Dakota Johnson

Johnson has six half-siblings: on her mother's side, she has one half-brother, Alexander Bauer (1985), and one half-sister, Stella Banderas (1996); on her father's side, she has three half-brothers—Jesse (1982), Jasper (2002), and Deacon (2006)—and one half-sister, Grace Johnson (1999).

Owing to her parents' occupations, Johnson spent much of her childhood in various locations with them on film sets and premieres, though she spent extended amounts of time in Aspen and Woody Creek, Colorado, where she worked during summers at the local market as a teenager.

In Woody Creek, she was neighbors with Hunter S. Thompson.

She attended the Aspen Community School for a time.

"I was so consistently unmoored and discombobulated, I didn't have an anchor anywhere," Johnson recalled.

She attended the Santa Catalina School in Monterey, California, for her freshman year of high school before transferring to the private New Roads School in Santa Monica, California.

Johnson became interested in modeling at age twelve after taking part in a photoshoot with other celebrities' children for Teen Vogue, and subsequently earned an income modeling while attending high school in Santa Monica.

She has struggled with depression since around age fourteen and checked into rehabilitation.

She also has had ADHD since childhood.

Johnson was interested in acting as a child, having spent significant time on film sets with her parents, but they discouraged her from pursuing the profession until she graduated high school.

After high school, she applied to Juilliard, performing monologues by Shakespeare and Steve Martin, but was not accepted.

Dakota Mayi Johnson (born October 4, 1989) is an American actress.

Dakota Mayi Johnson was born on October 4, 1989, at Brackenridge Hospital in Austin, Texas, to actors Don Johnson and Melanie Griffith.

Her father was shooting the film The Hot Spot (1990) in Texas when she was born.

Her maternal grandparents are advertising executive and former child actor Peter Griffith and actress Tippi Hedren.

She is a niece of actress Tracy Griffith and production designer Clay A. Griffith.

Her former stepfather is Spanish actor Antonio Banderas.

The daughter of actors Don Johnson and Melanie Griffith, she made her film debut at age ten with a minor role in Crazy in Alabama (1999) with her mother.

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 ex-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.

In 2006, Johnson signed with IMG Models.

After graduating from high school, Johnson took acting classes with teacher Tom Todoroff until 2008.

She signed with the William Morris Agency and started her acting career.

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.

After graduating high school, she began auditioning for roles in Los Angeles and was cast in a minor part in The Social Network (2010).

She had a minor role as Amelia Ritter in the Oscar-nominated hit film The Social Network (2010), directed by David Fincher.

She had a small role in the fantasy film Beastly (2011), followed by So Yong Kim's drama For Ellen (2012) opposite Paul Dano and Jon Heder, about a struggling musician in the midst of a custody battle.

Also in 2012, she had roles in Christopher Neil's independent comedy Goats, portraying a student at a prep school; Nicholas Stoller's romantic comedy The Five-Year Engagement; and the comedy 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 canceled on January 25, 2013, after one season.

In 2013, she had a role as one of the new hires on the series finale episode of the NBC comedy series The Office.

Johnson quickly resumed her film career, with a small role in Need for Speed (2014).

Johnson had her breakthrough playing the lead role of Anastasia Steele in the erotic Fifty Shades film series (2015–2018).

Her profile grew with roles in the crime drama Black Mass (2015), the drama A Bigger Splash (2015), the romantic comedy How to Be Single (2016), the horror film Suspiria (2018), the thriller Bad Times at the El Royale (2018), the coming-of-age film The Peanut Butter Falcon (2019), the psychological drama The Lost Daughter (2021), and the romantic drama Cha Cha Real Smooth (2022).

She also produced the last of these under her company TeaTime Pictures.

Johnson portrayed the main protagonist, Cassandra Webb, in Madame Web (2024).

Johnson's breakthrough came with her leading role 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.

In 2016, she received a BAFTA Rising Star Award nomination and was featured in a Forbes 30 Under 30 list.