Aaron Taylor-Johnson

Aaron Perry Taylor-Johnson (né Johnson; born 13 June 1990) is an English actor.

Taylor-Johnson was born Aaron Perry Johnson in High Wycombe on 13 June 1990.

His father, Robert, was a civil engineer and his mother, Sarah, ‘stayed at home [and] worked odd jobs here and there so [they] could get by.

On stage, he appeared in a London production of Shakespeare's Macbeth, playing the son of Macduff alongside Rufus Sewell, who played Macbeth, in 1999.

He appeared in Arthur Miller's All My Sons in 2000.

He has a sister named Gemma, who later had a small role in his film Tom & Thomas (2002).

He went to Holmer Green Senior School and attended the Jackie Palmer Stage School in High Wycombe, studying drama, tap, jazz, acrobatics, and singing.

He left school at 15.

He is Jewish.

Johnson began acting at the age of six.

Johnson began performing as a child and appeared in films including Shanghai Knights (2003), The Illusionist (2006), and Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging (2008).

In 2003, Taylor-Johnson appeared as a young Charlie Chaplin in Shanghai Knights alongside Jackie Chan and Owen Wilson, with Chaplin depicted as a member of a London gang of street thugs.

That year he also guest starred in a special live episode of ITV drama The Bill.

His television roles have included Niker in the 2004 BBC adaptation of the novel Feather Boy, Aaron in Danny Brocklehurst's ITV1 serial Talk to Me, and Owen Stephens in Nearly Famous.

In 2006, he appeared in The Illusionist, appearing in the early flashback scenes as Edward Norton's character, Eduard Abramovicz, as a teenager.

The scenes show the young Eduard as he first learns magic, and to do this, Johnson had to learn how to perform the ball trick displayed by his character.

He learned how to perform the balancing of the egg on the stick, although that was effected mechanically.

Also in 2006, he starred in the film The Thief Lord, as Prosper.

He had his breakthrough performance as John Lennon in the biopic Nowhere Boy (2009), directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson, whom he married in 2012.

Taylor-Johnson appeared as John Lennon in the 2009 biographical film Nowhere Boy, directed by Sam Taylor-Wood.

His performance saw him receive the Empire Award for Best Newcomer and he was also nominated for Young British Performer of the Year by the London Film Critics' Circle.

He is best known for his portrayal of the title character in Kick-Ass (2010) and its 2013 sequel, and the Marvel Cinematic Universe character Pietro Maximoff in Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015).

In 2010, Taylor-Johnson appeared as David "Dave" Lizewski/Kick-Ass, the lead character in Kick-Ass, based on the superhero comic book of the same name by Scottish writer Mark Millar.

His performance in Kick-Ass saw him nominated for the BAFTA Rising Star Award.

He has also appeared as the central character, William, in Hideo Nakata's Chatroom.

In December 2010, Taylor-Johnson joined the cast of Albert Nobbs as a replacement for Orlando Bloom, who dropped out of the production due to his wife's pregnancy.

Taylor-Johnson starred in R.E.M.'s 2011 music video "Überlin", which was also directed by his then-fiancée.

He followed this with roles in the crime thriller Savages (2012), period drama Anna Karenina (2012), and monster film Godzilla (2014).

In 2012, Taylor-Johnson played Count Vronsky in Anna Karenina.

Later that year, he starred as Ben in Oliver Stone's Savages.

HitFix film critic Drew McWeeny was positive of the bond between Johnson and co-star Taylor Kitsch, which "seems not only credible but lived in and authentic throughout the film", and noted the evolution in maturity of Johnson since Kick-Ass.

Taylor-Johnson starred in the Godzilla reboot, released in May 2014.

Taylor-Johnson first appeared as the character in a post-credits scene of the film Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014).

The role reunited him with Elizabeth Olsen, who played his wife in Godzilla.

Taylor-Johnson played Quicksilver in Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), the sequel to 2012's The Avengers, as part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

For his performance as a psychopathic drifter in the thriller film Nocturnal Animals (2016), Taylor-Johnson won the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor and was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role.

In 2016, he played Ray, a menacing Texan, in Tom Ford's thriller Nocturnal Animals.

For the role, he won the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture.

Taylor-Johnson also became first Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor winner since Richard Benjamin who did not receive an Academy Award nomination.

He has since appeared in the action films Tenet (2020) and Bullet Train (2022).