Scarlett Johansson:
Born in New York, on November 22, 1984, Scarlett Johansson is an American actress who started her career as a young girl and went on to play significant roles in a variety of movies, ranging from independent, small-scale character-driven dramas to high-profile action escapades.
Some of her most iconic roles include the disillusioned Charlotte in Sofia Coppola’s Lost in Translation (2003), the disembodied artificial intelligence agent Samantha in Spike Jonze’s Her (2013), and the superhero spy Natasha Romanoff (the Black Widow) in several Marvel Cinematic Universe blockbusters.
Scarlett Johansson grew raised in New York City, the daughter of an architect and a producer. She is the youngest of four siblings, along with her twin brother, Hunter. She showed an interest in acting at a very young age and began auditioning for commercials by the time she was seven. Soon after, she studied at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute and eventually joined the Professional Children’s School in Manhattan to further hone her skill.
Scarlett Johansson starred alongside Ethan Hawke in the off-Broadway play Sophistry when she was eight years old, and Rob Reiner’s North (1994) marked her cinematic debut when she was nine. She also appeared in Just Cause (1995), but her first true breakthrough came with Manny & Lo (1996), a coming-of-age drama about orphaned sisters who flee away.
Her portrayal of a youngster suffering from a tragic accident alongside Robert Redford in The Horse Whisperer (1998) won her plaudits from critics. Her portrayal of the eccentric teen Rebecca in Ghost World (2001) garnered her even more notice.
Scarlett Johansson transitioned into more adult roles with standout performances such as Charlotte in Lost in Translation (2003)—a young woman bored with her life and marriage who forms a complicated bond with an older man (played by Bill Murray)—and Griet in the historical drama Girl with a Pearl Earring (2003), in which she portrays a housemaid who captivates painter Johannes Vermeer (Colin Firth).
She starred in Woody Allen’s films Scoop (2006) and Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008) after winning plaudits for her performance in his 2005 film Match Point. She co-starred with Ewan McGregor in The Island, her first significant action movie, that same year. With parts in the romantic comedy He’s Just Not That Into You (2009), the poignant drama We Bought a Zoo (2011), and The Other Boleyn Girl (2008), Johansson continued to broaden her horizons.
She made her Broadway debut in 2010 in A View from the Bridge, earning the Tony Award for Best Actress. That same year, she featured as Natasha Romanoff—better known as Black Widow—in Marvel’s Iron Man 2. In numerous subsequent successful movies, including as The Avengers (2012), Captain America:
The Winter Soldier (2014), Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), Captain America: Civil War (2016), Avengers: Infinity War (2018), Avengers: Endgame (2019), and Black Widow (2021), she repeated this role. By playing actress Janet Leigh in the movie Hitchcock at the end of 2012, she changed the course of her career.
In 2013, Scarlett Johansson returned to the Broadway stage in a revival of Tennessee Williams’s Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Later that year, she voiced a contemplative computer operating system in Spike Jonze’s Her and starred in the romance comedy Don Jon as a woman dating a man who was addicted to pornography.
Scarlett Johansson delivered an unnerving performance as a mysterious alien that drives around Glasgow and abducts men in Under the Skin (2013). She portrays a compassionate restaurant hostess in Chef (2014), a lady who develops superhuman powers after a brain-enhancing substance enters her system in Lucy (2014), and a starlet in the Coen brothers’ comedy Hail, Caesar! (2016).
Rough Night, a comedy about a bachelorette party gone awry, and Ghost in the Shell, in which she portrayed a cyborg woman battling criminals, were among her 2017 endeavors.
Two years later, she played a mother concealing a Jewish girl in Taika Waititi’s Nazi comedy Jojo Rabbit, and a stage actress divorcing her director husband (Adam Driver) in Noah Baumbach’s Marriage Story. These roles garnered Scarlett Johansson her first Academy Award nominations—Best Supporting Actress for Jojo Rabbit, and Best Actress for Marriage Story.
She played a Bette Davis-inspired cinematic legend in Wes Anderson’s Asteroid City in 2023. The next year, she played an advertising consultant helping NASA market the Apollo program in Fly Me to the Moon. In 2025, she rejoined with Anderson for The Phoenician Scheme, playing a ruthless businesswoman negotiating issues with her ambitious relative (Benicio del Toro).
She also returned to big-budget films with the starring part in Jurassic World Rebirth (2025), portraying a special operator tracking down a hard-to-find group of genetically modified dinosaurs. That same year, she made her directorial debut with Eleanor the Great, a film about a 94-year-old woman (played by June Squibb) struggling with the loss of her best friend.
Scarlett Johansson is renowned for her unique, deep voice as well. She voiced the computer-generated python Kaa in the 2016 live-action adaption of Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book, and an alternative-rock singing porcupine in the animated family picture Sing (2016) and its sequel (2021). She provided the voice of a cute dog in the 2018 animated film Isle of Dogs directed by Wes Anderson.
Scarlett Johansson was wed to Canadian actor Ryan Reynolds from 2008 till 2011. In 2014, she married French writer and art dealer Romain Dauriac. They had a daughter, Rose Dauriac, before separating in 2017. Three years later, She married comedian and writer Colin Jost. In 2021, They welcomed a son, Cosmo Jost.
Scarlett Johansson pursued musical endeavors in addition to acting. She made a brief performance as a supporting vocalist for The Jesus and Mary Chain at the 2007 Coachella Music Festival and appeared on a charity CD of famous song covers in 2006. Her debut album, Anywhere I Lay My Head, a compilation of Tom Waits covers, was published in 2008. The following year, she recorded a duet album with Pete Yorn titled Break Up. In 2018, the pair released Apart, another EP.