Born October 6, 1988 in Scottsdale, Arizona to a contracting company founder and CEO and his wife, Emma Stone began acting as a child as a member of the Valley Youth Theatre in Phoenix where she made her debut in a production of The Wind in the Willows. She appeared in many of their productions before deciding at fifteen to make acting her career.
Convincing her parents that she should quit school and move to Los Angeles to pursue film and TV roles, Stone’s mother moved with her so that she could home school her at night while she auditioned during the day. She had her TV breakthrough with 2004’s In Search of the Partridge Family. She followed that with the TV movie, The New Partridge Family and an episode of Medium in 2005 and made her film debut in 2007’s Superbad.
Stone’s films over the next few years were mostly forgettable, but in 2010 she established herself as a major player with the teen comedy-drama, Easy A, for which she received her first Golden Globe nomination.
In 2011, she had a supporting role in the hit comedy, Friends with Benefits starring Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis. She then appeared in two of the year’s best remembered films. First up was Crazy, Stupid, Love in which she was fourth billed behind Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, and Julianne Moore, and ahead of Marisa Tomei and Kevin Bacon. Closely on the heels of that came the box-office sensation, The Help, in which she led a cast that included Viola Davis, Bryce Dallas Howard, Octavia Spencer, Jessica Chastain, Allison Janney, Cicely Tyson, Sissy Spacek, and Mary Steenburgen.
In 2012, Stone starred opposite Andrew Garfield in The Amazing Spider-Man with Martin Sheen and Sally Field as Uncle Ben and Aunt May. The series, however, instead of being different than the one of a decade earlier with Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, Cliff Robertson, and Rosemary Harris in those roles, was basically a repeat of that telling of the story and only lasted through one more film in the reboot.
Following The Amazing Spider-Man in 2014, Stone had a major supporting role in that year’s Best Picture Oscar winner, Birdman for which she herself was nominated for an Oscar for the first time. Two years later, she was back at the Oscars, this time nominated for Best Actress opposite Ryan Gosling who was also nominated. The popular film won six a total of Six Oscars including one for her.
In 2017, Stone received numerous awards recognition for her portrayal of Billie Jean King opposite Steve Carell as Bobby Riggs in The Battle of the Sexes but failed to receive an Oscar nomination. The following year, she and fellow former Oscar winner Rachel Reisz were both nominated for Best Supporting Actress in The Favorite, while Olivia Colman, whose role was shorter than either of theirs, won Best Actress for her role in the film.
Stone received her sixth Golden Globe nomination for 2021’s Cruella which won an Oscar for its highly creative costume design.
The actress received her second Golden Globe and Oscar for 2023’s Poor Things.
Married to Saturday Night Live segment director Dave McCary since 2020, the couple has a three-year-old daughter.
Emma Stone at 35 has many projects in front of her including another film with her Poor Things director, Yorgos Lanthimos, and a sequel to Cruella.
ESSENTIAL FILMS
THE HELP (2011), directed by Tate Taylor
Kathryn Socket’s novel, adapted by writer-director Taylor, was one of the year’s biggest box-office hits. Stone plays an aspiring author during the civil rights movement of the 1960s who decides to write a book detailing the African American maids’ point of view on the white families for whom they work, and the hardships they go through daily. As such, she was not quite as memorable as the women whose stories she was documenting. Viola Davis, Jessica Chastain, and Octavia Spencer were all nominated for their performances with Spencer winning. Cicely Tyson and Sissy Spacek have featured roles.
BIRDMAN (2014), directed by Alejandro G. Inarritu
Inarritu’s film, whose film title is Birdman (or the Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) starred Michael Keaton, the big screen’s first Batman in 1989 as a washed-up superhero actor attempting to revive his career by writing, directing, and starring in a Broadway production was a comedy-drama that was nominated for 9 Oscars and won 4 including Best Picture and Director. Keaton was nominated for Best Actor. Edward Norton as a method actor who gets on Keaton’s nerves and Sone as Keaton’s grumpy daughter were nominated for their supporting performances. Zach Galifianakis and Naomi Watts co-star.
LA LA LAND (2016), directed by Damien Chazelle
Nominated for 14 Oscars, and winning 6, this alleged tribute to Hollywood musicals of the 1930s, 40s, and 50s, is very perplexing for those of us who grew up watching classic Hollywood musicals whether on the big screen, TV, or in home video releases. The film’s six songs are poorly sung and instantly forgettable. The opening twenty-minute sequence where cars are stuck on an L.A. freeway while Ryan Gosling and company sing and dance is pure torture for many. Both Gosling and Stone were nominated for their performances with Stone winning, but why? She’s been so much better in so many other things.
THE FAVOURITE (2018), directed by Yorgos Lanthimos
Lanthimos’s very dark comedy centers on Rachel Weisz as a lady-in-waiting to 19th Century British Queen Anne (Olivia Colman) and Stone as Weisz’s poor cousin who comes to the court and immediately begins to compete with her for the queen’s affections. With the action centered on the feuding cousins, it was thought that both Weisz and Stone would compete for Best Actress while Colman in her breakthrough screen performance would easily win Best Supporting Actress. Instead, Colman won major awards including the Oscar in lead while Weisz and Stone had to settle for supporting actress nominations. Nicholas Hoult co-stars.
POOR THINGS (2023), directed by Yorgos Lanthimos
Nominated for 11 Oscars, this modern Bride of Frankenstein won 4 including one for Stone who is in her element as a young woman brought back to life and given the brain of the unborn child she was carrying, who is also brought back to life, forcing her to learn to walk, talk, eat and everything else all over again. The film’s Oscar winning production design, costume design, and makeup and hairstyling add to the fun. Although Stone dominates the film, she is given strong support by Oscar nominated Mark Ruffalo as one of her suitors as well as Willem Dafoe as her Dr. Frankenstein and Ramy Youssef as her fiancée.
Emma Stone’s Oscar Nominations:
Birdman (2014) – nominated – Best Supporting Actress
La La Land (2016) – Oscar – Best Actress
The Favourite (2018) – nominated – Best Supporting Actress
Poor Things (2023) – nominated – Best Picture
Poor Things (2023) – Oscar – Best Actress
