Dakota Johnson Biography

Dakota Mayi Johnson (born October 4, 1989) is an American actress and model. She is the daughter of actors Melanie Griffith and Don Johnson. She had her screen debut alongside her mother in the comedy-drama Crazy in Alabama (1999) and was named Miss Golden Globe in 2006. Following high school graduation, she returned to acting with roles in The Social Network (2010), Beastly (2011), 21 Jump Street (2012), Need for Speed (2014) and the short-lived comedy Ben and Kate (2012-2013).

She received international recognition in 2015 after landing the lead role of Anastasia Steele in the romantic drama Fifty Shades of Grey, which catapulted her to fame and earned her the People's Choice Award for Favorite Dramatic Movie Actress and a BAFTA Rising Star Award nomination. The same year, she took part in Black Mass and A Bigger Splash. She also starred in the romantic comedy How to Be Single (2016), and reprised her role as Anastasia Steele in Fifty Shades Darker (2017) and the upcoming Fifty Shades Freed (2018).

Early life

Dakota Mayi Johnson was born on October 4, 1989, in Austin, Texas, to actors Melanie Griffith and Don Johnson. She is the maternal granddaughter of advertising executive and former child actor Peter Griffith and actress Tippi Hedren, and half-niece of actress Tracy Griffith and production designer Clay A. Griffin. Her former stepfather is actor Antonio Banderas. She has six half-siblings; four on her father's side, including actor Jesse Johnson, and two on her mother's side.

Johnson attended Aspen Community School in Aspen, Colorado. She later 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. She was an avid dancer as a child. She became interested in modeling at age 12 after a photo shoot with children of other celebrities for Teen Vogue.

Career

Acting

In 1999, Johnson made her film debut in Crazy in Alabama where she and her half-sister, Stella Banderas, played daughters to their real-life mother, Melanie Griffith. The film was directed by her then-stepfather, Antonio Banderas. In 2006, she was chosen as Miss Golden Globe 2006, where she served as the first second-generation Miss Golden Globe in the Globes' history.

Once Johnson graduated from high school, she signed with the William Morris Agency and started her acting career. She appeared in the critically acclaimed box office hit The Social Network which was directed by David Fincher. She has also appeared in Beastly, Ezna Sands' film Chloe and Theo, and So Yong Kim's film For Ellen. In 2012, she had roles in Christopher Neil's film Goats, with David Duchovny; Nicholas Stoller's film The Five-Year Engagement for producer Judd Apatow, and the film 21 Jump Street. She also played the female lead in Chris Nelson's film Date and Switch written by Alan Yang.

In March 2012, Johnson was cast as Kate in the Fox comedy series Ben and Kate, marking her television debut. The show was cancelled on January 25, 2013 after one season. Johnson quickly resumed her film career, and appeared in Need for Speed (2014). She also has been cast in the modern-day film adaptation of William Shakespeare's Cymbeline.

In 2013, she had a role as one of the new hires on the "Finale" episode of The Office. Johnson played Anastasia "Ana" Steele in Fifty Shades of Grey, which was released in February 2015. Johnson won the role over Lucy Hale, Felicity Jones, Elizabeth Olsen, Danielle Panabaker and Shailene Woodley. 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 herself. 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. She also played a lead in the 2016 comedy How to Be Single, with Leslie Mann and her Date and Switch costar Nicholas Braun.

Johnson mentioned in the Autumm/Winter 2015 issue of AnOther Magazine, that she is already deep in ballet training to prepare for Luca Guadagnino's remake of Suspiria. She will star with Schnoenaerts again in The Sound of Metal, where she plays a singer, and he plays a drummer who begins to lose his hearing. She was set reunite with both her The Social Network producer Michael De Luca and costar Andrew Garfield for the crime thriller Under the Silver Lake but had to drop out and Riley Keough took the role. She will also star in and executive produce two films under her Silhouette Productions: Forever, Interrupted, where she will play a young widow, and Unfit, where she will play Carrie Buck in a fact-based 1920s courtroom drama. She has also signed on to work on the independent feature film The Peanut Butter Falcon with Bruce Dern and Shia LaBeouf.

Modeling

In 2006, Johnson signed with IMG Models. Though acting is her primary work, she has since modeled for MANGO brand's jeans line in 2009 and shot the "Rising Star" campaign for Australian fashion label Wish in 2011.

Personal life

Johnson was previously in relationships with musician Noah Gersh, actor Jordan Masterson, and Welsh model and musician Matthew Hitt.

In answer to the questions regarding her stance on gender rights with respect to her role in Fifty Shades, Johnson stated: "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."

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1999	Crazy in Alabama	Sondra
2010	'	Amelia Ritter
2010	All That Glitters	Dianica French	Short film
2011	Beastly	Sloan Hagen
2012	For Ellen	Cindy Taylor
2012	Goats	Minnie
2012	21 Jump Street	Fugazy
2012	'	Audrey
2012	Transit	Elizabeth	Short film
2014	Date and Switch	Em
2014	Need for Speed	Anita Coleman
2014	Closed Set	Leading Lady	Short film
2015	Fifty Shades of Grey	Anastasia Steele
2015	Cymbeline	Imogen
2015	Chloe and Theo	Chloe
2015	Black Mass	Lindsey Cyr
2015	A Bigger Splash	Penelope Lannier
2015	In a Relationship	Willa	Short film
2015	Vale	Rachel	Short film
2016	How to Be Single	Alice Kepley
2017	Fifty Shades Darker	Anastasia Steele
2018	Suspiria	Susie Bannion	Post-production
2018	Fifty Shades Freed	Anastasia Steele Grey	Post-production
2018	The Peanut Butter Falcon	Eleanor	Post-production

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2012-13	Ben and Kate	Kate Fox	Main role; 16 episodes
2013	'	Dakota	Episode: "Finale"
2015	Saturday Night Live	Host	Episode: "Dakota Johnson/Alabama Shakes"

Awards and nominations

Year	Association	Category	Work	Result	Ref.
2006	Hollywood Foreign Press Association	Miss Golden Globe
2010	Hollywood Film Awards	Ensemble of the Year (shared with rest of cast)	The Social Network
	San Diego Film Critics Society Awards	Best Ensemble Performance
	Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association	Best Acting Ensemble
	Phoenix Film Critics Society	Best Ensemble Acting
2011	Central Ohio Film Critics Association	Best Ensemble
	Palm Springs International Film Festival	Ensemble Cast Award
2013	Women's Image Network Awards	Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series	Ben and Kate
2014	Young Hollywood Awards	Breakthrough Actress
2015	Elle	Elle Women in Hollywood
	Women Film Critics Circle	Worst Female Images in a Movie	Fifty Shades of Grey
2016	People's Choice Awards	Favorite Dramatic Movie Actress
	British Academy Film Awards	Rising Star Award
	MTV Movie Awards	Best Breakthrough Performance	Fifty Shades of Grey
		Best Kiss (shared with Jamie Dornan)
	Alliance of Women Film Journalists
	Golden Raspberry Awards	Worst Actress
		Worst Screen Combo (shared with Jamie Dornan)