Emma Stone's ambitions as a performer took hold at an early age as she was known as a loud and talkative child who craved attention. Growing up, she regularly watched comedy movies like Planes, Trains, and Automobiles and National Lampoon's Animal House with her dad and gained an appreciation for the gifted female performers on TV's Saturday Night Live. At 11 years of age, Emma Stone was a student at Sequoya Elementary School, but she explored acting at the Valley Youth Theatre where she debuted on stage in The Wind in the Willows. Her association with the theater would grow stronger -- so much so that Emma Stone's parents homeschooled her so that she could act more regularly.

In addition to the numerous stage productions that she was participating in at Youth Valley, she also gained experience in comedy as a member of the theater's improv group. After reentering school for a semester at the Xavier College Prepatory, Emma Stone convinced her parents to let her drop out and move to Hollywood after she wowed them with her own PowerPoint presentation that featured a soundtrack by Madonna. Now 15 years old, Emma Stone made the move with her mother in 2004 from Arizona to Los Angeles to see if an acting career could be had.

Emma Stone got her professional on-screen start in the ever-trendy realm of reality television -- specifically VH1's In Search of the New Partridge Family -- a show designed to cast an updated version of the classic TV series. Emma Stone was chosen to play Laurie Partridge, but the producers ultimately decided that The Partridge Family didn't need a makeover and the show never got past the pilot stage. Grateful for the opportunity, Emma Stone pressed on as a guest actress on shows like Malcolm in the Middle and Medium before landing a recurring role as the rebellious Violet Trimble in the 2007 auto race-themed FOX series, Drive. Unfortunately, the series didn't have staying power and also earned a swift cancellation.

Sensing that perhaps she might have better luck as a film actress, Emma Stone made the jump into feature films in the summer of 2007 with the plum role of Jonah Hill's love interest, Jules, in the Judd Apatow-produced and Seth Rogen-written comedy, Superbad. Not only did the film break records as the highest-grossing high school comedy of all-time, it also made McLovin' a household name and gave the now red-haired Emma Stone a fresh career start. After winning a Young Hollywood Award for Exciting New Face, she would follow Superbad up with a pair of films in 2008 -- the Rainn Wilson-led music comedy, The Rocker and the well-received The House Bunny, which had her cast as a virginal sorority president who forms a close bond with a Playboy bunny played by Anna Faris.

Now a full-fledged working actress, Emma Stone continued to build her industry credibility. First, she took an amusing supporting role as Allison Vandermeersh, a ghostly figure who shows eternal bachelor Matthew McConaughey the errors of his past in the Dickensian comedy, Ghosts of Girlfriends Past. In the fall of 2009, she switched to the horror -comedy genre to play Wichita, a con artist who joins Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg and Abigail Breslin as survivors in a world plagued by zombies. The film was Zombieland, which became a surprise hit and helped Emma Stone hit a new career stride.

After a role alongside Ryan Reynolds and Lisa Kudrow in the indie film Paper Man, Emma Stone's next exciting effort will be as a student dogged by controversy in Easy A, a high school interpretation of The Scarlet Letter that also stars Amanda Bynes. Afterward, Emma Stone will lend her voice talents to the live action and animation hybrid, Marmaduke.