwood thriller, The Gauntlet (date to be announced), produced by Eastwood.
Johansson’s philanthropic and social justice work includes aid for Stand Up to Cancer, Oxfam, helping establish the Time’s Up project, speaking at the 2012 Democratic Party National Convention, and working to release three imprisoned human rights activists in Egypt in 2020.
Personal Details
Scarlett Johansson was born in Manhattan to a Danish father and an American mother. One of her three siblings his twin brother, Hunter, with whom she performed in a school stage production of Oliver! She also has a paternal half-brother named Christian. At age 25, Johansson fired her mother, Melanie Sloan, after working nine years as her manager.
She married actor Ryan Reynolds in 2008, but separated from him two years later, and divorced him in 2011. Three years later, she married French journalist Romain Dauriac. The couple had a daughter, Rose Dorothy Dauriac, in 2014, and then divorced in 2017. Her third marriage is to comedian Colin Jost, with whom Johansson had a child, Cosmo Jost, in 2021. Her height is 5’ 3’’.
Filmography
actor
Upcoming (1)
- 2025 | Jurassic World RebirthasZora Bennett
Jurassic World Rebirth
Five years post-Jurassic World Dominion, an expedition braves isolated equatorial regions to extract DNA from three massive prehistoric creatures for a groundbreaking medical breakthrough.
Previous (15)
- 2024 | Transformers OneasElita -1
Transformers One
The untold origin story of Optimus Prime and Megatron, better known as sworn enemies, but who once were friends bonded like brothers who changed the fate of Cybertron forever.
- 2024 | Fly Me to the MoonasKelly Jones
Fly Me to the Moon
Marketing maven Kelly Jones wreaks havoc on launch director Cole Davis's already difficult task. When the White House deems the mission too important to fail, the countdown truly begins.
- 2023 | Asteroid CityasMidge Campbell
Asteroid City
Following a writer on his world famous fictional play about a grieving father who travels with his tech-obsessed family to small rural Asteroid City to compete in a junior stargazing event, only to have his world view disrupted fo...
- 2021 |
- 2021 | Black WidowasNatasha Romanoff
Black Widow
Natasha Romanoff confronts the darker parts of her ledger when a dangerous conspiracy with ties to her past arises.
- 2019 | Jojo RabbitasRosie
Jojo Rabbit
A young German boy in the Hitler Youth whose hero and imaginary friend is the country's dictator is shocked to discover that his mother is hiding a Jewish girl in their home.
- 2019 | Avengers: EndgameasNatasha Romanoff
Avengers: Endgame
After the devastating events of Avengers: Infinity War (2018), the universe is in ruins. With the help of remaining allies, the Avengers assemble once more in order to reverse Thanos' actions and restore balance to the universe.
- 2017 | Rough NightasJess
Rough Night
Things go terribly wrong for a group of girlfriends who hire a male stripper for a bachelorette party in Miami.
- 2016 | Captain America: Civil WarasNatasha Romanoff/Black Widow
Captain America: Civil War
Political involvement in the Avengers' affairs causes a rift between Captain America and Iron Man.
- 2014 |
- 2014 | Captain America: The Winter SoldierasNatasha Romanoff/Black Widow
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
As Steve Rogers struggles to embrace his role in the modern world, he teams up with a fellow Avenger and S.H.I.E.L.D agent, Black Widow, to battle a new threat from history: an assassin known as the Winter Soldier.
- 2013 |
- 2013 |
- 2012 | The AvengersasNatasha Romanoff/Black Widow
The Avengers
Earth's mightiest heroes must come together and learn to fight as a team if they are going to stop the mischievous Loki and his alien army from enslaving humanity.
- 2011 | We Bought a ZooasKelly Foster
We Bought a Zoo
Set in Southern California, a father moves his young family to the countryside to renovate and re-open a struggling zoo.
Some Facts About Scarlett Johansson
International identity: With a Danish architect father and American mother, Johansson claims Danish and American citizenship.
Literary roots: She’s the granddaughter of renowned Danish author Ejner Johansson.
Debut: Johansson’s first uncredited role was in 1993 when she was an 8-year-old skit player on Late Night With Conan O’Brien.
Stage struck: Her first job as a child actor was in the Off-Broadway play, Sophistry, starring Ethan Hawke.
Rejected: Johansson applied to NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts at 18, was she was turned down.
Recording artist: Johansson recorded a 2008 album of Tom Waits’ covers titled Anywhere I Lay My Head.
What’s Up Doc?: Animators on The Looney Tunes Show created a character after Johansson titled Starlet Johansson.
Iconic: Artist Francisco Clemente has depicted her as the Queen of Swords in a deck of painted tarot cards.
Earnings: $20 million per film*
Net worth: $110 mil*
Diversity: Heritage includes Danish, Swedish, and Jewish Ashkenazi ancestors.
Oscar double-play: Rare twin Oscar nominations in 2019 for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress.
Say Cheese: She claims that the love of cheese is her sole vice.
Husbands from abroad: Former husbands Ryan Reynolds and Romain Dauriac are Canadian and French, respectively.
Social media? What social media?: Rare among celebrities, Johansson steadfastly maintains no social media accounts.
