Born on 22 November 1984 in Manhattan, New York City, Scarlett Ingrid Johansson is an American actress and singer, acclaimed for her performance in films of varied genre, from period drama to thriller, earned several rewards and also referred to as one of the world's most attractive women. Her father, Karsten Olaf Johansson, is a Danish architect from Copenhagen, while her mother, Melanie Sloan, is from a Jewish family, forced to run away from Poland and Russia. Apart from an elder sister, Vanessa Johansson, who is also an actress, Scarlett has an elder brother named Adrian, and a twin brother named Hunter, born three minutes after her, and also a paternal half-brother, Christian. Unfortunately, her parents divorced when she was only thirteen, but she was closely attached to her maternal grandmother, Dorothy Sloan, a schoolteacher, with whom she often spent time, and considered her best friend.

During her early years, while attending Public School 41, also known as the Greenwich Village School, a public school in Manhattan, Scarlett Johansson developed an interest in acting and used to practice acting on her own by staring alone in the mirror. Consequently, she completely shifted her focus to film and theatre, and after enrolling at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute started auditioning for commercials.

At the same time, she also attended the Professional Children’s School in Manhattan and for the first time, appeared in a small two-liner role in the off-Broadway play, titled Sophistry, at the age of eight. Immediately after that, she made her film debut at nine, when she appeared as Laura Nelson in the fantasy comedy North (1994), and then appeared as the daughter of Paul and Laurie Armstrong, played by Sean Connery and Kate Capshaw, in the mystery thriller Just Cause (1995), followed by the role of an art student in If Lucy Fell (1996). However, her first breakthrough came with Manny & Lo (1996), a coming-of-age film, in which she portrayed the leading role of Amanda, the younger sister of a pregnant teenager, who runs away from her foster home. Her performance in the film earned positive reviews and she also received a nomination for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead.

The next year, Scarlett appeared in minor roles in the romantic film Fall (1997) and the sequel comedy Home Alone 3 (1997), but earned critical appreciation and wider attention for her stunning performance in The Horse Whisperer (1998), co-starring director Robert Redford, in which she portrayed the role of Grace MacLean, a teenager traumatized and disfigured by a riding accident.

While commenting about her performance in the film, American film critic Todd McCarthy of Variety magazine commented that she convincingly conveyed the awkwardness of her age and the inner pain and struggle of a carefree girl suddenly laid low by a horrible accident, and she also received a nomination for the Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Most Promising Actress for it.

After that, Scarlett Johansson appeared in My Brother the Pig (1999), an American fantasy comedy film for children, and the neo-noir crime film The Man Who Wasn't There (2001), but bounced back to the limelight for her role as the cynical outcast Rebecca in the black comedy Ghost World (2001), which later became a cult film and she won a Toronto Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in the film.

However, after playing the role of Ashley Parker in the horror comedy Eight Legged Freaks (2002), a huge brigade of gigantic spiders, Johansson transitioned from teen to the adult role, and appeared as the disillusioned Charlotte, a young woman bored with her life and her marriage who starts a complicated relationship with a middle-aged man in Sofia Coppola’s romantic comedy-drama Lost in Translation (2003). The film, set in Tokyo and exploring the theme of loneliness, marked a turning point in the career of Scarlett Johansson, showcasing her maturity, emotional depth, and screen presence at the tender age of just 17. The film, a huge box office success, was critically acclaimed and won several rewards, while Scarlett won a BAFTA Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role, Best Actress Award at the Venice Film Festival, along with a Golden Globe Award nomination for her performance in the film.

In the same year, Scarlett also appeared in Peter Webber’s period drama film Girl with a Pearl Earring (2003), in which she played the role of Griet, a young 17th-century maid in the house of the Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer, played by Colin Firth. Scarlett was profusely acclaimed for her nearly silent performance and the dramatic interplay of fear, ignorance, curiosity and sex on her face, and was nominated for a BAFTA Award and the second Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Actress in the same year.

After her consecutive success in 2003, Scarlett Johansson replaced Kate Winslet to play the role of vivacious Nola, an aspiring actress who begins an affair with a married man in Woody Allen’s romantic drama film Match Point (2005). The film was a box office success, and performance of Scarlett in the film also earned positive reviews, along with a nomination for a Golden Globe Award, as well as a nomination for the Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress. The same year, she also appeared in the dual roles as Sarah Jordan and her clone, Jordan Two Delta, in the science fiction film The Island (2005), directed by Michael Bay and set in a dystopian future, which received mixed reviews.

Next year, Scarlett appeared in three films, which include Woody Allen’s Scoop (2006), in which she played the role of Sondra Pransky, a student of Journalism, Brian De Palma’s erotic thriller, The Black Dalia (2006), in which she appeared as Kay Lake, and also portrayed the supporting role of Olivia Wenscombe, the assistant and lover of an aristocrat magician, played by Hugh Jackman, in Sir Christopher Nolan’s mystery thriller, The Prestige (2006). After that, she appeared in the comedy drama, The Nanny Diaries (2007), her solo release of the year, in which she played the role of Annie Braddock, a college graduate working as a nanny. Although the film was critically panned, reviews of her performance in the film were mixed. The next year, she starred with Natalia Portman in the period drama The Other Boleyn Girl (2008), which also earned mixed reviews

However, her next film, the romantic comedy drama Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008), her third collaboration with Woody Allen, in which she appeared alongside the Spanish actress Penélope Cruz as Cristina, one of the love interest of Juan Antonio, played by Javier Bardem, proved to be one of the most profitable of the director, and also received favourable reviews, while Scarlett’s performance in the film was described by the Variety magazine as open and malleable.

After that, Scarlett dyed her hair red and undertook stunt and physical strength training to prepare herself to appear in the action film Iron Man 2 (2010), as Natasha Romanoff, a secret agent otherwise known as the Black Widow, followed by her role as Black Widow in The Avenger (2012), which received mostly positive reviews and broke many box office records, while Scarlett was nominated for two Teen Choice Awards and three People’s Choice Awards. Subsequently, Johansson continued to play her role as Black Widow in the superhero blockbusters, which include, Captain America: Civil War (2016), Avengers: Infinity War (2018, Avengers: Endgame (2019) and Black Widow (2021).

However, during those years she also appeared in several other films, playing the role of Kelly, a zookeeper in the family film We Bought a Zoo (2011), the role of the famous actress Janet Leigh in Hitchcock (2012), about a behind-the-scenes drama of making of his Psycho, a woman who develops superpowers after a mind-expanding drug enters her system in Lucy (2014), and also a woman who gains the ability to hold the memories of a Japanese woman in Ghost in the Shell (2017). Apart from that, she was nominated for an Academy Awards, for Best Actress for playing the role of a woman who files for divorce in the Netflix film Marriage Story (2019), and also received nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in the supporting role of a young boy's mother who shelters a Jewish girl in Nazi Germany in Taika David Cohen’s satire Jojo Rabbit (2019).

The subsequent films of Scarlett Johansson include Wes Anderson's comedy Asteroid City (2023), her second film to premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, after Match Point, the comedy film My Mother’s Wedding (2023), in which Johansson played one of three sisters reuniting for their mother's wedding, and Fly Me to the Moon (2024), a romantic comedy set against the backdrop of the Space Race.

In her personal life, Scarlett Johansson dated Josh Hartnett, her Black Dalia co-star, for about two years until the end of 2006, when they broke up, as their busy schedules kept them apart. After the break up, Scarlett began dating the Canadian actor Ryan Reynolds in April 2007, they became engaged in May 2000, and finally married in September 2008, only to be separated in December 2010, which ended in a divorce in July 2011. .After that, she began dating French journalist and the owner of an advertising agency, Romain Dauriac, in November 2012, became engaged the following September, and they married on 1 October 2014, after Scarlett gave birth to their daughter, Rose, on 30 August in 2014. But the marriage did not last long, as they separated in mid-2016, and their divorce was finalised on 12 September 2017. After her second divorce, Johansson began dating comedian and Weekend Update satirical news program anchor Colin Jost in May 2017, they married in October 2020, and had their child, Cosmo Jost, in August 2021.

Often referred to as one of the world's most attractive women, Scarlett Johansson was described by The Sydney Morning Herald as the embodiment of male fantasy, and was named by Time news magazine as one of the most influential people in the world in 2021. However, she clearly expressed her displeasure of being sexualized, and was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in June 2004. Apart from being a reputed actress, she is also a prominent singer, a brand endorser and supports several charitable causes.