Biography of Scarlett Johansson

Scarlett Johansson was born on November 22, 1984 New York City, New York, U.S., is an American actress and singer. Johansson made her film debut in the 1994 film North and was later nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead for her performance in 1996′s Manny & Lo. Johansson rose to fame with her roles in 1998′s The Horse Whisperer and 2001′s Ghost World.

Her father, Karsten Johansson, is a Danish-born architect, and her paternal grandfather, Ejner Johansson, was a screenwriter and director. Her mother, Melanie Sloan, a producer, comes from an Ashkenazi Jewish family from the Bronx. Johansson’s parents met in Denmark, where her mother lived with Johansson’s maternal grandmother, Dorothy, a former bookkeeper and schoolteacher. Johansson has an older sister, Vanessa, who is an actress; an older brother, Adrian; a twin brother, Hunter and an older half-brother, Christian, from her father’s first marriage.

Johansson grew up in a household with “little money,” and with a mother who was a “film buff.” She and her brother, Hunter, attended P.S. 41 in Greenwich Village in elementary school. Johansson began her theater training by attending and graduating from Professional Children’s School in Manhattan in 2002.

She made the transition to adult roles with her performances in Sofia Coppola’s Lost in Translation, for which she won a BAFTA Award, and Girl with a Pearl Earring, both of which earned her Golden Globe Award nominations in 2003. A role in A Love Song for Bobby Long earned her a third Golden Globe for Best Actress nomination. Following an appearance in The Island, Johansson garnered a fourth Golden Globe nomination, for Best Supporting Actress, for her role in Woody Allen’s Match Point. She followed that with another Allen film, Scoop, with Hugh Jackman. A role in Brian De Palma’s film noir The Black Dahlia was followed by a second role opposite Hugh Jackman in The Prestige, also starring Christian Bale.

On May 20, 2008, Johansson debuted as a vocalist on her first album, Anywhere I Lay My Head, which included cover versions of Tom Waits songs. Her second album, Break Up, with Pete Yorn was released in September 2009.

Johansson began acting during childhood, after her mother started taking her to auditions. She made her film debut at age nine, as John Ritter’s daughter in the 1994 fantasy comedy North. Following minor roles in the 1995 film Just Cause, as the daughter of Sean Connery and Kate Capshaw, and If Lucy Fell in 1996, she played the role of Amanda in Manny & Lo (1996). Her performance in Manny & Lo garnered a nomination for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Lead Female, and positive reviews, one noting,” grows on you, largely because of the charm of … Scarlett Johansson”, while San Francisco Chronicle critic Mick LaSalle commented on her “peaceful aura”, and wrote, “If she can get through puberty with that aura undisturbed, she could become an important actress.”

Johansson made her first stage appearance in the Off Broadway play Sophistry. In 2009, Johansson made her debut on Broadway, as Catherine Carbone in the drama A View from the Bridge, written by Arthur Miller and directed by Gregory Mosher. Liev Schreiber played opposite her. Johansson was nominated for and won the 2010 Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play for her role in the play.

Johansson has appeared in advertising campaigns for Calvin Klein, L’Oréal, Louis Vuitton and has been the face of Spanish brand Mango since 2009. After appearing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute Gala with Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana, Johansson was announced as the face of the new Dolce & Gabbana make-up collection in early 2009. She made a personal appearance at the London store, Selfridges, on July 31, 2009, to help launch and promote the line.

In 2005, Johansson was considered for the role of Maria in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s West End revival of The Sound of Music, though the role ultimately went to newcomer Connie Fisher after she won BBC’s talent show How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria? Released on May 8, 2006, Johansson sang the track “Summertime” for Unexpected Dreams – Songs From the Stars, a non-profit collection of songs recorded by Hollywood actors. She performed with The Jesus and Mary Chain for a special Coachella Reunion Show in Indio, California in April 2007.

She has been linked to many famous men, including Benicio del Toro, Jared Leto, Justin Timberlake, and her Black Dahlia co-star Josh Hartnett, though Johansson denies she had a relationship with del Toro. Johansson and Hartnett dated for about two years until the end of 2006, with Hartnett citing their busy lives as the reason for the split.

She started dating Canadian actor Ryan Reynolds in 2007, and on May 5, 2008, it was reported that the two were engaged. On September 27, 2008, Johansson and Reynolds were married at a quiet ceremony near Tofino, British Columbia. On August 12, 2010, Us Weekly exclusively reported that Johansson and Reynolds purchased a $2.8 million home together near L.A.