Common misspelling: Scarlett
Johanson; Scarlet Johansson, Skarlett;
Scarlett Johansen. Also known as Scarlett Johanssen; Also known
as ScarJo (but she does not like that)
Scarlett Johansson
was born on November 22, 1984 in New York City, New York to parents
Melanie and Karsten (divorced in 1998). She has a twin brother
(Hunter – younger by 3 minutes), an older sister (Vanessa) and an
older brother (Adrian) she also has an older half-brother
(Christian). Her grandfather is writer Ejner Johansson (d. 2001).
She knew she
wanted to be an actress at a very young age and began to dream so at
the age of seven. She attended the Lee Strasberg Institute to learn
about acting, and soon began to perform live on stage.
Her first
professional acting job, at the tender age of eight, was in an off
Broadway play entitled Sophistry (opposite Ethan Hawke). Her
first big screen debut came soon two years after (in 1994) with a
small role as Laura Nelson in the movie North.
Other small parts
in movies came afterwards in such movies as Just Cause
and IfLucy Fell. However, it was not until 1996 that
the movie community began to take notice of her and she was
nominated for the Independent Spirit Award
for Best Female Lead in the movie Manny and Lo. Her big break came
in 1998, with the release of The Horse Wisperer, in which she
won the Young Star Award for Best Performance by a Young Actress in
a Drama Film and was nominated for the Young Star Award for Best
Performance in a Feature Film - Leading Young Actress (nominated).
Over the next few years, she took on
various roles in a variety of movies which enhanced her reputation
as a serious actress. The movies included Ghost World
(2000) where she won the TFCA Award for Best Supporting
Performance, Female and was nominated for OFCS Award for Best
Supporting Actress) and An American Rhapsody (2001) in which
she was given Young Artist Awards for Best Performance in a Feature
Film - Leading Young Actress (tied w/Emma
Watson) and Young Artist Award for Best Ensemble in a Feature
Film (shared w/ Mae Whitman & Kelly Endresz-Banlaki). Believe it or
not, she did all of this while attending High School (Manhattan's
Professional Children's School), which she graduated in 2002.
Although she was accepted to the film school at Purchase University,
she decided that she needed to concentrate on her career.
Her rise to fame
came in 2003 with the critically acclaimed and international box
office hit Lost in Translation with Bill Murray. She was
praised for her acting abilities as well as the memorable sexy
opening scene of the movie. For this role she was awarded the
Venice Film Festival’s Upstream Award for
Best Actress, the Sant Jordi Award for Best Foreign Actress and
the BAFTA Film Award for Best
Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role. She was nominated for many awards, including:
Golden Globe Award for Best
Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy;
the Teen
Choice Award for Choice Breakout Movie Star – Female; OFCS Award for
Best Actress; MTV Movie Award for Breakthrough Female Performance;
IFTA Audience Award for Best International Actress; the Golden
Satellite Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting;
the BAFTA Film Award for Best
Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role;
the BFCA Award for Best Supporting Actress; and the CFCA Award for
Best Actress, the Chlotrudis Award for Best Actress.
She also had a critically acclaimed role in the movie
A Pearl
Earring, which was also released in 2003 For this role she was nominated
for the British Independent Film Award for Best Actress,
and the Best
Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama. In the same year she also won
the Hollywood Film Festival
Hollywood Discovery Award for Breakthrough Acting – Female.
2004 was another good year for Scarlett,
who was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by
an Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama for her role in A Love
Song for Bobby Love (2004). Let’s also not forget lending her
voice to the movie adaptation of SpongeBob SquarePants. In
2004 she was also awarded the Palm
Springs Int’l Film Festival Rising Star Award and the Los Angeles
Film Critics Association New Generation Award.
She had stated in an interview in the
January 2005 issue of Harpers
Bazaar that she has no problem with showing her breasts and is
quoted as saying "I'm proud of my girls. They're my charms, my feminine wiles."
She was nominated for a
Golden Globe and a Chicago Film Critic's Association Award for Best
Supporting Actress in her role as Nola Rice in Woody Allen's
Match Point. She has also starred in two more
Woody Allen films -
Scoop in 2006 and Vicky Cristina Barcelona in 2008
(the film won the Gotham Award for Best Ensemble Cast).
Scarlett Johansson
became engaged to actor Ryan Reynolds in September 2008.
One of the biggest
blockbusters she has been in was Iron Man 2 (2010) playing
Natalie Rushman / Natalie Romanoff and was nominated for the Saturn
Award for Best Supporting Actress. She will repeat the role in
the upcoming movie The Avengers.
When she turned her
attention to theater in 2010, she received great critical acclaim
for her role as Catherine in the Broadway production of A View
From A Bridge. She received a Tony Award for Best Featured
Actress in a Play, a Theatre World Award, and was nominated for a
Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play.
In December 2010
Johansson and Reynolds separated. Their divorce became final
in January 2011.
In September 2011, some
naked photos were leaked when her cell phone was hacked. She
had sent them to her then-husband a few years prior.
In February 2012, she
took some time out of her busy schedule to help support President
Obama's reelection by selling pro-Obama clothing, whose proceeds
would go to his campaign. She also has publicly endorsed Scott
Stringer's bid to run for Mayor of New York City in 2013.
She spends some of her time doing charity work and is
had helped out the The Make Poverty History campaign.
Favories: favorite
music: classic rock (Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Rosemary Clooney,
etc.); favorite actresses: Meryle Streep, Judy Garland, Juliette
Lewis, Helena Bonham Carter; favorite actors: Gary Sinise,
Tom Cruise, Al Pacino, Gary
Sinise, Patrick Swayze; favorite directors:
Martin Scorsese, Francis
Ford Coppola, Tim Burton; favorite movies: Goodfellas, Mean Streets; food = cheese
Biography by Ian Ripley,
PopStarsPlus.com, Sr. Staff Writer
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Scarlett Johansson
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