Scarlett Johansson

Scarlett Johansson

Scarlett I. Johansson (born November 22, 1984) is an American actress and singer. Johansson made her film debut in the 1994 film North and was subsequently nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Lead Female for her performance in 1996's Manny & Lo. Johansson rose to fame with her role in 1998's The Horse Whisperer and subsequently gained critical acclaim for her breakout performance in Ghost World in 2001, for which she won the Chlotrudis Award for Best Supporting Actress.

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

Following a 2007 appearance in the critical flop The Nanny Diaries, Johansson's career experienced a resurgence of critical reception with the 2008 films The Other Boleyn Girl opposite Natalie Portman and Eric Bana and the Woody Allen directed film, Vicky Cristina Barcelona, with Javier Bardem and Penélope Cruz. She received positive reviews for her appearance in He's Just Not That into You (2009) and will appear as anti-heroine Black Widow in Iron Man 2 with Robert Downey Jr. and Samuel L. Jackson.

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

Early life

Johansson was born in New York City. Her father, Karsten Johansson, is a Danish-born architect, and her paternal grandfather, Ejner Johansson, was a screenwriter and director. Her mother, Melanie Sloan, a producer, comes from an Ashkenazi Jewish family from the Bronx. Johansson's parents met in Denmark, where her mother lived with Johansson's maternal grandmother, Dorothy, a former bookkeeper and schoolteacher. Johansson has an older sister, Vanessa, who is an actress; an older brother, Adrian; a twin brother, Hunter (whose only film, Manny & Lo, starred Scarlett); and a half-brother, Christian, from her father's re-marriage.

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

Early roles

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

After appearing in minor roles in Fall in 1997 and Home Alone 3, Johansson garnered widespread attention for her performance in the 1998 film The Horse Whisperer, directed by Robert Redford. She received a nomination for the Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Most Promising Newcomer for the film. In 1999, she appeared in both My Brother the Pig and the neo-noir Coen brothers film The Man Who Wasn't There, as well as a very brief appearance in the Mandy Moore video for her single "Candy". Although the film was not a box office success, she received praise for her breakout role in the critically acclaimed 2001 film, Ghost World. Credited with "sensitivity and talent [that] belie her age",Johansson went on to win the Chlotrudis and Toronto Film Critics Association Awards for Best Supporting Actress and was nominated for the Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting Actress.

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