Scarlett Johansson, (born November 22, 1984, New York City, New York, U.S.), American actress and singer whose acting range earned her popular acclaim in a variety of genres, from period drama to thriller and action adventure.
BORN
November 22, 1984 (age 35)
New York City, New York
Johansson, daughter of an architect and a producer, was raised in New York City. She and her twin brother, Hunter, were the youngest of four siblings. She developed an interest in acting at a young age, auditioning for commercials by age seven. Soon after, she enrolled at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute and later attended the Professional Children’s School in Manhattan to further hone her craft. At age eight she appeared alongside Ethan Hawke in the Off-Broadway production Sophistry, and at nine she made her film debut in Rob Reiner’s North (1994). Johansson subsequently appeared in Just Cause (1995), but her first breakthrough came with Manny & Lo (1996), a coming-of-age film about orphaned sisters who run away. She next earned critical acclaim for her role as a teenager who has suffered a disfiguring accident in The Horse Whisperer (1998), and she gained further attention as cynical teen outcast Rebecca in Ghost World (2001)
Natalie was born in Jerusalem; her mother was American and her father, who later became a fertility doctor, was Israeli. In 1984 the family moved to the United States, eventually settling in Syosset, Long Island, New York. After boring of a brief stint in modeling, Hershlag turned to acting, securing her first film role in Léon (1994; The Professional). She starred opposite French actor Jean Reno as an adolescent girl training to be an assassin after her parents have been murdered. Hershlag assumed her maternal grandmother’s last name at this time in order to protect herself from unwanted attention as a result of the role, which had sexual overtones. She then appeared in Michael Mann’s crime thriller Heat (1995) as a troubled teenager.