Scarlett Johansson is an American actress who was born on November 22, 1984. In 2018 and 2019, she was the highest-paid actress in the world, and she has appeared on Forbes’ Celebrity 100 list many times. Johansson is the ninth-highest-grossing box office star of all time, with nearly $14.3 billion in worldwide earnings. She has won a Tony Award and a British Academy Film Award, as well as been nominated for two Academy Awards and five Golden Globes.
Childhood and Upbringing
On November 22, 1984, Johansson was born in New York City’s Manhattan borough. Karsten Olaf Johansson, her father, is a Danish architect who was born and raised in Copenhagen. Ejner Johansson, her paternal grandpa, was a Swedish art historian, screenwriter, and filmmaker. Melanie Sloan, Scarlett’s mother, is a producer who lives in New York.
Scarlett has classified herself as Jewish, and she hails from an Ashkenazi Jewish family from Poland and Russia; with the surname Schlamberg. Vanessa, her older sister, is also an actress, as is Adrian, her older brother, and Hunter, her twin brother. From her father’s first marriage, Johansson has an elder half-brother, Christian. Johansson is a citizen of both the United States and Denmark. On a 2017 episode of PBS’s Finding Your Roots; she learned that her maternal great-family grandfather’s died in the Warsaw Ghetto during the Holocaust.
Career
Johansson has always wanted to be an actress and made her stage debut as a young performer in an Off-Broadway production. She made her cinematic debut in North (1994), and went on to star in Manny & Lo (1996), The Horse Whisperer (1998), and Ghost World (2001). (2001). With her performances in Sofia Coppola’s Lost in Translation, for which she earned a BAFTA Award for Best Actress, and Girl with a Pearl Earring, Johansson transitioned to adult roles in 2003.
She received Golden Globe nominations for these films; as well as for her roles as a disturbed girl in the drama. A Love Song for Bobby Long (2004) and a seductress in Woody Allen’s psychological thriller Match Point (2005). During this time, other works include Christopher Nolan’s The Prestige (2006) and Allen’s Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008); as well as the album Anywhere I Lay My Head (2008).
