Dakota Mayi Johnson (born October 4, 1989) is an American actress. Her accolades include a nomination for a British Academy Film Award.

The daughter of actors Don Johnson and Melanie Griffith, Johnson made her film debut at age ten with a minor role in Crazy in Alabama (1999), directed by her then-stepfather Antonio Banderas, and also starring her mother. After graduating from high school, she began auditioning for roles and had a minor part in The Social Network (2010). Johnson had her breakthrough playing the lead role in the erotic Fifty Shades film series (2015–2018). In 2016, she received a BAFTA Rising Star Award nomination and was featured in a Forbes 30 Under 30 list.

Johnson's 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), the romantic drama Cha Cha Real Smooth (2022), and the romantic film Materialists (2025).

Dakota Mayi Johnson was born on October 4, 1989, 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 half-niece of actress Tracy Griffith and production designer Clay A. Griffith. Actor Antonio Banderas is her former stepfather. Johnson has a complex family as each of her parents had children by three different people. Her six half-siblings are: Jesse Johnson (b. 1982), from her father's relationship with Patti D'Arbanville; Alexander Bauer (b. 1985), from her mother's marriage to Steven Bauer; Stella Banderas (b. 1996), from her mother's marriage to Antonio; Grace (b. 1999), Jasper (b. 2002), and Deacon Johnson (b. 2006), from her father's marriage to Kelley Phleger.

Owing to her parents' occupations, Johnson spent much of her childhood in their various filming locations and accompanying them to premieres, though she spent time in Aspen and Woody Creek, Colorado, where, in her teen years, she worked summers at the local market. 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 12 after participating in a photo shoot with other celebrities' children for Teen Vogue. She subsequently earned an income modeling while attending high school in Santa Monica. She has struggled with depression since around age 14 and checked into rehabilitation. Even as a child, Johnson was interested in acting, having spent significant time on film sets with her parents, but they discouraged her from pursuing the profession until she graduated high school. After reaching that milestone, she applied to Juilliard School, performing in her audition monologues by Shakespeare and Steve Martin, but was not accepted.

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 Antonio Banderas and was based on the 1993 novel by Mark Childress. In 2006, she was chosen as Miss Golden Globe, where she served as the first second-generation Miss Golden Globe in the Globes' history.

That same year, Johnson signed with IMG Models. 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.