All About Scarlett Johansson's Parents, Karsten Johansson and Melanie Sloan

Scarlett Johansson has plenty of reasons to thank her parents Karsten Johansson and Melanie Sloan, especially when it comes to her career.

Karsten, a Danish architect, and Melanie, a homemaker, raised Scarlett and her siblings in New York City, where they often struggled to get by and relied on public assistance for meals. Yet despite their financial challenges, they allowed their children to dream big — as long as they put in the work.

This proved to be true when Scarlett expressed interest in acting as a child and Melanie had a honest conversation with her about what it would take. After seeing Scarlett quickly commit to the craft, her parents got on board and supported her dreams.

Melanie, who Scarlett has said “shaped me in many ways,” was especially encouraging. "She just made us feel that you could do whatever you wanted to do, as long as you really wanted to do it, and that's why I got into acting,” she told The Daily Telegraph (via E! Online) in 2015.

Here’s everything to know about Scarlett Johansson’s parents, Karsten Johansson and Melanie Sloan.

Karsten is originally from Denmark

Scarlett’s dad, Karsten, is an architect from Denmark who lived in Copenhagen until his mid-20s.

As children, Scarlett and her siblings were immersed in Danish culture and design because of their father's career, and they even had their own special holiday celebrations that mixed in with their mother's Jewish roots.

“Even though we’re Jewish we always celebrated Christmas alongside Chanukah just because we loved the traditions of Danish Christmases,” Scarlett told the Irish Times in 2012. “We’d go to different harvest festivals and churches and all that kind of stuff.”

They raised their four kids in New York City

Karsten and Melanie began their family with the birth of their son Adrian in 1976, followed by daughter Vanessa, who arrived in 1980. Scarlett and her twin brother Hunter completed the group when they were born in 1984.

Karsten also has an older son, Christian, from his first marriage, while Melanie welcomed her daughter Fenan via adoption decades after having her youngest children.

The actress and her siblings were raised in N.Y.C., where Scarlett still lives with her husband Colin Jost and her two kids. In a 2021 Parade interview, Scarlett talked about the perks of raising her daughter and son in her hometown.

“One of the great privileges of raising your kids where you grew up is that you get to do stuff and see things you did when you were a kid," she said.

Melanie helped foster Scarlett’s love of performing

Growing up in the Big Apple, Melanie immersed Scarlett and her siblings in the world of classic films.

As the Her star recalled while accepting the prestigious American Cinematheque Award in 2021, Melanie started introducing her to “Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals, Rosalind Russell films, Judy Garland movies” when she was 3 years old.

Though she admitted that the projects weren't always "age-appropriate," it didn't deter their viewing options. "If anyone ever questioned my mom's parenting approach, she'd say that all her children were very mature," Scarlett said.

Melanie also took advantage of what their family had at their fingertips, taking them to see Broadway plays when “she could afford it,” Scarlett told Variety in 2023. “We’d line up in the half-price ticket line and then go see a show," she added.

The combination of films and live performances deeply moved Scarlett. "My passion for performance came from watching all those movies over and over and over," she said at the event for her American Cinematheque Award.

The Lucy alum elaborated to Variety that it was also a way to get her parents' attention, sharing, “I think that was a big driving force. I was kind of a ham and I just loved imaginary things. I loved singing and dancing."

They divorced when Scarlett was a teenager

While it’s unknown when Karsten and Melanie met or how long they were married, Scarlett has been open about the dissolution of her parents’ marriage.

According to The Avengers star, the family lived in a "low-income" Manhattan household and experienced financial struggles, which caused tension.

“By the time my twin brother and I came around, I think my parents’ marriage, it had a lot of strain,” she said in a 2017 episode of Inside the Actors Studio.

Karsten and Melanie eventually divorced in 1997, and Melanie moved to California shortly after, while Scarlett mainly lived with Karsten in New York, per the Daily Mail.

Melanie supported Scarlett's Hollywood dreams

Speaking on The Skinny Confidential Him & Her Podcast, Scarlett opened up about when she knew she wanted to start acting.

According to the Jojo Rabbit cast member, it began when she was 7 years old, and one of her mom's friends suggested Melanie take Scarlett and her siblings to see a commercial agent in case anything came out of it. In the end, Adrian was the only one picked from the bunch, which “really devastated” Scarlett.

After seeing her daughter's reaction, Melanie asked Scarlett if she was serious about exploring an acting career because they "didn’t have the means to just do it casually." Scarlett recalled her mom saying, "‘If you want to do it, you have to really commit.’ "

With that, Melanie enrolled Scarlett in acting classes, arranged her headshots and began booking auditions. The mother-daughter duo went on to work together for nearly two decades, with Melanie taking on the role of manager.

They protected Scarlett as a child actor

Even though Scarlett started acting at 9 years old, she avoided the unfortunate pitfalls that have clouded the careers and lives of other young actors, and according to her, it’s all thanks to her dad and mom.

“You need your parents to set boundaries and hold you accountable and keep you away from, like, weird people,” she told Variety in 2023. “I was really fortunate that I had that.”

Scarlett also thinks it helped that Karsten and Melanie weren’t in the industry, and she grew up with a mom who insisted on keeping her grounded, she said on The Skinny Confidential Him & Her Podcast.

“She was very dedicated to making sure I got my schooling, and I had my time off,” she explained, adding that she enjoyed working with Melanie as her manager.

Scarlett continued, "Not everybody has a great experience with their ‘stage mom,’ but my mom, she was really great. She was very loving and responsible and really watched out for me and all of [my siblings].”