As a teenager, she relocated to Los Angeles and made her television debut in In Search of the New Partridge Family (2004), a reality show that produced only an unsold pilot.

Following this breakthrough, she starred in the romantic comedy Crazy, Stupid, Love (2011) and the period drama The Help (2011), and gained wider recognition as Gwen Stacy in the 2012 superhero film The Amazing Spider-Man and its 2014 sequel.

Stone received nominations for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for playing a recovering drug addict in Birdman (2014) and Abigail Masham in The Favourite (2018).

She and her husband, Dave McCary, founded the production company Fruit Tree in 2020, under which they have produced the films Problemista (2023), I Saw the TV Glow, and A Real Pain (both 2024).

[13] Stone was homeschooled for two years, during which time she appeared in 16 productions at Phoenix's Valley Youth Theatre—including The Princess and the Pea, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat[1]—and performed with the theater's improvisational comedy troupe.

's HBO series Lucky Louie (2006),[10] and unsuccessfully auditioned to star as Claire Bennet in the NBC science fiction drama Heroes (2007), later calling this her "rock bottom" experience.

[1] Stone made her feature film debut in Greg Mottola's comedy Superbad (2007), co-starring Michael Cera and Jonah Hill.

[34][35] Her most financially profitable venture that year was Ruben Fleischer's $102.3 million-grossing horror comedy film Zombieland,[36] 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".

[37] 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".

[39] 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.

[41][42] 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.

[45] Anna Smith of Time Out wrote, "Stone gives a terrific performance, her knowing drawl implying intellect and indifference with underlying warmth.

[52] 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.

[55] 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.

[78] 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.

[79] 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.

"[81] Her performance was well received by critics;[82] 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.

[85] 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".

[89] 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".

[92] 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.

[94][95] 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.

[107] 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.

[115] In 2018, Stone and Rachel Weisz played Abigail Masham and Sarah Churchill, two cousins fighting for the affection of Queen Anne (Olivia Colman), in Yorgos Lanthimos's historical comedy-drama The Favourite.

[151] 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".

[165] Time's Daniel D'Addario stated in 2015 that Stone "appears to have fairly limited options" and choosing roles in independent films by "less established directors would represent a substantive risk".

[166] Analyzing her on-screen persona, Jessica Kiang of IndieWire noted that Stone "usually [plays] the approachable, down-to-earth, girl-next-door type, [and] in person she demonstrates many of those qualities too, along with an absolute refusal to take herself too seriously.

[163][164] Vogue credits the actress for her "sophisticated, perfectly put-together looks", writing that "her charisma, both on-screen and off-, has charmed many" and for her embrace of "Old Hollywood Glamour".

[179][180] Bee Shapiro of The New York Times called Stone a "likable ... spunky, talented, self-deprecating and slightly goofy" actress who is diverse in her fashion choices.

[214] According to the review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes and the box-office site Box Office Mojo, Stone's most critically acclaimed and commercially successful films are Superbad (2007), Zombieland (2009), Easy A (2010), Crazy, Stupid, Love (2011), The Help (2011), The Amazing Spider-Man (2012), The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014), Birdman (2014), La La Land (2016), Battle of the Sexes (2017), The Favourite (2018), Cruella (2021), and Poor Things (2023).