Scarlett Johansson Bography

Scarlett Johansson is an actress best known for her work in films like Lost in Translation, The Nanny Diaries, Vicky Cristina Barcelona, The Avengers and Hitchcock.

Scarlett Johansson was born in New York City on November 22, 1984. She began acting as a child, and her role in the movie The Horse Whisperer brought her critical acclaim at age 13. Her subsequent successes include Lost in Translation, Girl with a Pearl Earring, The Nanny Diaries, Vicky Cristina Barcelona and the mega-hit The Avengers. Johansson also appeared in 2012's Hitchcock, a biopic of famed horror director Alfred Hitchcock. Exploring her love of music, Johansson released her first album in 2008 with musician Pete Yorn. Her recent films include Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) and Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015).

Born on November 22, 1984, in New York City, actress Scarlett Johansson comes from a long line of creative artists. Her Danish grandfather worked as a screenwriter and director, and her mother worked as a producer.

Johansson's interest in acting surfaced at an early age. When she was eight years old, she appeared in an off-Broadway production of Sophistry with Ethan Hawke. Johansson continued to seek out roles, and decided to study at Manhattan's Professional Children's School (PCS), a private educational institution known for such famous acting alumni as Carrie Fisher, Rita Moreno and Sarah Michelle Gellar. Musical theater was one of Johansson's passions, which she pursued at PCS. "I was one of those jazz-hands kids," she told Vogue.

During her school years, Johansson landed some acting roles, including her film debut in 1994's North with Elijah Wood. Her first leading part came two years later with Manny & Lo, an independent dramatic comedy. Johansson played the younger sister of a pregnant teenager, both of whom were in foster care. Johansson's twin brother, Hunter, also made an appearance in the film. Johansson attracted even more critical attention with 1998's The Horse Whisperer, also starring Robert Redford and Kristin Scott Thomas. Her portrayal of a young amputee won over many fans, including the film's star and director, Redford. Redford commented on Johansson's remarkable maturity, saying that she was "13 going on 30." In 2001 the actress received even more positive attention from critics with her supporting role in Ghost World, despite its tepid box office success.

After graduating PCS in 2002, Johansson soon found herself as one of Hollywood's top up-and-coming actresses. She had two starring roles in 2003, both of which garnered her critical accolades. In Lost in Translation, she played a woman visiting Tokyo who forms an unlikely relationship with a much older man (played by Bill Murray). Johansson also gave an impressive performance as a servant girl who is painted by famed artist Johannes Vermeer (played by Colin Firth) in Girl with a Pearl Earring.

Johansson took on a variety of projects after these early successes. She worked with director Brian De Palma on the 2006 crime thriller The Black Dahlia, and tried her hand at comedy with 2007's The Nanny Diaries. A frequent collaborator with director Woody Allen, Johansson has appeared in several of his films, including 2008's Vicky Cristina Barcelona, opposite Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz.

Around this time, Johansson branched out into new territory when she joined forces with Pete Yorn for an album of duets, which were recorded in 2007. The pair finally released their collaborative efforts in 2009 with the album Break Up, and Johansson wrote several tracks for the recording. "I've been singing for my whole life. When I was a kid I wanted to be on Broadway," she told New York magazine. In 2008, Johansson released her first album, Anywhere I Lay My Head, which featured cover versions of songs by Tom Waits. The recording proved to be a critical and commercial disappointment.

Johansson soon took on a new career challenge. In 2009, she made her Broadway debut in a revival of Arthur Miller's drama A View from the Bridge opposite Liev Schrieber. Johansson earned positive reviews for her convincing performance as Catherine, a teenage girl who is raised by her aunt and uncle. For her work on the show, Johansson won a Tony Award.

Turning to lighter fare, Johansson played the villainess Black Widow in Iron Man 2 (2010) opposite Robert Downey, Jr. and Mickey Rourke. The action flick became one of the summer's big blockbusters.

While her personal life was grabbing headlines, Johansson starred in a number of films. She finished filming Cameron Crowe's dramatic comedy We Bought a Zoo with Matt Damon, in 2011. Reprising her role as the Black Widow from Iron Man 2, Johansson appeared in the box office smash The Avengers (2012). The film featured several superheroes and villains from Marvel Comics, including Downey as Iron Man, Chris Hemsworth as Thor and Chris Evans as Captain America. Later that year, Johansson took on the character of real-life film star Janet Leigh in Hitchcock, which explores the life of director Alfred Hitchcock during the making of the horror classic Psycho.

Johansson has continued to juggle an interesting mix of big budget action projects with smaller, more dramatic films. She has played Black Widow in Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) and Avengers: The Age of Ultron (2015). In 2013, Johansson lent her distinctive voice to Her, acting as an operating system that a man falls for. She also had a supporting role in Jon Favreau's dramatic comedy Chef (2014) and starred as the title character in Luc Besson's sci-fi thriller Lucy (2014).

Johansson married Canadian actor Ryan Reynolds in September 2008, in a small ceremony in British Columbia, Canada. The couple purchased a home together in Los Angeles, but filed for divorce two years later in December 2010.

After her split from Reynolds, Johansson was romantically linked to actor Sean Penn for a time. The pair traveled to Mexico together and attended actress Reese Witherspoon's wedding in March 2011.

In September 2011, Johansson found herself at the center of a scandal when nude photos taken on her cell phone were posted online by hackers. The FBI initiated an investigation to find the individuals behind the leak, which has targeted Johansson along with several other young stars.

A representative for Johansson confirmed in September 2013 that she had gotten engaged to journalist Romain Dauriac. The couple had been dating since late 2012. On September 4, 2014, Johansson and Dauriac announced the birth of their baby daughter, Rose. The couple wed on October 1, 2014 in Philipsburg, Montana. The marriage was “under the radar” and wasn’t announced until that December.

With her tousled blonde hair, full lips, and porcelain complexion, twenty-year-old Scarlett Johansson has become one of the hottest talents in Hollywood. In the mid-2000s her luminous features graced the cover of every fashion magazine, and in late 2004 she became the face of Calvin Klein, tapped to plug a new perfume for the famous designer. But Johansson is more than just a pretty face. Acting since the age of eight, she has appeared in more than twenty films over the course of twelve years ranging from the independent Manny … Lo (1996) and Ghost World (2000), to the Academy Award-nominated Lost in Translation (2003), to 2005's summer blockbuster The Island. Regardless of the size of the film or how well the movie does at the box office or with critics, Johansson is regularly singled out for her compelling performances. She is widely regarded as one of the most promising young stars of her generation, and according to Carlo Cavagna of AboutFilm.com, "Johansson is positioned for a huge career, with no foreseeable expiration date."

Scarlett Johansson is a native New Yorker, born on November 22, 1984, to Karsten Johansson, a Danish architect, and Melanie Johansson, a homemaker who would one day become her famous daughter's manager. Scarlett and her twin brother, Hunter (who is younger by three minutes), have an older sister, Vanessa, who is also an actress, and an older brother Adrian. When Scarlett was about seven a friend of her mother's suggested that the young Johanssons would be perfect for commercials, so Melanie packed up the whole family and took them on the round of casting calls. For Johansson it was a completely overwhelming experience. "It was like being in a beauty pageant," she told Polly Vernon of the Guardian Unlimited. "The other moms were really scary, and it was awful."

But the tough little New Yorker was not discouraged even when casting agents expressed interest in her brother Adrian and not her because Johansson knew that, more than anything else, she wanted to be an actress. "I have always been a big ham," she went on to tell Vernon. "It's like I hopped out of the womb and said: I will perform!" In fact, even before auditioning for commercials, Johansson would put on shows for her family and charge them each a dollar to watch. The budding actress's career was officially launched in 1993 when she appeared in an

"Being a movie star is a quality that somebody sort of embodies, and being a celebrity is something that people give to you. I just hope to make good movies."

off-Broadway production of a play called Sophistry, which starred a young Ethan Hawke (c. 1970–), who later became an acclaimed actor in Hollywood.

After Johansson's brief venture into theater, she began to audition for film roles and never looked back. She explained to Karen Schneider of People, "I started doing movies and that was that." Johansson's first role was a small one playing the daughter of actor John Ritter (1948–2003) in the 1994 comedy North. During the next two years, she was given better parts with more dialogue in several mainstream movies, including the thriller Just Cause (1995) and the 1996 Sarah Jessica Parker (1965–) comedy If Lucy Fell.

It was in a small, independent, movie, however, called Manny … Lo (1996) that the youngster received her first taste of critical acclaim. Johansson was praised for her portrayal of streetwise, eleven-year-old Manny, who escapes a foster home with her older, pregnant sister, Lo. The pair ends up kidnapping a quirky woman they meet to help them deliver the baby. For her performance twelve-year-old Johansson earned an Independent Spirit Award nomination. The Independent Spirit Awards are given annually to honor small films that are made outside the large Hollywood system.


In 1997 Johansson did appear in one bit of family fare, Home Alone 3, where she played Molly Pruitt, sister of the movie's child star, Alex Linz. But even at the age of thirteen Johansson exhibited a quiet, intense style of acting, and she already had a raspy, edgy quality to her voice that would eventually become her trademark. Thanks to this maturity Johansson landed a role in The Horse Whisperer (1998), directed by and starring Hollywood legend Robert Redford (1937–). Although the movie focused on the romance between the two adult leads, Johansson played the pivotal role of Grace, a young girl who loses her leg in a riding accident and is severely traumatized. The film was considered to be visually stunning, but in general it was panned as slow-moving and sentimental. Critics, however, applauded its young star, claiming she gave a breakthrough performance. According to Scott Lyle Cohen of Interview, "Johansson's presence kept the film from the Hollywood glue factory."

In the press, interviewers observed that off-screen Johansson exhibited a maturity beyond her years. And Redford frequently commented that his young star was "thirteen going on thirty." This maturity was evident as Johansson sifted through scripts that were coming her way. She wisely chose not to accept roles in slasher movies or fluffy teen films and for awhile Johansson laid low, waiting for just the right part. She told David Ansen of Newsweek, "I thought, 'I'm in high school, I don't need to support myself or my family, I'm gonna wait until something better comes along."' For the next two years Johansson focused on high school, becoming an honor student at the Professional Children's School in Manhattan. And she did typical high school things like attending prom, shopping, and eating pizza with her friends.

In 2000 Johansson returned to her independent film roots to costar in the offbeat comedy Ghost World, based on the cult comic-book novel of the same name by Daniel Clowes (1961–). The story follows two best friends whose friendship starts to unravel during the summer following their graduation from high school. Fellow child-star Thora Birch (1982–) took the larger role of Enid, an outspoken, wacky misfit. Johansson played Rebecca, the more subdued and practical of the duo. Critics overwhelmingly praised the film, with Ken Eisner of Variety calling it "by sharp turns poignant, disturbing and hysterically funny." Johansson in particular was singled out for delivering yet another subtle, masterful performance. For her work, she was honored with a best supporting actress award by the Toronto Film Critics Association.


Johansson followed Ghost World with small parts in the dramas An American Rhapsody (2001), The Man Who Wasn't There (2001), and 2002's horror-comedy Eight Legged Freaks. She was acting steadily, but nothing could prepare Johansson for 2002, which would turn out to be both a whirlwind of work and a major turning point in her career as she graduated to full-fledged adult roles.

After just one brief lunch meeting, Sofia Coppola (1971–), daughter of famed director Francis Ford Coppola (1939–), signed eighteen-year-old (and just graduated from high school) Johansson for her upcoming independent movie, Lost in Translation (2003). Set in Tokyo, Japan, the film focuses on Charlotte, a young newlywed who is left alone by her photographer husband. Charlotte seeks the companionship of a washed-up, older actor played by Bill Murray (1950–). The two strangers in a strange land form an immediate bond, and according to David Ansen, "Their brief, wondrous encounter is the soul of this subtle, funny, melancholy film."

Critics felt that Johansson clearly held her own playing opposite Murray, who was thirty-four years her senior. And, according to Coppola, who spoke with Eve Epstein of Variety, "Scarlett has a talent for conveying depth and thoughtfulness without doing too much, for being still and simple, which is hard to do." Lost in Translation earned a great deal of critical acclaim for its director and its stars, and was nominated for countless awards. In 2004, Johansson took home a Best Actress award from the Boston Society of Film Critics and the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA). She was also nominated for a Golden Globe best actress award. The Golden Globes are awarded each year by members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for outstanding achievement in film and television.

Ten days after shooting wrapped on Translation, Johansson was whisked off to Luxembourg to begin work on her next film, The Girl with a Pearl Earring (2003). The movie is based on the best-selling novel by Tracy Chevalier (1964–) that gives a fictionalized account of the relationship between seventeenth-century Dutch artist Jan Vermeer (1632–1675) and the girl who appears in his famous Pearl Earring painting. Once again Johansson was paired with a much older, seasoned actor, this time in the form of Colin Firth (1960–), who was cast as Vermeer.

Pearl did not receive the same acclaim as Translation. Although critics acknowledged that the scenery was stunning and the movie visually appealing, it was generally ignored. Leah Rozen of People did point out that Johansson, as Vermeer's muse and model Griet, "gleams quietly." And Carlo Cavagna remarked that with Pearl , "Johansson proves she belongs firmly in the top tier of film actors." For her performance the young star nabbed a best actress nomination from both BAFTA and the Hollywood Foreign Press.

Polly Vernon of the Guardian Unlimited agreed with Cavagna and wrote that 2004 belonged to Johansson in a "high-octane sort of way. . . . She graduated from exquisitely promising starlet-on-the-verge, to fully blown movie establishment." Thanks to her success in 2004 Johansson was, indeed, firmly established in the Hollywood system and she virtually had her pick of parts. In 2004, alone, she released four movies, including The Perfect Score, A Good Woman, and In Good Company, which costarred up-and-comer Topher Grace (1978–). Johansson also found time to lend her voice to Mindy in The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie.

The most important film for Johansson in 2004 was A Love Song for Bobby Long, since it garnered the actress her third Golden Globe nomination in two years. Long was another small film that featured a big name, costar John Travolta (1954–), and again Johansson overshadowed her costar. The movie did not fare well at the box office or with critics, but Johansson as Pursy Hominy Will, a young woman who returns to New Orleans to reclaim her childhood home, received her usual round of applause. Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly claimed that Johansson instills in Pursy an "unflustered intelligence," and that the "arresting actress is a welcome to this otherwise unmemorable party."


Johansson's manager-mother, Melanie, received a producer credit for Bobby Long, primarily because she helped to get the project off the shelf and into production. This probably will not be her last producer credit, since Johansson now has the clout to push her favorite projects forward. For example, since she received a copy of the book Marjorie Morningstar for her seventeenth birthday, the young actress has been trying to launch a remake of the 1958 movie of the same name. The book was written in 1955 by American author Herman Wouk (1915–); the 1958 movie starred legendary screen actress Natalie Wood (1939–1981).

In the meantime Johansson's plate is more than full. In 2005, she released two movies: Match Point, a film by celebrated director Woody Allen (1935–), and The Island, a futuristic thriller that centers on two clones on the run from a high-tech cloning facility. When asked why she decided to do her first action movie, Johansson explained to Paul Fischer of Moviehole.com, "It was just a great script. Exciting and fun. I love genre movies when they're done really well and I think they accomplish what a film is trying to do, which is allow you to escape your life for a couple of hours."

The busy Johansson also had three movies slated for a 2006 release: The Black Dahlia, directed by famous filmmaker Brian DePalma (1940–), the drama A View from the Bridge, and a second Woody Allen offering. In addition, there were rumors that British composer Andrew Lloyd Webber (1948–) was eyeing the film star to play Maria in a London stage revival of the musical The Sound of Music.

According to Peter Webber, the director of Girl with a Pearl Earring, who spoke with Eve Epstein, "There's something of the classic movie star in [Johansson], but the hard part will be navigating the treacherous shores of stardom." So far, the former child actress has managed to keep herself afloat quite well, taking her fame in stride. In late 2004 she was chosen as the face of a new perfume by designer Calvin Klein (1942–) called Eternity Moment. As reported on PR Newswire, Calvin Klein executive Kim Vernon commented that "Scarlett is a talented young force that exudes sophistication and confidence that is not readily seen today, and she balances it all with a relaxed attitude and a sense of humor."

As sophisticated as she appears, Johansson is still a kid at heart. When she turned twenty in December 2004, part of her celebration included a stop at Disneyland, where she got Mickey Mouse's autograph. Later that night her mother threw her a party at a top Hollywood nightspot decorated with Eeyore and Little Mermaid balloons. As for her future, Johansson faces it with her usual calm and frank demeanor. And she remains committed to the career she took up when she was in elementary school. "Making movies is all I ever wanted," Johansson admitted to People. "I don't plan on retiring until I die."


Ansen, David. "Scarlett Fever: Meet Ms. Johansson, an 18-year-old Who Doesn't Act Her Age." Newsweek (September 15, 2003): p. 64.

Cohen, Scott Lyle. "Scarlett Johansson: Making the Competition See Red." Interview (July 2001): p. 22.

Eisner, Ken. "Review of Ghost World. " Variety (June 25, 2001): p. 22.

Epstein, Eve. "Scarlett Fever." Variety (December 8, 2003): p. S38–47.

Fuller, Graham. "Scarlett Johansson: We Live in a New Age That Needs New Love Stories, and New Presences to Tell Them. Here Is an Actress Born for these Roles." Interview (September 2003): pp. 188–94.

Jensen, Jeff. "The New Ingenues." Entertainment Weekly (November 14, 2003): p. 56.

Lynch, Jason. "Scarlett Fever." People (January 24, 2005): p. 95.

Rozen, Leah. "Review of Girl with a Pearl Earring. " People (January 26, 2004): p. 27.

"Scarlett Johansson Signed as Face for Calvin Klein Fragrance." P R Newswire (February 17, 2004).

Schneider, Karen S. "Real Attitude: A Movie Vet at 18, Lost in Translation's Scarlett Johansson Can Still Use a Hug." People (October 6, 2003): p. 113.

Schwarzbaum, Lisa. "Review of A Love Song for Bobby Long. " Entertainment Weekly (January 28, 2005): p. 64.


She made her name in independent films before Lost In Translation propelled her onto Hollywood's A-list. The Island dented her stellar reputation but this starlet is sure to fight back.

Scarlett has a twin brother, Hunter, born to father Karsten, a New York architect, and mother, Melanie (now Scarlett's manager). They have an older half-brother, Christian, an older sister, Vanessa, and an older brother, Adrian.

Their father was born in Denmark and their mother is from Polish stock, who emigrated to the Bronx. Karsten and Melanie separated when the twins were 13-years old, and are now divorced.

Johansson's parents were very open about allowing her to pursue her interests. She apparently told her mother at the tender age of three, "I have a fire in my brain to act". Her early desire to be in musicals, led to her attending tap dance classes and she auditioned for a few advertisements. She enjoyed a normal family life and attended regular school in New York.

She was only seven-years-old when she became seriously aspiring and her acting career was launched in the off-Broadway production on 'Sophistry' (1992), with Ethan Hawke.
At age eight, Johansson had an uncredited role in a skit on television show 'Late Night with Conan O'Brien' (1993), during its first year on air.

Her film debut came at age nine, when she played the role of Laura Nelson in comedy drama 'North' (1994), about an attention-deprived boy, North, who files a lawsuit against his parents and sets off around the world to find replacements who really care about him.

Following that, Johansson appeared as Kate Armstrong in 'Just Cause' (1995), Harvard law professor Paul Armstrong's (Sean Connery) daughter. Also in the cast were Lawrence Fishburne and Blair Underwood.

In the comedy, 'If Lucy Fell' (1996), she had the role of Emily, co-starring with the likes of Ben Stiller, Sarah Jessica Parker and Elle Macpherson. By age 11, Johansson had been nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for her role as Amanda, in the drama about two runaway sisters, 'Manny & Lo' (1996).

Her next two films would only bring her small roles, with her two-word contribution in 'Fall' (1997), and the unremarkable part of middle child, Molly, in 'Home Alone 3' (1998).

Her next big role saw Johansson playing 14-year-old Grace MacLean in 'The Horse Whisperer' (1998), based on the hugely successful novel by Nicholas Evans. Robert Redford both directed and starred in the film, as well as Tom Booker, with Kristin Scott Thomas and Sam Neill. Johansson received a Hollywood Reporter Young Star award for this role.

In 1998, she auditioned for a role in 'The Parent Trap' but it went to Lindsay Lohan instead.

She had the starring role, as Kathy, in the comedy 'My Brother the Pig' (1999), a children's film about a boy who is turned into a pig, and his sister who tries to help get him changed back before their parents return from holiday.

Then came 'Ghost World' (2001), a screen adaptation of the Daniel Clowes comic about the adventures of two teenage girls dealing with life after school. Johansson played 18-year-old Rebecca, whilst herself only 15, in a sensitive portrayal of teenage angst, growing up and friendships.

Johansson starred as Rachel 'Birdy' Abundas, with Billy Bob Thornton, in 'The Man Who Wasn't There' (2001), a black and white film about passion, crime and punishment.
In 'An American Rhapsody' (2001), with Nastassja Kinski, she is a young girl who escapes communist Hungary in the 1950s and travels to America. It was a demanding role, based on true events, and another opportunity to prove her talent as a serious actor.

After all this seriousness, Johansson appeared as Ashley Parker in the rather camp remake of 1950s B-movies about giant spiders, 'Eight Legged Freaks' (2002).

Johansson had always attended the Professional Children's School, in Manhattan, New York, and she graduated in 2002, announcing her intention to study Film at Purchase University, New York, starting in September 2003. She applied but unfortunately, was not accepted.

She then decided to put all her energy into her career, which soon paid off.
Sofia Coppola's 'Lost in Translation' (2003), set in Tokyo, came along and Johansson gave a touching performance as Charlotte, a young newlywed, who strikes up a relationship with a jaded movie star, Bob Harris (Bill Murray), while staying in Japan. For this, she won the Upstream Prize for Best Actress, and was only 17 when the film was shot.

Her dramatic skills amply displayed, she next worked on 'Girl with a Pearl Earring' (2003), playing Griet in this intriguing, highly seductive story behind one of Vermeer's greatest paintings.

In June 2004, Johansson was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). She appeared as Francesca Curtis in the teenage comedy/crime 'The Perfect Score' (2004). This was followed by her role as Parsy Will, with John Travolta, in 'A Love Song for Bobby Long' (2004).

Also released that year was 'A Good Woman' (2004), in which Johansson played Lady Windermere in this screen adaptation of Oscar Wilde's play 'Lady Windermere's Fan'.
She was the voice of Mindy in 'The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie' (2004), where she worked with David Hasselhoff, one of her childhood heartthrobs. 'In Good Company' (2004) brought her the role of Alex Foreman, the type of woman Johansson says she would be if she had not chosen to be act: "…very cool, very relaxed, and very honest".

The futuristic 'The Island’ (2005), set in the mid 21st-century, saw Johansson playing Jordan Two-Delta, with Ewan McGregor and Steve Buscemi. She and McGregor reportedly found the rigours of all the running and action of the movie agonising and discovered muscles they had forgotten about.

Johansson was directed by Woody Allen for her role of Nola Rice in 'Match Point' (2005), shot entirely in England, and also starring Jonathan Rhys-Meyers. Also that year was 'The Black Dahlia' (2005), directed by Brian De Palma, an adaptation of the James Ellroy novel about a 1947 Hollywood murder. In it, Johansson starred as Kay Lake, with Hilary Swank and Josh Hartnett.

She followed this with a role in 'The Prestige' with Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman in 2006. The following year, Johansson only appeared in one film 'The Nanny Diaries' as she focused on her musical career.

In mid-2007, she spent time recording a music album consisting of one original song and ten covers of Tom Waits' songs. It also featured contributions from David Bowie, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Celebration. Her album 'Anywhere I Lay My Head' was released to mixed reviews on 20 May 2008.

She returned to acting in 2008, playing Mary Boleyn in the adaptation of Phillipa Gregory's novel 'The Other Boleyn Girl', followed by 'Vicky Christina Barcelona' and 'The Spirit'.

In 2009, Johansson appeared in 'He's Just Not That Into You', before making her debut as the Black Widow in 'Iron Man 2' in 2010. She will be reprising this role in the 2012 film 'Avengers Assemble' and possibly in 'Iron Man 3', which is set for release in 2013.

Johansson will also be starring in 'Under the Skin' in 2012 and has been singled out for a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Next year, she will play Janet Leigh in 'Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho' and will also act in 'Don Jon's Addiction' and 'Can A Song Save Your Life?'.

Johansson has proved her natural acting ability time and again and she is recognised as one of the most promising young Hollywood actors. She is not in it for the money, but rather to build a career. This is, and always has been, her life's passion. There is no doubt that she will continue to select extraordinary roles and continue to play them with sensitivity and depth.

A multi-million dollar deal with L'Oreal was confirmed on 5 January 2006. Johansson was the face of the new colour line 'HIP High Intensity Pigments'. The deal is reportedly worth $3million, with the company hoping to generate a further $50million in sales in the first year.

Johansson is known for being extremely private about her love life but it is known that she started dating Canadian actor Ryan Reynolds in 2007, with the couple becoming engaged on 5 May 2008. They married in a quiet ceremony on 27 September 2008 and bought a home together in California.

On 14 December 2010, they announced they had separated citing irreconcilable differences. Their divorce was finalised on 1 July 2011.

She currently divides her personal time between New York, where she sees her father and her twin brother, Hunter, and Los Angeles, where her mother lives. In fact, Johansson bought an apartment in the same block as her mother, who besides being her business manager, provides her with love, encouragement and support.

Having been noticed for possessing fine skills and elegance that transcend her young age, Scarlett I. Johansson surely has risen to be one of Hollywood's most promising young actresses of the 21st century. Born on November 22, 1984 in New York City, New York, she is a Danish, Polish, and Jewish descendant for being the youngest daughter of Karsten and Melanie Johansson. Scarlett grew up happily alongside her twin brother, Hunter; two other siblings Adrian and Vanessa, plus an older half brother named Christian. Her deep interest in acting came up when she just barely 3 years old as she told her mother that she had the fire in her brain to act. With her mother's support, she started to enter some auditions for films and managed to land her first role at the age of 8 in the off-Broadway production of "Sophistry" at New York's Playwrights Horizons Theatre.

Finally able to make her big screen debut in 1994 through a small role in "North", Scarlett afterwards appeared in "Just Cause" (1995) as Kate Armstrong, the daughter of Sean Connery's character Paul Armstrong. However, it was through "Manny & Lo" (1996) that she began to draw public attention due to the critics' praise she had received. This particular film even led her, for the first time, to be nominated as Best Female Lead at Independent Spirit Awards. Her acting career later received a boost when she acted as a troubled girl who had lost her legs because of a riding accident in "The Horse Whisperer" (1998). Despite the ironic condition of being given an "introducing" credit, she successfully gained huge praise and was acknowledged as a potential teen actress of Hollywood.

After taking part alongside Thora Birch in "Ghost World" (2000), Scarlett smoothly strove to confirm her status as a talented and serious artist by joining the casts of "An American Rhapsody" and "The Man Who Wasn't There" which both were released in 2001. Eva Gardos, the "Rhapsody" director even wholeheartedly complimented her. "When I met her, I just felt there was something very solid and strong about her," she commented. "I think she has a really interesting face and interesting responses." By 2002, Scarlett finally was graduated from Manhattan's The Professional Children's School, but being failed to enter New York University's Tisch School of the Arts in 2003, she then decided to focus her attention on her acting career and called off her intention to continue her study at Purchase University.

Scarlett's determination to be fully involved in acting brought a wonderful result since her star shone brightly after she took part in Peter Webber's "Girl with a Pearl Earring" (2003) and Sophia Coppola's "Lost in Translation" (2003). Her performances in both films were marvelously exquisite so that she once again obtained positive reviews with critics even comparing her to the phenomenal actresses like Lauren Bacall and Marilyn Monroe. Furthermore, she surprisingly earned two nominations at Golden Globe Awards in 2004 for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy as well as Drama. Although she later was left empty-handed, the starlet could still smile as BAFTA wonderfully granted her its Best Actress Award in the same year. All of these surely gave her many opportunities to get her career a solid hold. During 2004, she was seen in some good movies, such as "A Love Song for Bobby Long," "A Good Woman," and "In Good Company."

For the next two years, Scarlett joyously saw herself get busier filming many movie projects, starring in "The Island" (2005) then appearing in a number of 2006 movies like "The Prestige," "The Black Dahlia," "Match Point" and "Scoop," the latter two being under the direction of noted filmmaker Woody Allen. Previously cast in "Mission: Impossible 3" (2006) but eventually decided to quit because of scheduling conflicts, she next toplined The Weinstein Co.'s big screen adaptation of Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus' best-selling novel "The Nanny Diaries" (2007) as well as period drama "The Other Boleyn Girl" (2008). The busy period continued as she was again picked up by Allen to lead his "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" (2008) apart from her titular role in "Mary Queen of Scots" (2008) and antagonistic part as Silken Floss in "The Spirit" (2009).

As for her private life, Scarlett once dated Hollywood Latin actor Benicio Del Toro before established a love relationship with Jared Leto then her "Black Dahlia" co-star Josh Hartnett. Sadly, she and Hartnett decided to go separate ways at the end of 2006 after nearly two years together with the latter citing their busy lives as the reason for the split. Following the break-up, the beauty often made media headlines with her being linked to pop singer Justin Timberlake and actor Mark Wahlberg, but finally was found to fall into he arms of Ryan Reynolds and made their romance go public in May 2007.


Often a young actress will deliver a performance so strong, so mature she is feted as the Next Big Thing. But the description is usually used more in hope than expectation. We all know that many years and many films can pass before she'll live up to her early promise, if indeed she ever does. Early 2004, though, saw the arrival of a young talent who seemed near fully-formed, despite being still in her teens. As said, many youngsters break through with one outstanding performance, yet here was Scarlett Johansson, double-nominated at the Golden Globes and BAFTAs for the parts she played in Lost In Translation and Girl With A Pearl Earring. A double-nominee - this showed a consistent level of excellence ordinarily only reached by the likes of Meryl Streep, Julianne Moore and Holly Hunter. And this was an 18-year-old. Surely, there could this time be no doubt that this was the Next Big Thing.

Actually, close observers had been saying this about Johansson for some considerable time. Way back in 1996 she'd been nominated for an Independent Spirit award for Manny And Lo, then received worldwide plaudits for her part in Robert Redford's The Horse Whisperer. Striking roles in gritty teen flick Ghost World and the Coen brothers' The Man Who Wasn't There pushed her claim still further. Given that kind of CV, her 2004 burst-out seems less sensational than overdue.

She was born on the 22nd of November, 1984, in New York City. Her father, of Danish extraction, was a building contractor in Manhattan, while her mother, Melanie, looked after kids Adrian, Vanessa, Scarlett and Hunter, Hunter being Scarlett's twin, younger than her by three minutes ("the most important three minutes of my life", she's said). As Hunter would grow to 6' 3", with dark eyes and hair, Scarlett would later comment that they were as much like real twins as Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito. There was also a half-brother, living with his mother in Denmark. Scarlett's name was, in a new family tradition, taken from Gone With The Wind, mother Melanie, of course, sharing the name of Scarlett O'Hara's friend and benefactor Melanie Hamilton.

The family having no theatrical background, Scarlett's entry to the industry came almost by accident. A friend of Melanie's, struck by the siblings' good looks, began referring to them as "the cute little Johansson family" and suggested they seek work in commercials. Melanie thought she'd give it a go and took the kids off to an agency for a cold reading. The audition went fairly well, the agents being quite keen on elder brother Adrian, but the other children were deemed surplus to requirements. It was about what Melanie had expected. What she certainly didn't expect, though, was the reaction of her youngest daughter, Scarlett, who went into hysterical fits right there in the office. It wasn't so much that Adrian had been chosen above her, or even that Adrian had been chosen despite not caring if he were chosen or not. It was that, even at the age of 7, she so desperately wanted to make it in TV and films.

Previous to this, Melanie had had no inkling of Scarlett's ambitions. She knew the girl was a big movie fan and had a thing for wartime glamour queens like Judy Garland and Rosalind Russell (her big favourite was Lucille Ball) but she'd thought ballet lessons would sate her appetite for melodramatic stories and pretty dresses. In fact, Scarlett, allowed by her mother to watch pretty anything she wanted (she'd see The Silence Of The Lambs at age 8), had a much more mature view of the movies than anyone suspected. Not only did she have an idea of their artistic scope, she'd also considered how they were made, and she really, really wanted to make them. It was her one and only desire.

First things first. Scarlett gave up ballet and began the long, painful round of auditions for commercials. Often advertisers would not make it plain what kind of character they were seeking, leaving the likes of Scarlett to sit around for hours only to discover a small Chinese boy was required. When called upon at all, she tried too hard to sell herself, consequently putting potential employers off. She did not react well to this serial rejection and the thwarting of her precocious dreams. After one particularly fraught tantrum on the subway, Melanie decided they would from now on only search for film roles. She also gave in to her daughter's wise demands for schooling in her chosen profession, enrolling her at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute for Young People.

Here Scarlett would study from the age of 8 till 11. Proving an instant hit, she appeared off-Broadway at Playwright Horizons, alongside Ethan Hawke in Jonathan Marc Sherman's play Sophistry, in a brief speaking role. At the Institute, she spent half a semester in the youngsters' class, then was promoted to the young adult sessions. Though always the youngest there, she would never appear out of place, her intelligence, natural ability and that deep, throaty voice keeping her on a par with the others. Now she would gain some serious stage experience, acting in front of audiences and, amazingly for one so young, learning the rudiments of Stanislavsky's Method.

Unlike adverts, film roles did come her way. First she scored a part in North, Rob Reiner's disastrous morality tale, wherein young Elijah Wood tries to "divorce" his negligent parents and seeks better options elsewhere, notably in Texas, Alaska and France. Scarlett would play Laura Nelson, screen daughter of John Ritter and Faith Ford, inhabitants of the sunny suburb of Bedford, who prove to be Wood's best alternative family.

Next would come a very different proposition in Just Cause. Here she was the young daughter of Sean Connery and Kate Capshaw, Connery being a Harvard law professor agitating against capital punishment, who's asked to return to practice and defend an apparently innocent man on Death Row in Florida. There are many twists and turns, one involving Ed Harris as an impressively barmy psycho, before Scarlett finds herself terrorised by the real villain of the piece. Working with Connery was a thrilling experience for the young actress, and there was sterling advice too from co-star Laurence Fishburne. Sitting beside on a plane, he asked if she wanted to be an actress or a star - at some point she was going to have to choose. More potential Hollywood pitfalls would be pointed out to her later by former wild child Drew Barrymore.

Having been attending public school in New York, Scarlett would be informed that her absences for work would not be tolerated. She'd transfer to a private establishment, then later receive tuition onset. Eventually she'd attend the Professional Children's School in Manhattan, graduating in Sping, 2002.

After her high-budget entry, she stepped back onto a lower level for a while with appearances in two movies by comedian and auteur Eric Schaeffer. The first of these was If Lucy Fell where two friends, teacher Schaeffer and therapist Sarah Jessica Parker agreed a suicide pact if neither of them finds true love in 28 days, Schaeffer seeking it with neighbour Elle Macpherson and Parker with nutty action artist Ben Stiller. Scarlett would play one of Schaeffer's wise young charges. Then came Fall, a more serious romance where cab driver Schaeffer engages in an affair with lonely, unhappily married supermodel Amanda de Cadenet and has to live with the fall-out.

Between these two came a movie that would bring Johansson to the attention of the industry, including one Sofia Coppola, then looking towards a career in directing. This was Manny And Lo, written and directed by former Jim Jarmusch aide Lisa Krueger. Here 16-year-old Lo (Aleksa Palladino) and her younger sister Manny (Scarlett) are both in foster homes after their drunken stoner mum has handed them over. Lo breaks out, rescues her sister, hot-wires a motor and the pair find freedom by stealing groceries and living in model homes. Then, with Lo falling pregnant, they kidnap a clerk from a baby supplies store and hole up in a remote cabin, their need for a mother gradually being balanced by their victim's desire for children. With Scarlett narrating as well as playing a more sensible foil to her wayward sister, the movie was recognised as an excellent character study, earning Johansson an Independent Spirit nomination.

Now she moved on to her first kids' movie, Home Alone 3. Here, briefly, she played the older sister of Alex D Linz, a child home alone with chicken pox, who foils, electrocutes and generally tortures a gang of international criminals systematically breaking into every house in the street looking for a computer chip hidden in a toy car. All in all, it was a reasonable sequel, and brought up interesting parallels between Johansson and the franchise's original star, Macauley Culkin. Having attended the Lee Strasberg Institute, worked with Sean Connery and Rob Reiner, then gained experience in the New York independent scene, all the while avoiding kiddies' fare, Scarlett was clearly looking to avoid the disaster that adolescence had visited upon Culkin.

She proved this further with her next picture, Robert Redford's adaptation of Nicholas Evans' bestseller The Horse Whisperer. At first the movie was supposed to have featured Natalie Portman but, after a series of production delays, she pulled out to take The Diary Of Anne Frank on Broadway. In stepped Scarlett (the credits would read "Introducing Scarlett Johansson") to play Grace Maclean, a young girl who suffers a terrible accident while out riding her horse in a snowy wood, she losing her foot and the horse its mind. Mother Kristin Scott Thomas, a pushy magazine editor, believes that if her beloved mount recovers so will Grace, so she badgers horse-doctor Redford to let them all stay on his Montana ranch while he works on soothing the steed. As it happens, Redford's famed patience works on both horse and girl, as he teaches her to drive, calms her anger and convinces her that, even disfigured, she can be loved. Indeed, as Redford and Scott Thomas's love scenes lacked a certain spark, it was his work with Johansson that made the film so impressive. Afterwards, Redford would describe his young co-star as "13 going on 30". Johansson, in her usual smart and humorous manner, would recall Redford directing her in the accident scene, where the truck is approaching. Trying to summon suspense and dread in the young actress he slowly approached her, off-camera, saying "And it comes to you, closer . . . closer . . . closer". And all the while Johansson was thinking "This isn't scary. It's every middle-aged woman's dream come true".

For her work on The Horse Whisperer, Scarlett would be nominated for a Young Artist award. She would not, though, be inundated with work. For a while, the only offers she received were to play "horseback champions with fatal diseases" or sexy teens menaced by be-masked slaughterers. Luckily, her family was not in need of money, so she could afford to bide her time, taking only the family comedy My Brother The Pig. Here she played a 14-year-old enduring all the usual insecurities and ultra-dramas of that age, as well as being pestered continually by her wind-up merchant of a little brother. However, when the brother is turned into a pig by his voodoo-practising nanny, Scarlett must draw upon her sense of forgiveness and take the pig to Mexico, avoiding enthusiastic butchers along the way, in search of the nanny's granny, the only one who can reverse the spell.

The movie was acceptable light-hearted fun, very different from her next feature, the sophisticated black comedy Ghost World. Based on Daniel Clowes' graphic novel, this saw Scarlett and Thora Birch as two friends, drawn together by their scorn for society and their peers, who are about to graduate from High School. Bored and contemptuous, everyone is a target for their smart-arsed ridicule, from jocks to wheelchair victims. Together, they plan to skip college, rent a flat and continue their unconventional existence in thrift shops, video stores and old-style diners. But then Scarlett gets a job in a coffee-house and reveals an all-too-normal ambition, leaving Birch to ward off loneliness with the aid of weirdo record-freak Steve Buscemi.

Though the movie was based around Birch's character, Johansson made a great showing as Rebecca, the inadvertent traitor who sacrifices painful integrity for empty conformity. Particularly in the early scenes, where she and Birch hilariously snap against the shallowness and stupidity of their world, she was tremendous, that husky voice serving her brilliantly well (she'd actually be described as "the new Lauren Bacall"). Ghost World would manage that rare double of making money and being hip.

Hip would certainly describe her next outing, too. In the Coen brothers' The Man Who Wasn't There, Billy Bob Thornton played a lowly 1940s barber who plots to escape from his small-town lethargy by blackmailing his wife's businessman lover, James Gandolfini, a plan that leads to much confusion and sloppy murder. As the catastrophe unfolds, Thornton spots Birdy (Scarlett) playing piano at a works Christmas party, her youthful innocence and spirited rendition of Beethoven proving too much for this thoughtful but massively inhibited fellow. Though he'd never act on his feelings, he becomes infatuated with her, encouraging her in her playing as a substitute for more earthy advances. And, for her part, she proves to be far from the na've ingenue he'd thought her to be, in gratitude going down on him in his car, forcing from him the side-splitting exclamation "Heavens to Betsy!"

This was a wicked take on classic noir cinema (the film was actually released in black and white) where no one is as they seem and all purity is just a skin-thin coating on a lake of turpitude. Again Johansson was excellent. Having overplayed her hand in those ad auditions years before, she had learned to control her efforts, never vamping or overstating - she's said she hates that in other actresses. As Birdy, she gave nothing away, allowing Thornton, and the audience to think what they would - and thus expertly setting up their big shock.

Following this came An American Rhapsody, written and directed by Eva Gardos, who'd been editor on both Mask and Barfly. An autobiographical piece, it saw a family fleeing Hungary to escape the Stalinist purges but leaving a new-born daughter behind with foster parents. When the child is 6, they return to bring her to their new home in America. Nine years later, the girl (now embodied by Scarlett) tries hard to be a child of the Sixties, smoking and sneaking out the bedroom window to be with her boyfriend. But her transplantation has marked her, she feels her mother (Nastassja Kinski) has stolen her from her "real" parents in Hungary, she's glowering and hostile, purposefully secretive and brimming over with passive aggression. Only when her demands to return to her birthplace are met does she have any idea why she is where she is.

This was a demanding role, complex beyond most teen parts, and it won Scarlett a Young Artist award. Yet still, despite having proven her quality, it didn't lead to a run of prime parts, mostly because, when needing teen actors, most casting agents were seeking young-looking 24-year-olds. Instead, Johansson contented herself with the roustabout comedy horror of Eight Legged Freaks. Here a barrel of toxic waste is spilled near Prosperity, Arizona and turns a local scientist's spider collection into a riot of man-eating monsters. Meanwhile David Arquette is back in town and rekindling a romance with cute Sheriff Kari Wuhrer. At first Scarlett's role as the Sheriff's daughter seemed superfluous, but quickly she became the town's unheeded Cassandra and joined in the fight as the movie reached a Dawn Of The Dead-style shopping mall crescendo.

As comedy horrors go, Eight Legged Freaks was a superior effort, both funny and thrilling. And Johansson's cannily chosen series of successes continued with Sofia Coppola's Lost In Translation. As said, Coppola had spotted Scarlett's performance in Manny And Lo and, once Bill Murray had agreed to play the male lead, brought her onboard as Charlotte, a recently married Yale philosophy grad hanging around Tokyo while her photographer husband, Giovanni Ribisi, completes a job. In the same hotel she meets Murray, a much older film star in the city for a multi-million-dollar whiskey ad. He's lost, distanced from his family and no longer sure what he's working towards. She's lost, too, her marriage having drifted into indolence and her ambitions turned to mist. And, over one week in Japan, in patchinko and karaoke joints and especially in the hotel bar, they discuss their lives and gradually fall in love.

It was wonderful stuff. Despite a 35 year age difference, the two leads made their sexless affair wholly credible and truly moving. Once more Scarlett had succeeded, managing to shine even when under fire from Murray's notorious ad-libbing. She won a BAFTA and was nominated for a Golden Globe, though at the Oscars she was oddly ignored.

Still more glory was to come immediately when she was also Golden Globe - and BAFTA - nominated for her next picture, Girl With A Pearl Earring, based on Tracy Chevalier's speculative novel. Set in 17th Century Amsterdam, this saw her taken on as a maid in the house of artist Johannes Vermeer, played by a typically smouldering and vulnerable Colin Firth. Though a peasant, she instinctively appreciates art and comes to help him in his studio. In turn, he recognises her natural eye and appreciates her beauty. He'd like to paint her but daren't for the scandal it would cause in the house. Lucky for the art world, then, when Firth's patron Tom Wilkinson fancies her arse off and demands a portrait (as the old saying goes - paint a portrait, it'll last longer).

Once more Johansson was excellent, in her relationship with Firth, her discovery and gradual understanding of his work, and her tryst with the butcher's boy, a lover more appropriate for one of her lowly standing. Yet once again she was overlooked at the Oscars.

Having now left school, 2004 would see her rise to her highest profile yet. After Girl With A Pearl Earring she's star in The Perfect Score as one of a gang of High School seniors who break into the Princeton Testing Centre and steal the answers to their SATs, only to discover that getting 100% in a test doesn't necessarily make you happy. Then would come A Love Song For Bobby Long where she played a headstrong girl of trailer-trash extraction who inherits a New Orleans home from her mother only to find despairing drunken wasters John Travolta and Gabriel Macht living there. Naturally, her ebullience and natural radiance lifts the men out of the trough of despond.

The movie would be interesting in several ways beyond the work itself. First, it saw Johansson coupling with Travolta and thus, after Murray, Thornton and Firth, continuing a notable series of much, much older lovers (it's to her credit that she's not been overshadowed by any of them). Second, the movie was co-produced by Melanie Johansson. And third it was financed by El Camino Pictures, a company set up by the William Morris Agency to finance low-budget ($5-10 million) films by their clients (Travolta, Johansson and director Shainee Gabel were all Morris clients) and others. The "others" was very important there, as agents have an agreement with the Actors' Guild that they should never be producers, lest total monopolies be born. It appeared that El Camino Pictures, perhaps, was threatening that agreement.

Whatever the source of her employment, the buzz around her meant that Scarlett was not wanting for work. She moved on to A Good Woman, an update of Oscar Wilde's first successful comedy, Lady Windermere's Fan, here set in the 1930s. Helen Hunt played Mrs Erlynne, a woman of a certain age and reputation who, due to unpaid bills in New York City, travels to the Amalfi coast to seek out newly wed New York socialites, the Windermeres (Scarlett being the Lady Windermere of Wilde's title). Now begins a comedy of manners, hypocrisy, scandal, betrayal and secret loyalty as Scarlett suspects Hunt of nailing her hubbie and engages in naughtiness of her own with that immense cad Lord Darlington (Stephen Campbell Moore).

Neither A Good Woman or A Love Song For Bobby Long would deliver box office gold (though the latter would bring her another Golden Globe nomination), yet Johansson would still enjoy two hits in 2004. In the first of these, The SpongeBob Squarepants Movie, she lent her voice to Princess Mindy, daughter of sea-king Neptune, helping the titular sponge foil a plot to steal her father's crown. Then there'd be In Good Company where Dennis Quaid, an aging advertising exec on a sports mag, found himself replaced by young go-getter Topher Grace. Not only has Grace taken Quaid's job, he also milks him for information on how to do it AND has the temerity to date his beloved daughter, Johansson. But this was not simply a predictable case of a decent man fighting back against some smarmy corporate raider, it was more complex and satisfying than that, and Johansson was charismatic enough to explain why her character was so treasured. On the strength of word of mouth, In Good Company would take a very healthy $45 million at the US box office.

Johansson was now leading a remarkably busy life. Having split from boyfriend Patrick Wilson, she'd briefly take up with another actor, Jared Leto. She'd model for Calvin Klein, Louis Vuitton and Estee Lauder, before joining a major campaign by L'Oreal that also involved Halle Berry, Penelope Cruz, Jane Fonda and Julianne Moore. She exhibited traditional Hollywood left-wing tendencies when campaigning for John Kerry in the 2004 Presidential elections. She'd furthermore more join in Reese Witherspoon's attempt to control the paparazzi when, hounded by photographers, she crashed her car.

In terms of her career, she'd never been busier. Considering her work-rate, few people had. Though she pulled out of the righteously indie Thumbsucker and the purposefully gigantic Mission: Impossible 3, she did find time to become Woody Allen's latest muse as he briefly moved his operations to London. 2005's Match Point would be hailed as a genuine return to form for Allen as he explored a complicated clash between a monied family and parasitic gold-diggers. Jonathan Rhys Meyers would play a tennis coach going after rich Emily Mortimer, with Scarlett playing a wannabe actress hoping to grab Mortimer's brother Matthew Goode. Everyone's devious, everyone's desirous, but will anyone find happiness? It was all the funnier for being played straight, and Johansson would receive yet another Golden Globe nomination.

Very different would be The Island, Johansson's first big budget action movie. Or rather, it was half an action movie, the first half of the movie being a fine slice of claustrophobic sci-fi where Johansson and Ewan McGregor are docile citizens in a sterile future-city built to protect them from the rampant pollution outside. The second half was typical of director Michael Bay (Pearl Harbour, Armageddon), involving some tremendously exciting fleeing as the young couple defy the authorities and wind up on the run. Despite the pyrotechnics, The Island was a giant flop, taking $35 million on a budget of $126 million, and the producers were properly peeved, even taking the rare step of criticizing their stars, saying McGregor and Johansson weren't big enough to carry such a blockbuster. They were stars of the future, they claimed, not the present. And, at least in the case of Johansson, they were probably right.

2006 would be another big year for Scarlett. She'd begin it in controversial style by appearing naked alongside Keira Knightley on the cover of Vanity Fair (Rachel McAdams, intended to complete a hot babe trio, pulled out at the last). She'd then drop out of Andrew Lloyd Webber's London stage revival of The Sound Of Music, inadvertently launching a fantastically tedious reality TV show designed to find a replacement. She'd pop up in the video for Bob Dylan's comeback single When The Deal Goes Down, directed by Bennett Miller, an Oscar-winner for Capote. And there'd be the usual tabloid frenzy when she began to date Josh Hartnett, her co-star in the upcoming The Black Dahlia.

Johansson's first effort of 2006 would be Scoop, a quick reunion with Woody Allen. Unlike Match Point, though, this would be played for laughs as Scarlett, a journalism student in London, joins magician Allen in a search for the Tarot Card Serial Killer, who may well be aristo Hugh Jackman. Johansson and Jackman would, of course, make a fine-looking couple, but the movie was weakly scripted and Allen at his most embarrassing. More impressive, though still flawed, would be Brian De Palma's The Black Dahlia, based on James Ellroy's exploration of the 1947 murder of actress Elizabeth Short. Here Aaron Eckhart and Josh Hartnett would play cops on the Short case, with Eckart becoming obsessed with the killing and Hartnett getting ever closer to Eckhart's vampy girlfriend, Scarlett, tremendously glamorous in period gear but hiding a grim secret. As the investigation veers into high society, lesbianism and the dark heart of Hollywood, Hartnett and Johansson would enjoy a full-blown affair, one that would be replicated in real life. Johansson would also make a pair of appearances on Saturday Night Live, first as a guest alongside the band Death Cab For Cutie, then a couple of weeks later when a short film, the Tangent, which didn't fit into the original show was finally aired. Johansson would again host Saturday Night Live in 2007, this time alongside Bjork.

Following The Black Dahlia would come The Prestige where director Christopher Nolan and his new Batman, Christian Bale, took a break from Gotham City to create some real drama. Here Bale and Hugh Jackman (recently Johansson's co-star in Scoop) would play rival illusionists in Victorian London, each trying to outdo the other, desperation driving them to espionage, sabotage and even murder, with Scarlett playing a stage assistant and paramour who further inflames an already ugly relationship.

Come 2007, Johansson was a big star, fortuitously seen as both a fine actress and a sex siren. This would allow her great scope in choosing her roles, and she proved it when starring in The Nanny Diaries, a comedy where she played a New York college student working for rich couple Laura Linney and Paul Giamatti, having to deal with her studies and a new relationship, as well as this messed-up couple and their spoiled brat of a child. Then would come yet more period drama in The Other Boleyn Girl, based on the novel by Philippa Gregory. This would be a prestigious piece, featuring the heavyweight likes of Eric Bana (as Henry VIII) and Kristen Scott Thomas, with Scarlett playing the sister of Anne Boleyn, catching Henry's eye but being gradually superseded by her manipulative sister and forced to struggle for her very life. Interestingly, the scheming Anne Boleyn would be played by Natalie Portman, whose withdrawal from The Horse Whisperer ten years before had done so much to launch Johansson's career.

Unusually, 2007 would see Johansson move towards music. Having sung backing vocals for The Jesus And Mary Chain at the Coachella festival, and sung Summertime on the Hollywood charity album Unexpected Dreams, she'd begin recording a debut album. At first considering a collection of torch songs or a series of Cole Porter covers, she at last decided to delve into the songbook of Tom Waits. Judging her initial efforts in the studio to be dire, she'd recruit as her producer Dave Sitek of New York indie eccentrics TV On the Radio and, recorded beside the Vermilion bayou in Louisiana, the result would be Anywhere I Lay My Head, a lush, dreamy and genuinely strange 10-tracker, with backing vocals on two tracks provided by David Bowie who'd earlier worked with TVOTR and, in The Prestige, Johansson. Sales would be low but reviews, amazingly given the record of actors moving into music, would be impressive.

2008 would be another big year. As well as releasing Anywhere I Lay My Head, Johansson would direct a Kevin Bacon-featuring segment of the movie New York, I Love You, an American take on Paris, Je T'Aime. She'd also get married, to fellow actor Ryan Reynolds. Onscreen she'd enjoy a reunion with Woody Allen in Vicky Cristina Barcelona where she and Rebecca Hall would play best friends deciding to spend the summer at the home of Hall's relatives in Barcelona. The pair would then both fall for artist Javier Bardem and be drawn into his tempestuous relationship with his former partner Penelope Cruz, a pain for the retiring Hall but an absolute joy for the more impulsive, adventurous, drama-loving Johansson. She'd end the year with a small part in The Spirit, another comic book adventure written and directed by Frank Miller. Here a cop, played by Johansson's Bobby Long co-star Gabriel Macht, would die and be reincarnated as an immortal law enforcer, taking on Samuel L Jackson's super-villain The Octopus. Much of the film's interest would come from its trio of vamps - Eva Mendes, Paz Vega and, as Jackson's accomplice, Johansson. 2009 would then see her join a strong female cast for He's Just Not That Into You, where she, Jennifer Aniston, Ginnifer Goodwin, Jennifer Connelly and Drew Barrymore would all face problems in the modern dating game, Johansson getting involved with a married man.

There can now be no doubt that in her maturity, experience and smart role-selection, Scarlett Johansson has made herself into one of the finer of her generation. Having been bloodymindedly pushing for it since the age of 7, you can't say she doesn't deserve it. And, having been chosen by Andrew Lloyd Webber for that role in The Sound Of Music, and begun directing, it seems certain we haven't seen the half of her talents yet.

Scarlett Johansson,  (born November 22, 1984, New York City, New York, U.S.), American actress and singer whose acting range and pinup-model good looks earned her popular acclaim in a variety of genres, from period drama to thriller and action adventure.

Johansson, daughter of an architect and a producer, was raised in New York City. She and her twin brother, Hunter, were the youngest of four siblings. She developed an interest in acting at a young age, auditioning for commercials by age seven. Soon after, she enrolled at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute and later attended the Professional Children’s School in Manhattan to further hone her craft. At age eight she appeared alongside Ethan Hawke in the Off-Broadway production Sophistry, and at nine she made her film debut in Rob Reiner’s North (1994). Johansson subsequently appeared in Just Cause (1995), but her first breakthrough came with Manny & Lo (1996), a coming-of-age film about orphaned sisters who run away. She next earned critical acclaim for her role as a teenager who has suffered a disfiguring accident in The Horse Whisperer (1998), and she gained further attention as cynical teen outcast Rebecca in Ghost World (2001).

Johansson came into her own playing more adult roles, notably that of the disillusioned Charlotte, a young woman bored with her life and her marriage who starts a complicated relationship with a middle-aged man (played by Bill Murray) in Lost in Translation (2003), and Griet, a housemaid who bewitches painter Johannes Vermeer (Colin Firth) in the historical drama Girl with a Pearl Earring (2003). In 2005 she appeared to critical acclaim in director Woody Allen’s Match Point, and she later starred in his films Scoop (2006) and Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008). Also in 2005 she costarred in her first big-budget action movie, The Island, alongside Ewan McGregor. Johansson continued to explore her acting range in the period drama The Other Boleyn Girl (2008), the romantic comedy He’s Just Not That into You (2009), and the heartwarming drama We Bought a Zoo (2011).

The Avengers [Credit: Marvel Entertainment]In 2010 she made her Broadway debut in A View from the Bridge and won a Tony Award for best actress. That same year she appeared in the action film Iron Man 2 as Natasha Romanoff, a secret agent otherwise known as the Black Widow, a role she went on to reprise in the superhero blockbusters The Avengers (2012), Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014), and Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015). She switched gears completely at the end of 2012, portraying actress Janet Leigh in the biopic Hitchcock. In 2013 she returned to the Broadway stage in a revival production of Tennessee Williams’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Later that year she starred as a woman dating a man who is addicted to pornography in the romantic comedy Don Jon and provided the voice of a sentient computer operating system in director Spike Jonze’s romance Her. She played a mysterious alien who drives around Glasgow and abducts men in Under the Skin (2013), a kindhearted restaurant hostess in Chef (2014), and a woman who develops superpowers after a mind-expanding drug enters her system in Lucy (2014).

Johansson also pursued opportunities aside from acting. After appearing on a charity album of star-studded song covers in 2006 and making a brief appearance singing backing vocals for the Jesus and Mary Chain at the 2007 Coachella music festival, she released her first album, a collection of Tom Waits covers called Anywhere I Lay My Head, in 2008. The following year she released an album of duets with Pete Yorn, called Break Up.

anked at number 12 on ‘Men's Health' magazine’s list of '100 Hottest Women of All-Time', Scarlett Johansson was also named as the ‘Sexiest Woman Alive' by ' Esquire' magazine. This four-time Golden Globe nominated American actress is one of the most talented, versatile actresses in Hollywood. She has successfully made her way up the ladder, making her mark as a powerful performer and achieving a place among the ‘A List’ actresses in the entertainment industry. Some of her well-known films include, 'Lost in Translation', ‘Match Point', 'The Nanny Diaries', 'Vicky Cristina Barcelona', 'The Avengers', 'Hitchcock', 'Girl with a Pearl Earring' and 'He's Just Not That into You'. She is widely regarded as a ‘peerless sex symbol' and is much known for her powerful onscreen sexual persona and appeal. She has been featured in a number of prestigious publications around the world. With a seductive voice, drop-dead gorgeous looks and great acting skills, Scarlett Johansson is a brilliant young woman, confident to take her stride and deliver breath-taking performances. She was born in New York and graduated from the Professional Children's School in Manhattan.

Scarlett Johansson was born on November 22, 1984 to the couple Karsten Johansson and Melanie Sloan in New York City, New York. She grew up in a humble environment in a household with limited means. EDIT
She was educated at P.S. 41 in the elite Greenwich Village neighbourhood. At the age of eight, she appeared in the Off-Broadway production, after which she went on to audition for other roles. EDIT
In 1994, she made her first appearance in the film ‘North’, when she was only nine years old. She later bagged roles in films 'Just Cause', 'If Lucy Fell' and 'Manny & Lo'. EDIT
In 2002, she enrolled at the Professional Children's School in Manhattan. There she trained in theatre.

n 2003, after her graduation, she did her first adult role as ‘Charlotte' in the comedy drama film, 'Lost in Translation'. The same year, she was seen in the film, ‘Girl with a Pearl Earring'. EDIT
In 2004, she played a voice role in the film, ‘The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie'. That year, she also appeared in the films, 'The Perfect Score', 'A Love Song for Bobby Long', ' A Good Woman'and 'In Good Company'. EDIT
In 2004, she appeared as herself on the ‘New York’ episode of the TV series, ‘Entourage’. She subsequently played the voice roles in the TV shows, ‘Robot Chicken' and 'Saturday Night Live'. EDIT
In 2005, she played 'Nola Rice' in the Academy Award nominated thriller film 'Match Point', which was directed by Woody Allen. It was screened at the Cannes Film Festival, the same year. EDIT
In 2006, she starred in the Academy award nominated neo-noir crime drama film, ‘The Black Dahlia', which was directed by Brian De Palma. The same year, she was also seen in the films, 'The Prestige' and ' Scoop'. EDIT
In 2007, she played ‘Annie Braddock' in the comedy drama film, 'The Nanny Diaries', which was directed by Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini. The film was a moderate success. EDIT
In 2008, she played the role of 'Cristina' in the comedy drama film, 'Vicky Cristina Barcelona', which was directed by Woody Allen. The same year, the film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. She was also seen in the films, ‘The Other Boleyn Girl' and 'The Spirit' the same year. EDIT
In 2009, she played the role of 'Anna Marks' in the film, 'He's Just Not That IntoYou'. EDIT
In 2010, she was seen in the film, ‘Iron Man 2'. The following year, she played the role of 'Kelly Foster' in the Cameron Crowe comedy-drama film, ‘We Bought a Zoo'. EDIT
In 2012, she starred in the biographical comedy-drama film, ‘Hitchcock’, which was inspired by the life of the legendary English filmmaker, Alfred Hitchcock. That year, she was also seen in the film, ‘The Avengers'. EDIT
In 2013, she played a voice role in the film, ‘Her’. That year, she was also seen in the films, 'Don Jon' and 'Under the Skin'. EDIT
She reprised her role in the 2014 sequel 'Captain America: The Winter Soldier', alongside co-star Chris Evans. The movie received positive reviews from film critics. EDIT
In the 2014 film Chef, she played Molly alongside Jon Favreau, Robert Downey, Jr. and Sofía Vergara. She also appeared in Lucy, a science fiction action film directed by Luc Besson, which released in July 2014. Her performance the fil was praised by the critics.


At age 7, Johansson starts auditioning for commercials and becomes disinterested. "It was like a cattle call," she tells Allure in 2005. "[My mom and I] decided I'd just go out for film. I didn't want to promote Wonder Bread." After taking weekend acting classes at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute in Manhattan, an 8-year-old Johansson appears opposite Ethan Hawke in an off-Broadway production of Sophistry. "I had two lines," she tells Allure

In Rob Reiner's North, Johansson, 9, makes her film debut as John Ritter's daughter. "I remember going onto the set of my first film and, for some reason, I just knew what to do, instinctively. It was like, I don't know...fate," she tells New York Magazine in 2004. As fate has it, an 11-year-old Johansson draws notice – and an Independent Spirit Award nod – for her performance as one of two orphaned sisters who run away from a foster home in Manny & Lo.

Johansson's standout performance as a young teenager who loses her leg in a horse-riding accident in The Horse Whisperer puts her on the map. Her director and costar Robert Redford famously calls her "13 going on 30." She tells Esquire in 2005, "That film changed things for me in a lot of ways. I went through this realization that acting, at its heart, is the ability to manipulate your own emotions."

Johansson, fresh out of high school, stars in Sofia Coppola's Lost in Translation, playing a lonely twentysomething who befriends Bill Murray during a trip to Tokyo. The film opens to rave reviews, catapulting Johansson onto Hollywood's A-List and earning her a Best Comedic Actress Golden Globe nomination.

Girl with a Pearl Earring hits theaters. Johansson earns her second Best Actress Golden Globe nod for portraying a quiet 17th century Dutch maid, the inspiration for Johannes Vermeer's famous painting. "It was emotionally draining, but not difficult," she says of the role to New York Magazine. "It's much easier to let the emotions play across your face than to have to fumble around with silly dialogue."

ohansson is first spotted hanging out with actor Jared Leto in L.A. Johansson never discusses the relationship; the two are an off-and-on item for the next year.

Cementing her status as an A-list actress, Johansson releases two movies on the same day: In Good Company with Topher Grace and A Love Song for Bobby Long with John Travolta. She goes on to earn her third Golden Globe nod for Bobby Long.

Johansson gets close to actor Josh Hartnett. Spotted at Live 8 in London, "They were on their own, very kissy," a backstage source tells PEOPLE. "She was on his lap and kept burying her head in his shoulder. They were clearly very loved up."

Johansson makes her action movie debut opposite Ewan McGregor in The Island. "It [was] exhausting! I've never run so much in my life," she tells PEOPLE. "We'd work 16 hours a day, and then we'd hit the gym for two hours."


Match Point–a Woody Allen thriller in which Johansson plays a jilted lover–hits theatres. "He lets me call him Woodrow," she tells Allure of the famous director, who describes her to Vogue as "criminally sexy." The following summer, she stars opposite Hugh Jackman in Allen's Scoop and is cast in the director's Spanish comedy Vicky Cristina Barcelona with Penélope

That’s right, on Thursday, Sept. 4, Scarlett and her fiance, Romain, gave birth to a bouncing baby girl, a rep for the actress told the Associated Press.

This is very exciting news, especially since the notoriously private actress and her fiance kept quiet about their pregnancy — even as Scarlett’s growing baby bump revealed itself in recent months.

This is the first child for both Scarlett and Romain, who announced their engagement in Sept. 2013. So exciting for them, and we definitely wish them the absolute best with their baby girl!

The news that Scarlett was expecting broke on March 3, but initially was just a report confirmed by sources at E!.

However, Scarlett refused to acknowledge the rumors, and kept mum about her growing baby bump while promoting Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

Even though Scarlett wouldn’t talk about her exciting baby news, others did — including Marvel Studios’ president, Kevin Feige.

“Well my first reaction was I was very happy for her and very excited for her, and my second reaction was we’ve gotta move some pieces on the chess board around schedule-wise.  But we didn’t change the script at all, which is sort of the most important things for us in terms of the storyline.  I think the goal is for us to sit here talking about the fact that you would never know that Black Widow was pregnant during the filming of the movie when you see the final version of Avengers 2,” Kevin told Collider during an interview.

Tell us, HollywoodLifers — Are you happy for Scarlett and her fiance Romain? Do you think they’ll get married soon? Let us know your thoughts below!

Born on November 22nd 1984 in New York City, this starlet made her debut on an off-Broadway stage at only eight years old. After, she landed several acting roles, beginning with her film debut opposite Elijah Wood in 1994’s “North.” By 2002, the young actress was in high demand, and starred opposite Bill Murray in 2003’s “Lost In Translation”, and Colin Firth in “Girl with a Pearl Earring.” Appearing in many romantic comedies, she eventually redefined herself as the Marvel comic-book character Black Widow in "Iron Man 2" and "The Avengers." Join WatchMojo.com as we take a look at the life and career of Scarlett Johansson.


This actress ranked as one of the sexiest women in the world, even before she kicked ass in a skin tight spy outfit. Welcome to WatchMojo.com and today we’ll be taking a look at the career of Scarlett Johansson.

Born on November 22nd 1984 in New York City, this starlet is the daughter of an architect and producer, as well as the granddaughter of a Danish film director and screenwriter.

In fact, this family connection spurred an early interest in the arts. By eight years old she had already appeared in an off-Broadway stage opposite Ethan Hawke.

Soon after, a young Johansson began studying at Manhattan’s Professional Children’s School. While studying, the young talent landed several acting roles, beginning with her film debut opposite Elijah Wood in 1994’s “North.”

Despite an equally powerful affinity for music, Johansson landed the lead in the dramatic comedy “Manny & Lo.” There, she played the young sister of a pregnant teen. Interestingly, Johansson’s twin brother also appeared in the picture in a minor role.

By 1998, this teenage actress quickly came under the gaze of the media spotlight. This was due to starring alongside Robert Redford in “The Horse Whisperer.” In that universally praised project, she played a horse rider involved in an accident. Partially amputated in the picture, her horse was similarly traumatized and their recovery became linked. As a result, an unusual specialist was brought in to heal the pair.

Graduating from school in 2002, the young actress was already in high demand. As a result she appeared in 2003’s “Lost In Translation”, in which she formed an unlikely relationship with Bill Murray while traveling in Japan. She similarly wooed critics as a servant girl painted by Colin Firth in the period piece “Girl with a Pearl Earring”

Afterwards, she appeared in the crime thriller “The Black Dahlia”, took on a comedic role in “The Nanny Diaries” and continued a longstanding collaboration with Woody Allen by appearing in the film “Vicky Cristina Barcelona.”

Moreover, she made major headlines in 2007 when she began dating Canadian actor Ryan Reynolds. The duo tied the knot at a private ceremony within a few short years. Unfortunately, by 2011 the couple had decided to split up.

During this period, she had appeared in several box office hits, including the comedy “He’s Just Not That Into You”, and as the Marvel Comics superspy The Black Widow in “Iron Man 2.”

This was a role that she would reprise alongside much fanfare in 2012’s comic book hero team-up film “The Avengers”, after appearing in the comedy-drama “We Bought A Zoo” opposite Matt Damon.

Aside from lighting up the silver screen, Johansson has spent the last number of years embracing her love of singing. These efforts ranged from her collaboration with the artist Pete Yorn, while releasing solo efforts, including her cover album “Anywhere I Lay My Head.”

An actress that prefers privacy rather than basking in the Hollywood limelight, Scarlett Johansson continues to thrill audiences with diverse and critically acclaimed roles. She does this, all without the fear of amassing the admiration of more than a few die-hard comic book geeks.

Born Scarlett Johansson has an estimated net worth of $55 million. Born in New York, Scarlett was blessed with goddess-like features and feminine curves, making her an impressive package altogether. The pretty actress worked with some of the most acclaimed directors of Hollywood, earning numerous acting awards for her brilliant roles.  Scarlett made her film debut in 1994 with North but she was critically acclaimed for acting in the film Manny & Lo which was released in 1996. She won the BAFTA Award for Best Actress for her role in Sofia Coppola's Lost in Translation. This film single-handedly changed her fortunes. In 2008 Johansson made her debut as a vocalist with an album which mainly comprised of songs of Tom Waits. This year Scarlett Johansson was honored with a star in the Hollywood Walk of Fame. It has been widely reported that Scarlett Johansson makes around $5m per movie making her one of the leading actresses of Hollywood. Apart from films, she earns good revenue from endorsement deals. She has appeared in advertising campaigns for leading brands like Calvin Klein and L'Oreal. She is also the face of the well-known brand Mango for 3 years now. In early 2009 she was declared as the face of the Dolce & Gabbana make-up collection. She even made a personal appearance at the London store, Selfridges, for promotion. Scarlett Johansson is very serious about his charity work and this is evident from his active participation in various charitable works. She is the Global Ambassador for the development agency, Oxfam. She is very fond of luxury cars though she was involved in a car accident in 2009. Johansson now drives a 2010 Mercedes Benz. In 2007 she bought a Hollywood Hills Villa for $7m which is a 4 bedroom Spanish-styled home. The kitchen opens up to a pool area and there is a full size dining room. The living room has exposed roof beams and fireplace. The bathrooms have the unique portholed mirrors and the property also features landscaped terraces and patios. Johansson has a carefully guarded her personal life but we do know that she grew up in a household that was not rich by any standards. She attended an elementary school in Greenwich Village and graduated from Professional Children's School in Manhattan in 2002. In 2007 she started dating actor Ryan Reynolds and got married in September, 2008. However, a couple of years later Johansson filed for divorce citing irreconcilable differences. The properties acquired during these 2 years of marriage were split evenly. Last year Scarlett had a nerve-wrecking experience when her cellphone was hacked and nude photos were disseminated freely. She later clarified that those photos were actually sent to Ryan when they were married and asserted time and again that she was involved in no wrongdoing and that she was only a victim in the whole incident. FBI took up the case and started investigating it. The police agency received a lot of flak for giving way too much importance to this case.

Acclaimed actress who won a BAFTA award for Best Actress for her role in the 2003 film Lost in Translation. She then went on to star in the films The Prestige, Vicky Cristina Barcelona, Don Jon and Under the Skin and she was cast as the superheroine Black Widow in the Marvel movie series.

She received a Toronto Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in the 2001 independent comedy Ghost World.

Johansson and her twin brother, Hunter, were born in New York City on Nov. 22, 1984. Raised in Manhattan where her father was an architect and her mother a producer, she was singing, dancing and acting from the time she was very young. Her movie buff mother cooperated by taking her to auditions where she was so mature for her age that commercial directors passed her over but film and theater directors were captivated. She studied at the Lee Strasberg Institute and made her stage debut at age eight in 1993's "Sophistry" at Playwrights Horizons Theatre. When Johansson was 10, she launched her film career in Rob Reiner's disastrous "North" (1994), a family film about a boy who seeks emancipation and travels the world searching for a new family. The following year, Johansson's instinctively natural acting skill came to attention in the legal thriller "Just Cause" (1995), where she played the daughter of a couple (Sean Connery and Kate Capshaw) who are terrorized by a convicted rapist (Blair Underwood). While attending the Children's Professional School in New York, the focused young actress carried on full steam ahead with a film career, appearing in two films in 1996. She earned notice as one of Eric Schaeffer's wise charges in "If Lucy Fell" and took a co-starring role in the understated independent "Manny & Lo" (1996). Johansson's finely crafted portrayal of a rather sensible 11-year-old who escapes from a foster home and runs away with her 16-year-old sister earned her critical praise and led directly to her casting in the high profile but disappointing 1997 release, "Home Alone 3."

Johansson was the subject of great buzz again the following year with Robert Redford's blockbuster romance "The Horse Whisperer" (1998), where she took the role of a youngster whose debilitating riding accident is responsible for a romance between her mother (Kristin Scott Thomas) and a horse trainer (Robert Redford), and turning what could have been little more than a two-dimensional plot device into a full-fledged character. All but disappearing after this high-profile role, a teenaged Johansson resurfaced three years later as an in-demand actress for some of the independent film world's most respected directors. Terry Zwigoff cast Johansson in "Ghost World" (2001), where she starred alongside Thora Birch as the more pragmatic of two cynical outcasts newly graduated from high school. Snarky but less edgy than her bespectacled buddy, Johansson did not get the screen time of her co-star but nonetheless impressed in her smaller role as a teen facing an unknown future. Adding to her résumé of complex, three-dimensional teen roles that downplayed her blossoming beauty in favor of a sophisticated naturalism, Johansson was cast by the Coen Brothers as a teenager who fancies an aloof barber (Billy Bob Thornton) caught in a blackmail scheme in the acclaimed period noir, "The Man Who Wasn't There" (2001). Later that year, she played a young Hungarian girl left behind when her refugee family flees their homeland during a Cold War political climate in "An American Rhapsody."

Johansson's star-making performance came with "Lost in Translation" (2003), writer-director Sophia Coppola's stylishly hip film about an emotionally adrift young married tourist left to her own devices in Tokyo. While her self-involved photographer husband is working, she forms a complex relationship with an equally disaffected fifty-something Hollywood actor (Bill Murray). The actress - only 18 during filming - was a revelation in the picture, displaying a rare, multilayered chemistry with Murray that fueled the movie and carried many scenes; some without dialogue. Her subtle, knockout performance was wildly praised by critics. Hot on the heels of that role, Johansson dazzled audiences in "Girl with a Pearl Earring" (2003), a speculative account of the life of the 16-year-old maid who posed for Johannes Vermeer's (Colin Firth) most famous painting. As a result of her two strong 2003 performances, Johansson received a pair of Golden Globe nominations - one for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture Drama (for "Girl With a Pearl Earring") and another for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy (for "Lost In Translation"). "The Perfect Score" (2004), a limp teen caper made before Johansson's big breakout, was thankfully little-seen and she was better served with a pair of challenging roles released simultaneously in 2004.

First, she added depth to a supporting role as the daughter of a middle-aged ad salesman (Dennis Quaid) who becomes involved with her father's young boss (Topher Grace) in writer-director Paul Weitz's comedy "In Good Company." Following that moderate box office success, she gave a Golden Globe-nominated performance as a headstrong teen who returns to her late mother's home to unexpectedly share it with a pair of booze-soaked intellectual boarders (John Travolta and Gabriel Macht) in the Southern-influenced character drama "A Love Song for Bobby Long." In both films, Johansson's potent combination of adolescent freshness and wise-beyond-her-years maturity helped breathe a compelling realism into her roles. Off-screen, her male admirers were disappointed to find out that the young sex symbol had her own leading man, Josh Hartnett, with whom she began a two-year relationship in 2004. In an unfortunate introduction into the sci-fi action genre, Johansson was cast as the lead in director Michael Bay's misfire "The Island" (2005), as a woman living in a post-Apocalyptic world only to discover it is a façade for something much more sinister. As expected from an actress who generally shone under the employ of more artful auteurs, Johansson fared better in Woody Allen's serious-minded "Match Point" (2005), playing a sensual but struggling American actress in London who takes up with her ex-beau's brother-in-law (Jonathan Rhys-Myers), forcing him to choose between her and his comfortable, status-granting marriage. The result was another Golden Globe nomination and one of Allen's best works in years. Johansson would, in fact, become a kind of muse for the director, who would cast her in several more of his films.

The writer-director quickly drafted Johansson to star as an American student in London who becomes involved with an aristocrat (Hugh Jackman) in "Scoop" (2006), though that follow-up came and went without much fanfare. Her next outing was "The Black Dahlia" (2006), Brian De Palma's take on James Ellroy's complicated and richly-textured noir thriller about two hard-edged cops (Josh Hartnett and Aaron Eckhart) who descend into obsession, corruption and sexual degeneracy while investigating the infamous brutal murder of a would-be actress (Mia Kirshner). Again, Johansson was believable as a sensual, smart woman able to woo men against their better judgment, but the film was not well received. She rebounded with the well-reviewed blockbuster "The Prestige" (2006), a Victorian-set supernatural thriller about two stage magicians (Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale) in an ongoing feud that takes them both to the top of their careers, but with terrible consequences. Fast-forwarding to the 1930s, Johansson co-starred in the unsuccessful attempt to bring Oscar Wilde's Lady Windermere's Fan to the screen with "A Good Woman" (2006). While the actress was now a presence in the Top Ten lists of men's cheesecake magazines like Maxim and FHM, the well-grounded actress hardly took her new sex symbol status seriously, and continued with a run of decidedly non-male oriented films, starting with the surprisingly commercial comedy "The Nanny Diaries" (2007). The adaptation of the bestseller did not survive its reinvention as a screen comedy and underperformed at the box office.

In 2008, Johansson married film star Ryan Reynolds and co-starred with friend and fellow brainy babe Natalie Portman in the relatively successful "The Other Boleyn Girl" (2008), where she lent intelligence and wit to her portrayal of Mary Boleyn, sister of famed Henry VIII mistress, the beheaded Anne Boleyn. The film was the most widely-seen of Johansson's film releases that year, though her re-teaming with Woody Allen in "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" (2008), another European-set love triangle, was a hit with critics and perfectly utilized the actress' talent for intelligent, melancholy romance. She followed up with a pair of very different but similarly commercial-minded features: the adaptation of Frank Miller's comic "The Spirit" (2008) and a screen version of the cheeky self-help bestseller "He's Just Not That Into You" (2009). Johansson played an aspiring singer in the film, which dovetailed with her new off-screen interest in music and the release of her first album, Anywhere I Lay My Head (2008), a reinterpreted collection of songs by Tom Waits. Meanwhile, she joined the all-star cast that included Robert Downey, Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow and Mickey Rourke for the hit sequel, "Iron Man 2" (2010), playing the Natalie Rushman/Natasha Romanoff, an undercover spy for the espionage group S.H.I.E.L.D. posing as the assistant to billionaire industrialist Tony Stark (Downey, Jr.).

While it came as no surprise to jaded devotees of the Hollywood lifestyle, fans expressed sadness over the news that Johansson and Reynolds were separating after a mere two years of marriage. Citing irreconcilable differences, the actress was a single woman once more by summer 2011. Another tabloid tidbit came that year in the form of nude photos of Johansson that were leaked on to the Internet. Apparently taken by Johansson herself on her own cell phone, the images were part of a hacking scandal that was investigated by the FBI. As embarrassing as the situation was, Johansson kept her composure, stating that they had been meant for her ex-husband and that she saw nothing inappropriate about images that weren't intended for the public. Johansson returned to screens opposite Matt Damon in Cameron Crowe's dramedy "We Bought a Zoo" (2011), essaying a young zookeeper helping a recently widowed father (Damon) restore a decrepit menagerie as he reconnects with his grieving children. The actress then suited up for action once more as Romanoff, a.k.a. the Black Widow, a non-super-powered yet equally lethal member of the superhero team "The Avengers" (2012). Written and directed by Joss Whedon, the big-budget adventure - which united comic book icons Iron Man, Captain America (Chris Evans), Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) - was the most anticipated event movie of the summer. Johansson closed out the banner year by playing actress Janet Leigh in "Hitchcock" (2012), a behind-the-scenes showbiz biopic about the director (Anthony Hopkins) and his tumultuous attempt to make his horror classic, "Psycho" (1960).

In 2013, Johansson appeared in Joseph Gordon-Levitt's buzzed-about indie comedy "Don Jon," portraying a beautiful young woman who falls for the porn-addicted title character. That fall she was deemed the "Sexiest Woman Alive" by Esquire for the second time, and she also confirmed her engagement to French advertising exec Romain Dauriac.

American actress and singer, she first came to American movie-goer attention in 1998 at age 14 performing in "The Horse Whisperer" with Robert Redford. She has gone on to a busy film schedule. Perhaps one of her most noted films is "Lost in Translation" in which she starred with Bill Murray, and she has made at least two films under the direction of Woody Allen. In May 2008 she released an album, "Anywhere I Lay My Head."

Johansson is a twin born to a Danish-born architect and a producer.

She wed actor Ryan Reynolds over the last weekend of September 2008 at a wilderness retreat outside Vancouver, BC, Canada

On 4 September 2014, she had a daughter, Rose Dorothy, with her French companion Romain Dauriac, and married in October.

Sy Scholfield quotes New York Times birth announcement on December 2, 1984, p. 89) giving her a morning birth of unspecified time. "JOHANSSON - Karsten and Melanie Johansson proudly annouce the birth of Adrian and Vanessa's sister and brother Scarlett Ingrid and Hunter Austin born on Thanksgiving morning 1984" Scholfield also writes that "Various websites state she was born 3 or three-and-a-half minutes before her twin brother. One website states her birth time as 12:51PM but gives no reference to a source for this data."

Universally known as one of the sexiest women in Hollywood, Scarlett Johansson has actually been acting professionally since the age of eight. A native of New York City, where she was born on November 22, 1984, Johansson was raised -- along with her twin brother -- as the youngest of four children, and she developed an interest in acting at the age of three. After enrolling in classes at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute for Young People, she made her stage debut opposite Ethan Hawke in the off-Broadway production of Sophistry. Her film debut followed in 1994, when she had a supporting role in North, and she subsequently appeared in the little-seen Just Cause (1995) and If Lucy Fell (1996).

Johansson had her first significant screen breakthrough with her role as one of two orphaned teenaged sisters in Manny & Lo (1996), a coming-of-age drama directed by Lisa Krueger. Johansson, who shared the screen with Aleksa Palladino and Mary Kay Place, earned an Independent Spirit Award Best Actress nomination for her work in the film, and she soon found herself being tapped by Robert Redford to star as Kristin Scott Thomas' daughter in The Horse Whisperer (1998). Although the film met with a very mixed reception, Johansson was widely praised for her portrayal of a girl who loses her leg and her best friend in a horrific accident.

In 2000, the actress signed on to play one of the heroines (alongside Thora Birch) of Terry Zwigoff's screen adaptation of Ghost World, Daniel Clowes' celebrated comic about the adventures of two teen girls grappling with post-high school life. That same year, she starred in American Rhapsody, in which she portrayed a young girl who escapes communist Hungary in the 1950s and travels to the U.S.

Though she would take a brief detour into camp with the 2002 giant spider fiasco Eight Legged Freaks, the respect Johansson had gained in the film industry as a result of her previous dramatic roles found the young actress in high demand among indie directors while quickly catching the eye of the Hollywood elite. With Sofia Coppola's Lost in Translation, Johansson's touching performance as a young girl who strikes a tentative friendship with a washed-up American actor (memorably portrayed by Bill Murray) left no doubts regarding her dramatic skills, and although a Best Actress Oscar nomination eluded her, she received a boatload of nods from critics' groups and the Golden Globes. The rising starlet was soon cast in the lead of such subsequent films as The Girl with the Pearl Earring (2003) and The Perfect Score (2003).

After sticking to form in 2004 with roles in In Good Company and A Love Song for Bobby Long, Johansson took her first stab at a lead role in a big budget Hollywood flick, starring opposite Ewan MacGregor in Michael Bay's futuristic actioner The Island. While the picture was panned by critics and avoided by audiences, it did nothing to slow the young star down. She closed out the year by receiving virtually unanimous praise for her performance in Woody Allen's Match Point.

She immediately reteamed with Allen, who was full of praise for the young actress after their first collaboration, for the supernatural comedy/murder mystery Scoop in 2006. Johansson would spend the next several years enjoying her status as an A-list actress, appearing in a wide range of projects, like The Nanny Diaries and Vicky Cristina Barcelona. In 2012, she joined The Avengers as Natasha Romanoff, playing the character in several more films in the series. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, Rovi

Scarlett Johansson's many screen credits include Lost in Translation,Avengers, Vicky Christina Barcelona and Hitchcock. In 2010, she won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play for her Broadway debut in A View from the Bridge. The star returns to the Great White Way in 2013 as Maggie in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.