Career beginnings (2004–2009) When Stone registered for the
Screen Actors Guild at age 16, the name "Emily Stone" was already taken, and she briefly went by "Riley Stone". After guest-starring in the television shows
Medium (2005) and
Malcolm in the Middle (2006), she decided to change her stage name to "Emma"—chosen in honor of
Emma Bunton of the
Spice Girls—as she struggled to adapt to the name Riley. She next appeared in
Louis C.K.'s
HBO series
Lucky Louie (2006), Stone has described the experience of acting in her first film as "amazing ... [but] very different than other experiences I've had since then". The film was a commercial success, and earned her the
Young Hollywood Award for Exciting New Face. The next year, Stone starred in the comedy
The Rocker (2008) as Amelia Stone, the "straight face"
bass guitarist in a band; she learned to play the bass for the role. The actress, who has called herself "a big smiler and laugher", said she found it difficult to play a character whose personality was so different from her own. The film and her performance received negative reviews from critics and was a commercial failure. Her next release, the romantic comedy
The House Bunny, performed better at the box office, becoming a moderate commercial success. The film saw her play the president of a sorority, and perform a
cover version of
the Waitresses' 1982 song "
I Know What Boys Like". Reviews were generally negative, but Stone was praised, with
TV Guides Ken Fox writing that she "is well on her way to becoming a star". Stone appeared in three films released in 2009. The first of these was opposite
Matthew McConaughey,
Jennifer Garner and
Michael Douglas in
Mark Waters's
Ghosts of Girlfriends Past. Loosely based on
Charles Dickens's 1843
novella A Christmas Carol, the romantic comedy has her playing a ghost who haunts her former boyfriend. Critical reaction to the film was negative, but it was a modest commercial success. Her most financially profitable venture that year was
Ruben Fleischer's $102.3 million-grossing horror comedy film
Zombieland, in which she featured alongside
Jesse Eisenberg,
Woody Harrelson and
Abigail Breslin. In the film, she appeared as a con artist and survivor of a
zombie apocalypse, in a role which
Chris Hewitt of
Empire magazine thought was "somewhat underwritten". In a more positive review, Tim Robey of
The Daily Telegraph called "the hugely promising Stone […] a tough cookie who projects the aura of being wiser than her years". Stone's third release in 2009 was
Kieran and Michelle Mulroney's Paper Man, a comedy-drama which disappointed critics.
Rise to prominence (2010–2013) Stone voiced an
Australian Shepherd in
Marmaduke (2010), a comedy from director
Tom Dey based on
Brad Anderson's
long-running comic strip of the same name. Her breakthrough came the same year with a starring role in
Easy A, a teen comedy directed by
Will Gluck. Partially based on
Nathaniel Hawthorne's 1850 novel
The Scarlet Letter, the film tells the story of Olive Penderghast (Stone), a high school student who becomes embroiled in a comic sex scandal after a false rumor circulates that she is sexually
promiscuous. Stone read the script before the project was optioned for production, and pursued it with her manager while production details were being finalized. She found the script "so different and unique from anything I'd read before", calling it "funny and sweet". When Stone discovered that the film had begun production, she met with Gluck, expressing her enthusiasm for the project. A few months later, the audition process started and she met again with Gluck, becoming one of the first actresses to audition. The film received positive critical reviews, and Stone's performance was considered its prime asset. Anna Smith of
Time Out wrote, "Stone gives a terrific performance, her knowing drawl implying intellect and indifference with underlying warmth." The film was a commercial success, grossing $75 million against its $8 million budget. Stone was nominated for a
BAFTA Rising Star Award and a
Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy, and won the
MTV Movie Award for Best Comedic Performance. '', her breakthrough film, in 2010 In October 2010, Stone hosted an episode of NBC's sketch comedy
Saturday Night Live; her appearances included a sketch playing off her resemblance to
Lindsay Lohan. Stone called it "the greatest week of my life". She hosted again in 2011, appeared in an episode in 2014, and in
its 40th anniversary special in 2015. A brief appearance in the sex comedy
Friends with Benefits (2011) reunited her with Gluck. She followed this with a supporting role in
Glenn Ficarra and
John Requa's romantic comedy
Crazy, Stupid, Love (2011) alongside
Steve Carell,
Ryan Gosling and
Julianne Moore. The film featured her as a law school graduate, and the love interest of Gosling's character. Despite finding "some inevitable collapses into convention" in the film, Drew McWeeny of
HitFix wrote that Stone "ties the whole film together". At the
2012 Teen Choice Awards, she won the
Choice Movie Actress – Comedy award for her performance in the film.
Crazy, Stupid, Love was a box office success, grossing $142.9 million worldwide against a production budget of $50 million. Dismayed at being
typecast as "the sarcastic interest of the guy", Stone co-starred with
Viola Davis in
Tate Taylor's period drama
The Help (2011), a film she found challenging. The film is based on
Kathryn Stockett's
2009 novel of the same name and is set in 1960s
Jackson, Mississippi. She met with Taylor to express a desire to work on the film. The director said, "[Stone] was completely awkward and dorky, with her raspy voice, and she sat down and we got a little intoxicated and had a blast, and I just thought, 'God! God! This is Skeeter." She was cast as Eugenia "Skeeter" Phelan, an aspiring writer learning about the lives of the African-American maids. In preparation for the part, she learned to speak in a
Southern accent and educated herself on the
Civil Rights Movement through literature and film. With a worldwide gross of $216 million against a $25 million budget,
The Help became Stone's highest-grossing film to that point. The film, and her performance, received positive reviews from critics. Writing for
Empire, Anna Smith thought Stone was "well-meaning and hugely likable" despite finding flaws in the character. The film won Best Ensemble Cast from the
Women Film Critics Circle and the
Broadcast Film Critics Association. Stone turned down a role in the action comedy
21 Jump Street after signing on to
Marc Webb's 2012 film
The Amazing Spider-Man, a
reboot of
Sam Raimi's
Spider-Man series. She portrayed
Gwen Stacy, the love interest of the
titular superhero (played by
Andrew Garfield) based on the
Marvel Comics character of the same name. Stone returned to her natural blonde hair color for the role, having dyed it red previously. She admitted to having never read the comics, and therefore felt responsible to educate herself about
Spider-Man: "My experience was with the Sam Raimi movies ... I always assumed that
Mary Jane was his first love", adding that she was only familiar with Stacy's character as portrayed by
Bryce Dallas Howard in
Spider-Man 3.
The Amazing Spider-Man was a commercial success and was the
seventh highest-grossing film of the year with global revenues of $757.9 million.
Entertainment Weeklys
Lisa Schwarzbaum found Stone to be "irresistible", and
Ian Freer of
Empire was particularly impressed with Stone's and Garfield's performances. At the annual
People's Choice Awards ceremony, she was nominated for three awards, including Favorite Movie Actress. Later that year, Stone voiced a role in the crime-based video game
Sleeping Dogs, which earned her a
Spike Video Game Award. Stone began 2013 with a voice role in the
DreamWorks Animation film
The Croods, which was nominated for the
Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. This followed with an appearance in
Movie 43, an
anthology film which consists of 16 short stories—she played the title role in the segment entitled "Veronica". She next starred alongside Ryan Gosling and
Sean Penn in Ruben Fleischer's
Gangster Squad (2013), a crime thriller set in Los Angeles during the 1940s.
A. O. Scott of
The New York Times dismissed the film as "a hectic jumble of fedoras and zoot suits", but praised Stone's pairing with Gosling.
Established actress (2014–2017) In 2014, Stone reprised the role of Gwen Stacy in
The Amazing Spider-Man 2. She believed that her character did not depend on the film's protagonist, asserting: "She saves him more than he saves her. She's incredibly helpful to Spider-Man... He's the muscle, she's the brains." Her performance was well received by critics; an
Empire reviewer commended her for standing out in the film, writing, "Stone is the
Heath Ledger of this series, doing something unexpected with an easily dismissed supporting character." The role won her the Favorite Movie Actress award at the
2015 Kids' Choice Awards. Despite Gwen's onscreen death, Stone expressed interest in reprising the role in later films. However, due to
The Amazing Spider-Man 2's mixed reviews, low box office performance, and the
2014 Sony Pictures hack, all planned sequels and spinoffs were cancelled, and the franchise was rebooted once again after being integrated into the
Marvel Cinematic Universe. Later that year, Stone took on a role in
Woody Allen's romantic comedy
Magic in the Moonlight, a modest commercial success.
A. O. Scott criticized her role and pairing with
Colin Firth, describing it as "the kind of pedantic nonsense that is meant to signify superior intellect". The black comedy
Birdman, directed by
Alejandro González Iñárritu, was Stone's final film release of 2014. Co-starring
Michael Keaton and
Edward Norton, it featured her as Sam Thomson, the
recovering-addict daughter of actor
Riggan Thomson (Keaton), who becomes his assistant. Iñárritu created the character based on his experience with his daughter.
Birdman was critically acclaimed, and was the most successful film at the
87th Academy Awards; it was nominated for nine awards, winning four, including Best Picture.
The Movie Network deemed it one of Stone's best performances to date, and
Robbie Collin of
The Daily Telegraph found her to be "superb" and "tremendous" in her role, while also highlighting her monologue in the film which he believed to have been "delivered like a knitting needle to the gut". She received
Academy,
BAFTA,
Golden Globe, and
Screen Actors Guild Award nominations. '' (2016); her performance in the film won her the
Academy Award for Best Actress|upright From November 2014 to February 2015, Stone starred in a revival of the
Broadway musical
Cabaret as
Sally Bowles, taking over the role from
Michelle Williams. Deeming it "the most nerve-racking thing ever", Stone listened to a French radio station to mentally prepare herself for the role.
Marilyn Stasio of
Variety was critical of her singing abilities and found her performance to be "a bit narrow as an emotional platform, but a smart choice for her acting skills, the perfect fit for her sharp intelligence and kinetic energy." Stone's 2015 film, the romantic comedy
Aloha by
Cameron Crowe, was a critical and commercial failure. Her portrayal of an air force pilot, alongside
Bradley Cooper, was panned by critics for its
controversial whitewashing of the cast, as Stone's character was meant to be of Asian, Hawaiian, and Swedish descent. She later regretted taking part in the project, acknowledging whitewashing as a widespread problem in Hollywood. Despite the backlash, Stone was nominated for Choice Movie Actress – Comedy at the
2015 Teen Choice Awards. Also in 2015, Stone starred opposite
Joaquin Phoenix as his character's love interest in Woody Allen's
Irrational Man, which received mixed reviews. She also appeared in the music video for
Will Butler's single "Anna". During her run on
Cabaret, Stone met filmmaker
Damien Chazelle, who, impressed with her performance, cast her in his musical comedy-drama
La La Land. The project, which marked her third collaboration with Gosling, starred Stone as Mia Dolan, an aspiring actress living in Los Angeles. Stone borrowed several real-life experiences for her character, and in preparation, watched
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg and films of
Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. For the
film's soundtrack, she recorded six songs.
La La Land served as the opening film at the
2016 Venice Film Festival, where it generated critical acclaim and earned Stone the
Volpi Cup for Best Actress. It emerged as a commercial success, with a worldwide gross of over $440 million against a production budget of $30 million.
Peter Bradshaw of
The Guardian wrote that "Stone has never been better: superbly smart, witty, vulnerable, her huge doe eyes radiating intelligence even, or especially, when they are filling with tears." For her performance, Stone won the
Academy,
Golden Globe,
SAG, and
BAFTA Award for Best Actress. Stone's sole release of 2017 was
Battle of the Sexes, based on the 1973
eponymous match between tennis players
Billie Jean King (Stone) and
Bobby Riggs (Steve Carell). In preparation, Stone met with King, watched old footage and interviews of her, worked with a dialect coach to speak in King's accent, and drank high-calorie protein shakes to gain . The film premiered to positive reviews at the
2017 Toronto International Film Festival, and certain critics considered Stone's performance to be the finest of her career. Benjamin Lee of
The Guardian praised her for playing against type, and for being "strong" and "convincing" in the part. Even so, the film earned less than its $25 million budget. Stone received her fourth Golden Globe nomination for it, and attended the ceremony with King.
Films with Yorgos Lanthimos and professional expansion (2018–present) on several projects, such as
The Favourite (2018) and
Poor Things (2023); she won her second
Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in the latter. In 2018, Stone and
Rachel Weisz played
Abigail Masham and
Sarah Churchill, respectively; two cousins fighting for the affection of
Queen Anne (
Olivia Colman), in
Yorgos Lanthimos's historical comedy-drama
The Favourite. She found it challenging to be an American among an all-British cast, and struggled with mastering her character's accent. The film premiered at the
75th Venice International Film Festival to critical acclaim. Michael Nordine of
IndieWire praised Stone for taking on such a bold role following the success of
La La Land, and termed the three lead actresses "a majestic triumvirate in a period piece that's as tragic as it is hilarious." Stone then executive-produced and starred in the
Netflix dark comedy miniseries
Maniac (2018), directed by
Cary Joji Fukunaga. It featured Stone and Jonah Hill as two strangers whose lives are transformed due to a mysterious pharmaceutical trial. An admirer of Fukunaga's work, she agreed to the project without reading the script. Judy Berman of
Time magazine was impressed with Stone and Hill for their growth as actors since
Superbad and noted the complexity in their performances. Stone received her fifth Golden Globe nomination and third Oscar nomination for
The Favourite, and additionally earned SAG nominations for both
Maniac and
The Favourite. That same year, Stone appeared in
Paul McCartney's music video for his song "
Who Cares". Stone reprised her role as Wichita in
Zombieland: Double Tap (2019), the sequel to 2009's
Zombieland, which received mixed reviews and grossed $125 million worldwide. She narrated the Netflix documentary series
The Mind, Explained (2019) and reprised the voice role of Eep in
The Croods: A New Age (2020), the sequel to 2013's
The Croods. In 2021, Stone played
Cruella de Vil (originated by
Glenn Close in the previous live-action adaptations) in
Craig Gillespie's crime comedy
Cruella, a Disney live-action based on the 1961 animation
One Hundred and One Dalmatians. Starring opposite
Emma Thompson, Stone also served as an executive producer of the film alongside Close. The film was released in US theaters and on
Disney+ Premier Access to positive reviews and grossed $233 million worldwide against its $100 million budget.
Justin Chang of
Los Angeles Times wrote that despite the film's flawed screenplay, Stone was "wholly committed, glammed-to-the-nines"; Chang favorably compared it with her performance in
The Favourite, adding that she "nailed every nuance as another lowly young woman turned ambitious schemer". For
Cruella, Stone garnered another Golden Globe nomination. In 2020, Stone and her husband,
Dave McCary, launched the production company
Fruit Tree. Their first project was the independent film
When You Finish Saving the World, which marked Jesse Eisenberg's feature directorial debut. The film premiered at the
2022 Sundance Film Festival, and had modest reviews. The company's next release was the comedy
Problemista, directed by
Julio Torres. It premiered at the 2023
South by Southwest, and was initially scheduled to be released that year, but was delayed due to the
2023 SAG-AFTRA strike. Both films were produced in collaboration with
A24. Continuing her collaboration with Lanthimos, Stone starred in his short film
Bleat (2022) and feature film
Poor Things (2023). The latter, a fantasy coming-of-age film, is based on the
novel of the same name by
Alasdair Gray. Stone also produced the film, in which she starred as Bella, a young Victorian woman who is crudely resurrected after her suicide. She found the experience of playing a character liberated of societal pressures to be "extremely freeing", and she performed nudity and several sex scenes in it. David Rooney of
The Hollywood Reporter wrote that Stone "gorges on it in a fearless performance that traces an expansive arc most actors could only dream about", and particularly praised her ability to perform physical comedy.
Stephanie Zacharek of
Time termed her performance "wonderful—vital, exploratory, almost lunar in its perfect oddness". Stone next executive produced and starred in the
Showtime satirical comedy series
The Curse. She played Whitney, an influencer who hosts an
HGTV show with her husband. Commenting on her achievements of the year,
BBC Culture's
Caryn James opined that "Stone has quickly moved past Hollywood stardom to claim serious artistic credentials". She received two more Golden Globe nominations for Best Actress for her performances in
Poor Things and
The Curse, winning for the former. Also for
Poor Things, she won her second Academy Award and BAFTA for Best Actress in addition to a Best Picture nomination. premiere of
A Real Pain, where she wore a wig to disguise her shaved head for her role in
Bugonia, wanting to keep the look a surprise.|upright The
2024 Sundance Film Festival marked the release of two films produced by Stone for Fruit Tree the horror film
I Saw the TV Glow and Eisenberg's second directorial,
A Real Pain. The latter, a comedy-drama about two mismatched
Jewish American cousins, received critical acclaim and
several accolades. In her fourth collaboration with Lanthimos, Stone played three characters in his
absurdist anthology film
Kinds of Kindness, which premiered at the
2024 Cannes Film Festival.
Mashable's Robert Daniels considered it to be the weakest among their collaborations, and labeled her as "miscast". In 2025, Stone first appeared in
Ari Aster's
contemporary Western film
Eddington, which premiered at the
Cannes Film Festival, and also starred
Joaquin Phoenix,
Pedro Pascal, and
Austin Butler. Ben Croll of
TheWrap felt that while Stone and Pascal were "no doubt game and ready to let loose", their characters "aren't given an awful lot to actually do – with both set up less as fully fledged characters than as images for [Phoenix] to pine-for or run against". Stone reunited with Lanthimos in
Bugonia, a remake of the South Korean film
Save the Green Planet!, playing a CEO kidnapped by two men who believe she is an alien. She shaved her head for her role in the film and wore wigs in public in the months that followed to disguise the look, wanting to keep it a surprise for the audience. She received
Actor,
BAFTA,
Critics' Choice,
Golden Globe, and two
Oscar (
Best Picture and
Best Actress) nominations. She became the second-youngest person, and the youngest woman, in Oscar history to receive seven nominations, surpassing previous record holder
Meryl Streep. Stone and close friend
Jennifer Lawrence are attached to produce a movie about
The Muppets character
Miss Piggy, which will be written by
Cole Escola. She is expected to have a starring role opposite
Chris Pine in the
romantic comedy The Catch, which will be directed by McCary. In addition, she will reprise her role as Cruella in a sequel to the 2021 film. ==Reception and acting style==