What is Scarlett Johansson’s IQ?
The only test number on record is her own: a 1,080 on the SAT, which she called “pretty low.” The IQ figures online name no test.
Scarlett Johansson’s IQ has never been published: no test result exists, and the only score she has put on the record is a 1,080 on the SAT, which she called “pretty low” in a 2013 Interview magazine conversation. The circulating figures, about 109 to 117, name no test and sit close to what that single score points to.
Scarlett Johansson’s estimated IQ
- By her own account in Interview magazine (October 2013), she scored 1,080 on the SAT, on the old 1,600-point scale, which she called “pretty low” and thought was probably because she did not answer half of the math questions.
- The College Board’s 2003 report puts the 2002 average for college-bound seniors at 504 verbal plus 516 math, or 1,020 combined, so 1,080 sits 60 points above that average, well under half a standard deviation.
- She graduated from the Professional Children’s School in Manhattan in 2002, where UXL Newsmakers says she became an honor student; she then applied to New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and was not admitted.
- A BAFTA (2004), a Tony Award (2010) and two Academy Award nominations in one year (2020) document acting craft; they sit inside the range of accomplished working professionals and do not move the estimate on their own.
The anchor is a score she recalled aloud in an interview, not a College Board report, and she says she left half the math section blank, so it may understate what she could have scored. The SAT correlated about .82 with a general-ability composite in one study (and .483 with Raven’s matrices), so any conversion to an IQ level carries a wide margin of error.
- Born
- November 22, 1984, Manhattan, New York City
- Education
- Professional Children’s School, Manhattan (graduated 2002); applied to NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, not admitted
- Documented test score
- SAT 1,080 on the 1,600-point scale, by her own account (Interview, October 2013)
- Awards
- BAFTA, Best Actress in a Leading Role (2004); Tony Award, Best Featured Actress in a Play (2010)
- Oscar nominations
- Best Actress (Marriage Story) and Best Supporting Actress (Jojo Rabbit), 92nd Academy Awards, February 9, 2020
- Known for
- Lost in Translation, Match Point, Her (voice), Under the Skin, Lucy, Marriage Story, Jojo Rabbit
- Directing
- Eleanor the Great (2025), premiered in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard
- Published IQ test result
- None found; circulating figures of 109–117 name no test
What an IQ of 105–120 actually means
Set the claim aside for a moment. If someone genuinely scored in this range, here is what that would represent.
Average is 100 by construction, and about two-thirds of people fall between 85 and 115. Take the test to place your own score on this scale.
| Score range | Classification | Share of people | What it indicates |
|---|---|---|---|
| 85 – 114 | Average | ~68% | The range most people fall into. |
| 115 – 129 | Above average | ~13.6% | Roughly one person in seven. |
| 130 – 144 | Gifted | ~2% | The threshold most high-IQ societies use. |
| Above 144 | Highly gifted | ~0.1% | Figures above this range are extrapolated from the curve rather than measured. |
Percentages are approximate and describe a normal distribution. The same number means different things on tests with different standard deviations.
Thirty questions gives you a measured position on this exact scale — your score, your percentile and the ability breakdown behind it.
Find out in 30 minutes →Who Scarlett Johansson is
Scarlett Johansson was born on November 22, 1984, in the Manhattan borough of New York City. She attended PS 41, an elementary school in Greenwich Village, enrolled at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute, and went on to the Professional Children’s School, a college-preparatory school for working and aspiring child actors and dancers founded in New York in 1914. UXL Newsmakers says she became an honor student there. Wikipedia dates her graduation to 2002; she then applied to New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, was not admitted, and focused on her film career.
Her film debut came in North (1994), as John Ritter’s daughter, and her first leading role was in Manny & Lo (1996); The Horse Whisperer (1998), directed by and co-starring Robert Redford, brought wider attention. In 2003 she played Charlotte opposite Bill Murray in Sofia Coppola’s Lost in Translation and Griet in Girl with a Pearl Earring. Both performances were nominated for Best Actress in a Leading Role at the 57th British Academy Film Awards, held February 15, 2004 at the Odeon Leicester Square, and she won for Lost in Translation. Woody Allen’s Match Point followed in 2005.
On stage she made her Broadway debut in the 2010 revival of Arthur Miller’s A View from the Bridge and won the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play at the ceremony at Radio City Music Hall on June 13, 2010. The same year she first appeared as Black Widow, in Iron Man 2. In 2013 she voiced the operating system Samantha in Spike Jonze’s Her and played an extraterrestrial in Under the Skin; in 2014 she starred in Luc Besson’s Lucy.
At the 92nd Academy Awards on February 9, 2020, she held two nominations at once, Best Actress for Marriage Story and Best Supporting Actress for Jojo Rabbit, according to the Academy’s official list of nominees. In 2025 she made her directorial debut with Eleanor the Great, written by Tory Kamen and starring June Squibb, which premiered in the Un Certain Regard section of the Cannes Film Festival on May 20, 2025 and was released in the United States on September 26, 2025 by Sony Pictures Classics. These are documented achievements in a demanding field; this section does not treat an Oscar nomination, a Tony or a directing credit as an IQ test.
By Elora Mercer, Celebrity Research WriterFigures checked by Leon Falkner, Data & Research AnalystReviewed by Aarav Vardhan, Editor-in-Chief · Last reviewed August 2026
Scarlett Johansson: the documented record
The estimate above rests on this record. Every entry here is a matter of public fact, which is more than can be said for the number itself.
- 1984Born on November 22 in Manhattan, New York City.
- 1994Film debut in North, as John Ritter’s daughter.
- 1998The Horse Whisperer, directed by and co-starring Robert Redford, brings wider attention.
- 2002Graduates from the Professional Children’s School in Manhattan.
- 2004Wins the BAFTA for Best Actress in a Leading Role for Lost in Translation on February 15; also nominated for Girl with a Pearl Earring.
- 2010Wins the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play for A View from the Bridge (June 13) and first appears as Black Widow in Iron Man 2.
- 2013Voices Samantha in Her; tells Interview she scored 1,080 on the SAT.
- 2014Stars in Luc Besson’s Lucy.
- 2020Receives Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress nominations at the 92nd Academy Awards (February 9).
- 2025Directorial debut Eleanor the Great premieres in Un Certain Regard at Cannes (May 20).
Where the 113–117 figure came from
Following a claim back to its first appearance is the part almost nobody does — and it is what most people are actually asking.
Scarlett Johansson’s IQ score is not a test result: the only test number attached to her name comes from one exchange in the October 2013 issue of Interview, where she and the director Darren Aronofsky compared SAT scores. She said that when she took the test it was scored out of 1,600, that a “smarty-pants” might get 1,240, and that she got a 1,080, “which was pretty low,” probably because she did not answer half of the math questions. That sentence is the only test number on record.
The estimates differ, and only one says what it started from. scientific.place gives 113 and credits cogniDNA without a method; iqcertificate.org lists 117 beside an admission that its list rests on “rumors and hearsay”; a June 2023 Substack post runs a simulation from the SAT score, an assumed SAT–IQ correlation of 0.84 and one further non-test variable, and reports about 109 with a standard error of 9. Three sites, three answers, and no test. That is the pattern described in how celebrity IQ numbers spread, and the reason a SAT score to IQ conversion is a rough guide rather than a measurement.
People who type Scarlett Johansson high IQ, or ask how smart she is, usually want a bigger number than 113, and none that stands up has turned up: no page states a higher figure with a test, a date or a source, and no Mensa membership, gifted-program placement or school IQ report is on record. The usual direction of error is reversed here: the circulating numbers are already modest and the sourced record supports the same neighborhood, with a margin of error of ten points either way, the kind any single estimated score carries. A Scarlett Johansson IQ level near 110 falls in the upper part of the average-to-high-average span in the usual IQ classification bands.
Against other actors on this site the comparison is about method, not talent. Natalie Portman’s range (135–145) rests on a completed Harvard psychology degree and a published paper, while James Woods’s (135–150) uses the same SAT-derived method as this page. Johansson’s range is lower because her single SAT figure is modest and self-recalled, not because acting, directing and a Tony or a BAFTA say anything about intelligence either way. A measured number needs a real test, such as the IQ Metrics test, which reports a score for whoever sits it.
How we read a number →The only place she gives a test number: tests were out of 1,600 when she took them and she got a 1,080, “pretty low,” probably because she did not answer half of the math questions.
Table A lists the 2002 mean SAT scores of college-bound seniors as 504 verbal and 516 math; the report’s score tables give section standard deviations of roughly 115.
Lists Johansson among the Best Actress nominees (Marriage Story) and the Best Supporting Actress nominees (Jojo Rabbit).
Names Scarlett Johansson, A View from the Bridge, as winner for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play; ceremony June 13 at Radio City Music Hall.
Birth date and place, schools, credits, the February 15, 2004 BAFTA win, the Cannes premiere and release dates, the Lucy premise, and the Frey and Detterman correlations (.82 and .483). Wikidata Q34436 is the American actress born November 22, 1984.
Confirms the birth date, that she attended the Professional Children’s School and became an honor student, and that her NYU Tisch application for fall 2003 was rejected.
Calls the 10 percent claim a myth, the premise of the film Lucy. The article itself does not mention the film.
Study of how the SAT relates to general cognitive ability; the correlation figures quoted here were read from Wikipedia’s SAT article, not from the paper itself.
scientific.place credits cogniDNA; iqcertificate.org calls its list “based on rumors and hearsay”; the Substack post reports a standard error of 9. None cites a test.
A November 2023 explainer on realiqtest.org says no reliable public record exists; searches for Mensa, gifted-program or school IQ claims found none, and the Wikipedia biography does not mention an IQ or Mensa.
The sources behind our estimate
The figures that circulate for Scarlett Johansson, what we were able to confirm, and where the two diverge.
Scarlett Johansson’s IQ is quoted as 113 (scientific.place, crediting cogniDNA) and 117 (iqcertificate.org), and a June 2023 Substack post calculates about 109 from her 1,080 SAT score.
We found no published IQ test result for Scarlett Johansson, and no Mensa or gifted-program claim. The only test number with her name on it is the SAT score she gave in Interview magazine. scientific.place says her IQ is “estimated to be 113” and credits cogniDNA; iqcertificate.org lists 117 on a page that calls its list “based on rumors and hearsay”; the Substack post lands near 109 with a standard error of 9. A November 2023 explainer on realiqtest.org states plainly that there is no reliable public record of a professionally administered full-scale IQ score for her.
The published estimates, 109 to 117, sit in a tight cluster and none names a test; only the Substack post says it started from the SAT score, and the other two give no method. All of them fall inside the 105–120 range here, which is unusual for this section. The circulating Scarlett Johansson IQ numbers are not inflated; they are thin.
Want a number that does hold up? Every figure on this page is somebody’s claim. Take the 30-question test and get a percentile you can check rather than a figure you have to trust.
Scarlett Johansson — frequently asked
What is Scarlett Johansson’s IQ?
No IQ test result for Scarlett Johansson has been published. The only number on record is the 1,080 SAT score she gave Interview magazine in 2013, which supports an estimated IQ level of roughly 105–120. Online figures of 109, 113 and 117 name no test.
Did Scarlett Johansson take an IQ test?
No record of one exists. We found no school report, Mensa claim or interview in which she mentions an IQ test. She has mentioned a college-admission test, the SAT, on which she said she got a 1,080 on the 1,600-point scale in use when she took it.
What was Scarlett Johansson’s SAT score?
She said she got a 1,080 out of 1,600 and called it “pretty low,” adding that she probably did not answer half of the math questions. For comparison, the College Board’s 2002 average for college-bound seniors was 1,020 (504 verbal, 516 math).
Does Scarlett Johansson have a high IQ?
Nothing published shows a high IQ for Scarlett Johansson, and nothing shows a low one. The documented test score points to roughly 105–120, and no source for any higher figure turned up. Awards and film roles are not IQ measurements.
How smart is Scarlett Johansson?
The record shows sustained, award-winning work: a BAFTA in 2004, a Tony in 2010, two Academy Award nominations in 2020 and a directorial debut that premiered at Cannes in 2025. Those show craft and persistence rather than a measured level of intelligence, and the 1,080 SAT remains the only number.
Where do the Scarlett Johansson IQ scores of 113 and 117 come from?
Neither is a test result. scientific.place gives 113 and credits cogniDNA without a method; iqcertificate.org lists 117 on a page it describes as based on rumors and hearsay; a 2023 Substack post calculates about 109 from her SAT score. None names an IQ test.
How does Scarlett Johansson’s estimated IQ compare with Natalie Portman’s or James Woods’s?
Her 105–120 range is lower than Natalie Portman’s 135–145, which rests on a completed Harvard psychology degree, and James Woods’s 135–150, which uses the same SAT-derived method. The gap reflects what each documented record supports, not their careers, and all three pages are estimates rather than test scores.
Does the movie Lucy say anything about Scarlett Johansson’s IQ?
Searches for “Scarlett Johansson IQ movie” usually mean Lucy (2014), directed by Luc Besson, but its premise that people use only 10 percent of their brains is a myth, according to Scientific American, so the film says nothing about her own IQ or intelligence.
How does my IQ compare with Scarlett Johansson?
You can find out in about fifteen minutes. The IQ Metrics assessment is 30 questions, scored on the same 100-mean scale used throughout this page, so your result and the estimate above are at least expressed in the same units — one measured, one inferred. Once you have a number, the leaderboard shows where it would sit, and how we score and norm it explains the benchmarking.
Where does this estimate come from?
From the documented record rather than a test — the method is named above and set out in full under how we read a number. Compare it against the other actors profiles, starting with Natalie Portman.
- Take the 30-question IQ test — get a measured score and percentile of your own
- Average IQ by country — how the scale behaves across populations
- How IQ Metrics scores its assessment — the method behind our own number
- More on how IQ testing works — reliability, error and what a score can and cannot say
- More actors profiles — same field, same method
More actors
Portrait via Festival de Deauville, CC BY 4.0. Background removed for the portrait above. · Photograph by Claire Fridkin, CC BY-SA 4.0. Background removed for the portrait above. · Photograph by David Shankbone (Tribeca Film Festival, April 2012), CC BY 3.0. Background removed for the portrait above.
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