Emma Stone

About

Emily Jean Stone, better known as Emma Stone, is an American actress who is best remembered for her portrayal of a recovering drug addict in the black comedy Birdman in 2014, for which she went on to an Academy Award nominations for Best Supporting Actress. Some of her most notable performances were seen in Crazy, Stupid, Love (2011), The Help (2011), The Amazing Spider-Man (2012), and its 2014 sequel The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Apart from being an actor, Stone is a philanthropist and works towards breast cancer and autism awareness, and the betterment of orphans.

Early Life

Born on the 6th of November, 1988 in Scottsdale, Arizona to homemaker Krista Jean Stone and founder and CEO of a general-contracting company Jeffrey Charles Stone. She has a younger brother Spencer. She studied at the Sequoya Elementary School and later went on to attend Cocopah Middle School for the sixth grade. Stone, even as a child, wanted to become an actor and, at the age of four, decided to have a career in sketch comedy. However, she soon began taking voice lessons and chose to focus on musical theater. She was homeschooled for two years since she suffered panic attacks as a child. While being homeschooled, she was seen in sixteen of Valley Youth Theater`s productions. She went on to take acting lessons from a local acting coach. Stone then attended the all-girls Catholic high school, Xavier College Preparatory to only drop out after the first semester to pursue her acting career and moved to Los Angeles in search of work. While attempting to bag any roles in television or movies, Stone took up a part-time job at a dog treat bakery and also enrolled for online high-school classes.

Personal Life

Stone met Andrew Garfield on the sets of The Amazing Spider-Man in 2011 and the two soon began dating. After having been together for over four years, the couple split in October 2015, owing to their busy schedules. Even after their split, the two have made several appearances together and remain to be close.

Television Career

After moving to LA, Stone auditioned to be a part of Nickelodeon`s All That, however, she did not manage to get the role. She then unsuccessfully auditioned on every Disney show to play the role of a daughter in every sitcom aired on the channel, unfortunately, she cracked none. Despite initial rejections, Stone made her screen debut with the TV movie The New Partridge Family in 2005. Following this, she was seen in single episodes of shows such as Medium, The Suite Life of Zack and Cody, Malcolm in the Middle, and Lucky Louie. However, her most prominent television appearances was on the 2007 action-crime Drive. Stone and Jonah Hill was cast to be a part of the 2017 Netflix comedy series Maniac, created by Cary Fukunaga.

Movie Career

After having already made her stage and television debut, Stone made her movie debut in 2007 with the comedy Superbad co-starring Jonah Hill and Michael Cera. For her performance in the movie, focussing on the comical misadventures of two young boys attempting to buy alcohol for a party, she won the Young Hollywood Actor for Exciting New Face. Following her debut, she was seen in the 2008 comedy The Rocker, and The House Bunny, both of which were average grossers. Next, she was cast in the Matthew McConaughey and Jennifer Garner starrer Ghosts of Girlfriends Past, where she plays the role of a ghost who haunts McConaughey`s character and plays his high school girlfriend and first lover. Although the movie was not well-received, it did moderately well at the box-office.

Her most prominent role as of 2009, however, was the horror-comedy Zombieland where she plays the role of Wichita, a con artist who is a zombie apocalypse survivor. The movie, starring Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, and Abigail Breslin, was both a commercial and critical success, making it the most commercially successful movie of Stone`s career as of 2009. Although her next, Paper Man, failed at the box-office and was panned by the critics, Stone`s performance was well-received. Following this, she voiced the character of Mazie, an energetic shepherd tomboy, along with Owen Wilson and Fergie in the family comedy film Marmaduke. Despite making a number of appearances, her breakthrough came with 2010 teen comedy Easy A, where she plays the role of a college girl Olive, who is rumored to be a promiscuous teen. The movie was, both, a critical and commercial success, with Stone`s performance being lauded by the critics and audience alike.

She then starred alongside Ryan Gosling and Steve Carell in the romantic comedy Crazy, Stupid, Love, where she plays the role of a law student romantically involved with Gosling`s character. The movie went on to become a commercial success and was also well-received, with Stone winning the Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Actress - Comedy for her performance. Bagging the role of Eugenia "Skeeter" Phelan, Stone starred in Tate Taylor`s The Help in 2011, which is adapted from Kathryn Stockett`s 2009 novel of the same name. The movie about an aspiring journalist, Skeeter, focussed on the racism faced by black househelps working for white families. The movie opened to mainly positive reviews, making it Stone`s most commercially successful movie as of 2011, and was also critically acclaimed, with the movie receiving as many as four Academy Award nominations.

In order to be a part of Marc Webb`s superhero film The Amazing Spider-Man, Stone declined the offer to star in the action-comedy 21 Jump Street. Playing the role of Gwen Stacy, the chief intern at Oscorp, Stone was the love interest of the reboot series` Spider-Man, portrayed by Andrew Garfield. The movie went on to become 2012`s seventh highest-grossing movie and was declared a commercial hit, with both the lead actors receiving a bunch of nominations for their performances. Following the success of her previous release, Stone lent her voice to the character of Eep Crood, a rebellious teenage cavegirl, in the animated adventure comedy film The Croods, along with Ryan Reynolds, Nicolas Cage, Catherine Keener, Clark Duke, and Cloris Leachman.

Reuniting with her Crazy, Stupid, Love co-star Ryan Gosling, Stone was seen in the 2013 action crime thriller Gangster Squad alongside Josh Brolin, Nick Nolte, and Sean Penn. Although the actors` performances were praised, the movie opened to mixed reviews and was an average grosser at the box-office. Reprising her role of Gwen Stacy, Stone was seen in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, which, like its prequel, was an extremely successful movie commercially. Stone`s performance, yet again, was praised by the critics with an Empire reviewer praising her for standing out in the film stating, "Stone is the Heath Ledger of this series, doing something unexpected with an easily dismissed supporting character."

Cast in the most successful movie at the 87th Academy Awards in 2014, Emma Stone was seen in the satirical black comedy Birdman, where she played the role of a recovering drug-addicted girl. Her portrayal of Sam won her an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress, along with four other nominations: BAFTA, Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild, and Critics` Choice Movie, under the same category. Both of the Zombieland actor`s 2015 movies: Aloha and Irrational Man, were commercial failures and her performance was battered by the critics. However, in 2016, she, yet again, starred alongside Ryan Gosling in the Whiplash director Damien Chazelle`s musical comedy-drama La La Land, where she plays the role of an aspiring actress living in Los Angeles, much like how she herself started her career. The movie was first screened at the 2016 Venice Film Festival, where it received highly positive reviews. Her releases for the year 2017 and 2018 include Battle of the Sexes, where she plays the role of Billie Jean King, and The Favourite, playing the role of Abigail Masham. Her other release includes Zombieland 2: Double Tap (2019) and The Croods: A New Age (2020).