Scarlett Johansson: Recent News

Apr 30, 2013

Tom Hanks, Cyndi Lauper, Kinky Boots Among Top Tony Nominees

Apr 08, 2013

Scarlett Johansson Doesn't Want Jealousy in Her Men

Feb 20, 2013

Scarlett Johansson Is Not Engaged to Romain Dauriac

Feb 13, 2013

Scarlett Johansson: Snapshot

Name: Scarlett Johansson
Date of Birth: November 22, 1984
Birth Place: New York, N.Y.

Scarlett Johansson's ascension to A-list status was cemented with a lingering close-up of her shapely, pink panty-clad derriére in the opening scene of the Oscar-winning film Lost in Translation.

Long before her revealing close-up, the striking blonde got her big break at age 11 in the indie film Manny & Lo, which earned her an Independent Spirit Award nomination and the lead role in Robert Redford's The Horse Whisperer in 1998. Since then, Johansson has continued to make her mark on the silver screen as Woody Allen's latest muse and Esquire's Sexiest Woman Alive.

Offscreen, Johansson romanced Jared Leto, Josh Hartnett and PEOPLE's Sexiest Man Alive Ryan Reynolds, whom she married in 2008, before ultimately divorcing two years later.

People Hot List - Which Stars Have the Most Buzz?

The Hot List shows the most buzzed about celebs of the moment as measured by reader activity on People.com

See All 25 Hot Listers

Scarlett Johansson: Video

* Non Franchise

The star rules the red carpet with her bombshell looks and retro appeal

(02:10)

Scarlett Johansson: Five Fun Facts

Scarlett Johansson has a twin brother named Hunter. They might have been born on the same day, but she still has "older sister" status: she beat him out of the womb by three minutes.
In 1998, a 13-year-old Scarlett Johansson lost the lead role in The Parent Trap to Lindsay Lohan.
Scarlett Johansson had a Japanese fighting fish named Cassius. When the fish died in 2005 after a fish-sitting friend forgot to change his water, Johansson buried him in the garden at L.A,'s Chateau Marmont. (She was living at the hotel at the time.)
Known for being mature beyond her years, Scarlett Johansson is really a kid at heart. She celebrated her 20th birthday at Disneyland, and her favorite movie is Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory.
Scarlett Johansson's nude bottom (from the February 2006 Vanity Fair cover with an also nude Keira Knightley) was stenciled on 100 cookies nibbled by guests at the magazine's annual Oscar Party.

Scarlett Johansson: Biography

1992-1993: Acting Too Commercial
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.
1994-1996: Fate Plays a Hand
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.
1998: May 15
Stepping Up
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."