Early life
On October 4, 1989, Dakota Mayi Johnson was born at Brackenridge Hospital in Austin, Texas, to actors Don Johnson and Melanie Griffith. Her father was in Texas filming The Hot Spot at the time of her birth. Her maternal grandparents are advertising executive and former child actor Peter Griffith and actress Tippi Hedren, and she is the niece of actress Tracy Griffith and production designer Clay A. Griffin. Antonio Banderas, an actor, is her past stepfather. She has two maternal siblings and four paternal siblings, one of whom is the actor Jesse Johnson. Johnson spent the majority of her childhood with her parents on film sets, but she also spent a lot of time in Aspen and Woody Creek, Colorado, where she worked as a teenager during the summers at the local market. She spent some time at the Aspen Community School. “I was so consistently unmoored and discombobulated. Johnson recalled, “I didn’t have an anchor anywhere.” Johnson was diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) at a young age and changed schools seven times. She attended the Santa Catalina School in Monterey, California, for her freshman year of high school before transferring to New Roads School in Santa Monica, California.
After participating in a photo shoot with the children of other celebrities for Teen Vogue when he was 12 years old, Johnson became interested in modeling. He went on to earn a living modeling while he was in Santa Monica high school. Johnson has said that she was interested in acting as a child, having spent significant time on film sets with her parents, but that they discouraged her from pursuing it until she finished high school. After high school, she applied to the Juilliard School in New York City, but was not accepted after she covered a Radiohead song.
After participating in a photo shoot with the children of other celebrities for Teen Vogue when he was 12 years old, Johnson became interested in modeling. He went on to earn a living modeling while he was in Santa Monica high school. Johnson has said that she was interested in acting as a child, having spent significant time on film sets with her parents, but that they discouraged her from pursuing it until she finished high school. After high school, she applied to the Juilliard School in New York City, but was not accepted after she covered a Radiohead song.
1999–2014: Career beginnings
On October 4, 1989, Dakota Mayi Johnson was born at Brackenridge Hospital in Austin, Texas, to actors Don Johnson and Melanie Griffith. Her father was in Texas filming The Hot Spot at the time of her birth. Her maternal grandparents are advertising executive and former child actor Peter Griffith and actress Tippi Hedren, and she is the niece of actress Tracy Griffith and production designer Clay A. Griffin. Antonio Banderas, an actor, is her past stepfather. She has two maternal siblings and four paternal siblings, one of whom is the actor Jesse Johnson. Johnson spent the majority of her childhood with her parents on film sets, but she also spent a lot of time in Aspen and Woody Creek, Colorado, where she worked as a teenager during the summers at the local market. She spent some time at the Aspen Community School. “I was so consistently unmoored and discombobulated. Johnson recalled, “I didn’t have an anchor anywhere.” Johnson was diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) at a young age and changed schools seven times. She attended the Santa Catalina School in Monterey, California, for her freshman year of high school before transferring to New Roads School in Santa Monica, California.
After participating in a photo shoot with the children of other celebrities for Teen Vogue when he was 12 years old, Johnson became interested in modeling. He went on to earn a living modeling while he was in Santa Monica high school. Johnson has said that she was interested in acting as a child, having spent significant time on film sets with her parents, but that they discouraged her from pursuing it until she finished high school. After high school, she applied to the Juilliard School in New York City, but was not accepted after she covered a Radiohead song.
After participating in a photo shoot with the children of other celebrities for Teen Vogue when he was 12 years old, Johnson became interested in modeling. He went on to earn a living modeling while he was in Santa Monica high school. Johnson has said that she was interested in acting as a child, having spent significant time on film sets with her parents, but that they discouraged her from pursuing it until she finished high school. After high school, she applied to the Juilliard School in New York City, but was not accepted after she covered a Radiohead song.
2015–2019: Breakthrough and recognition
Johnson’s breakthrough came when she starred as Anastasia “Ana” Steele in the erotic romantic drama film Fifty Shades of Grey, which was released in February 2015 and brought her international recognition. Johnson won the role over Lucy Hale, Felicity Jones, Elizabeth Olsen, Danielle Panabaker and Shailene Woodley. In answer to questions regarding her stance on gender rights with respect to her role in the Fifty Shades film series, Johnson said: “I’m proud of [the movie]. I completely disagree with people who think Ana’s weak. I think she’s actually stronger than he is. Everything she does is her choice. And if I can be an advocate for women to do what they want to do with their bodies and not be ashamed of what they want, then I’m all for that.”
On February 15, 2015, Johnson appeared on Saturday Night Live’s 40th anniversary special and hosted SNL on February 28, 2015, making her the second daughter of a former SNL host (after Gwyneth Paltrow, whose mother Blythe Danner hosted during the show’s seventh season in 1982) to host the show. Also in 2015, she reunited with her 21 Jump Street cast member Johnny Depp, playing the mother of his character’s child in the feature film Black Mass. In 2015, Johnson starred in Luca Guadagnino’s thriller A Bigger Splash, opposite Tilda Swinton, Matthias Schoenaerts and Ralph Fiennes. The same year saw the release of Cymbeline, a modern film adaptation of the William Shakespeare play, in which she starred opposite Ethan Hawke and Ed Harris. She also played a lead in the 2016 comedy How to Be Single, with Leslie Mann and her Date and Switch co-star Nicholas Braun.
Johnson trained in dance to prepare for Luca Guadagnino’s Suspiria (2018), a supernatural horror film and remake of the 1977 film by Dario Argento, in which she plays an American dancer in Berlin who enrolls in an academy run by a coven of witches. David Ehrlich of IndieWire described Johnson’s performance in the film as “thrillingly unrepentant”. Also in 2018, she starred in Drew Goddard’s neo-noir thriller Bad Times at the El Royale, with Jeff Bridges, Jon Hamm and Chris Hemsworth. In the film, she plays a hippie staying at a resort on the California-Nevada border where the lives of various people with suspicious pasts intersect.
In 2019, Johnson starred in the psychological horror film, Wounds, opposite Armie Hammer, directed by Babak Anvari, based upon a horror novella The Visible Filth by Nathan Ballingrud. It had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on January 26, 2019. She then starred in the well-reviewed independent adventure film, The Peanut Butter Falcon, opposite Shia LaBeouf and Bruce Dern, which had its world premiere at South by Southwest on March 9, 2019. She starred in Gabriela Cowperthwaite’s drama film Our Friend, alongside Casey Affleck and Jason Segel. The film is based upon real life couple Nicole and Matthew Teague, faced with Nicole’s impending death, see their best friend move in with them to help them out. She sang on three covers of songs for the film’s soundtrack,[citation needed] including one of “If I Had the World to Give” by Grateful Dead. Joe Morgenstern of The Wall Street Journal wrote that the “intimacy of Ms. Johnson’s performance is extraordinary. She is the least assertive of movie stars, yet the courage, despair and fury she finds in Nicole will lift you up and spin you around”. While Gary Goldstein from the Los Angeles Times stated that Johnson “impresses with affecting range — from flirty, ebullient and adoring to stalwart, enraged and resigned; it’s a lovely performance”.2020-Present:
Johnson founded the production company TeaTime Pictures, alongside former Netflix development executive Ro Donnelly, to develop films and television series. In 2020, Johnson made her directorial debut, co-directing (with Cory Bailey) the music video for Coldplay’s “Cry Cry Cry”, which featured her boyfriend Chris Martin. Johnson starred alongside Tracee Ellis Ross in the dramedy film The High Note, which was released on May 29, 2020. Ann Hornaday of The Washington Post wrote that “she’s lovely to look at and can never be accused of overacting, but in terms of conveying single-minded drive, Johnson is no match for [Tracee Ellis] Ross’s carefully calibrated tonal swings between imperiousness, self-awareness, isolation and down-to-earth intimacy.” Conversely Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun Times saw it as “maybe her best and certainly most lovable performance.”
In 2021, she co-starred in The Lost Daughter, directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal and based on Elena Ferrante’s novel of the same name. In December 2021, Boat Rocker Media acquired a minority interest for TeaTime Pictures. In 2022, she starred in the Netflix film adaptation of author Jane Austen’s Persuasion. Johnson co-produced and starred in several films. She played a lesbian in Am I Ok?, which was directed by Stephanie Allynne and Tig Notaro. She played a young mother with an autistic child in Cha Cha Real Smooth, in which she starred opposite Cooper Raiff. Johnson played a cab passenger who has an emotionally profound interaction with a cabbie in the film Daddio, in which she starred opposite Sean Penn. Her performances in The Lost Daughter, Persuasion, Cha Cha Real Smooth, and Daddio were met with positive reception from critics and audiences.
In November 2023, Johnson departed WME and signed a representation deal with Creative Artists Agency. She played the title role in the superhero film Madame Web (2024), set in Sony’s Spider-Man Universe. It was produced on a budget of $80 million. She took a supporting role in the comedy Splitsville (2025) which she also served as a producer. That same year she took a leading role in the Celine Song directed romance Materialists (2025) co-starring opposite Chris Evans and Pedro Pascal.
Personal Life
Johnson is a tattoo enthusiast and has been named a brand ambassador for luxury fashion brand Gucci. In 2018, she collaborated with 300 women in Hollywood to set up the Time’s Up initiative to protect women from harassment and discrimination. In November 2020, it was announced that she had become an investor and co-creative director of Maude, a sexual wellness brand.
Johnson is an avid reader. She launched a book club in March 2024.
