Most people think they know the "Black Widow" star inside and out. We’ve seen her age on screen from a raspy-voiced kid to a global icon, yet the basic question of when was Scarlett Johansson born often gets tangled up in fan myths and internet half-truths.
She isn't just another Hollywood veteran. She’s a New Yorker through and through.
The Exact Date and the Manhattan Connection
Scarlett Ingrid Johansson was born on November 22, 1984.
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If you're doing the math, she’s currently 41 years old. She arrived in Manhattan, New York City, which basically explains that gritty, no-nonsense energy she brings to her roles.
Funny enough, she shares a birthday with some pretty heavy history—November 22nd is the anniversary of the JFK assassination. She also shares the day with fellow actor Jamie Lee Curtis and even the late Mark Lanegan.
Her family life wasn't the glitzy "child star" narrative you might expect. Honestly, things were tight. Her father, Karsten Olaf Johansson, is a Danish-born architect. Her mother, Melanie Sloan, comes from an Ashkenazi Jewish family in the Bronx and worked as a producer.
They weren't living the high life. Scarlett has been very open about the fact that her family relied on welfare and food stamps at certain points. Raising four kids in a low-income household in New York is no joke.
The Twin Brother Nobody Talks About
Here is a detail that genuinely shocks people who only follow her MCU career: she has a twin.
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Hunter Johansson was born just three minutes after her.
While Scarlett was busy trying to get into the Lee Strasberg Institute and auditioning for commercials, Hunter was right there with her. They even appeared together in the 1996 film Manny & Lo. But while Scarlett’s "fire in the brain" (her own words at age three!) led her to the A-list, Hunter took a detour into politics and community organizing.
She also has an older sister, Vanessa, who acts, and an older brother named Adrian. There’s even a half-brother, Christian, from her dad’s first marriage. It was a crowded, creative, and sometimes financially stressed house.
When Was Scarlett Johansson Born in Terms of Her Career?
We usually mark a person's "birth" by their first breath, but in Hollywood, you're "born" when the camera first hits you.
For Scarlett, that was 1994.
She made her film debut in the movie North when she was only nine. Think about that. Most of us were struggling with long division while she was acting opposite John Ritter and Bruce Willis.
But her real breakthrough? That happened in 1998 with The Horse Whisperer. Robert Redford, who directed it, famously said she was "13 going on 30." She had this weirdly mature, soulful presence that most teenagers just don't have. It was that specific quality—that raspy voice and adult-like gaze—that eventually led to her iconic role in Lost in Translation when she was only 17.
Misconception Alert: A lot of people assume she was in her early 20s during Lost in Translation because of the mature themes. Nope. She was a teenager playing a college grad.
Why Her Birth Date Still Matters in 2026
Age in Hollywood is a weird currency.
Scarlett has managed to pivot from the "ingénue" phase of the early 2000s into a powerhouse producer and director. She’s currently working on her directorial debut, Eleanor the Great, and she’s set to lead the new Jurassic World Rebirth.
She’s stayed relevant because she started so young. By the time she was 30, she had more credits than most actors have in a lifetime.
Her trajectory is a bit of a blueprint for how to handle a career in the public eye. She survived the "sexualization" of the mid-2000s, fought a landmark legal battle against Disney over Black Widow streaming rights, and remains one of the highest-paid actresses on the planet.
Little Known Birthday Facts
- Zodiac: She's a Sagittarius. It’s a fire sign, which makes sense given her "fire in the brain" comment about acting.
- Heritage: She holds dual American and Danish citizenship.
- The School: She graduated from the Professional Children's School in Manhattan in 2002.
- The Rejection: She actually applied to NYU's Tisch School of the Arts but got rejected. Imagine being the admissions officer who turned down a future two-time Oscar nominee.
What to Do With This Info
If you’re a fan or a budding actor, there are a few takeaways from Scarlett's early life and birth.
First, ignore the "right time" to start. She started at nine, got rejected by agents, and kept going. Second, your background doesn't dictate your ceiling. Growing up on food stamps didn't stop her from becoming a billion-dollar box office draw.
If you want to dive deeper into her work, skip the Marvel stuff for a night. Go back and watch Ghost World (2001) or Manny & Lo. You’ll see the exact moment a star was born, long before she ever put on a superhero suit.
Check out her upcoming projects like The Phoenician Scheme to see how her "adult" era is evolving. Her career is a masterclass in longevity, proving that the date on your birth certificate is just the starting line.