Leonardo DiCaprio

Leonardo DiCaprio has built his career by repeatedly complicating the qualities that first made him a star. Born in Los Angeles on November 11, 1974, he began acting in commercials and television as a teenager before moving into films. This Boy’s Life brought early recognition, while his performance as Arnie in What’s Eating Gilbert Grape earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor at 19. Romeo + Juliet established DiCaprio as a Hollywood leading man, and Titanic turned him into a worldwide star. Rather than remain fixed as a romantic lead, he pursued increasingly troubled, obsessive and morally compromised characters. Catch Me If You Can gave his charm a restless edge, while Gangs of New York began a long-running collaboration with Martin Scorsese. Their subsequent work together has included The Aviator, The Departed, Shutter Island, The Wolf of Wall Street and Killers of the Flower Moon. DiCaprio is particularly effective when confidence and instability occupy the same performance. That tension runs through his undercover state trooper in The Departed, dream extractor Dom Cobb in Inception, corrupt stockbroker Jordan Belfort in The Wolf of Wall Street and fading television actor Rick Dalton in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. He has also taken conspicuously unsympathetic parts, including plantation owner Calvin Candie in Django Unchained and Ernest Burkhart in Killers of the Flower Moon. His physically demanding performance as fur trapper Hugh Glass in The Revenant earned him the Academy Award, BAFTA, Golden Globe, Critics’ Choice Award and SAG Award for Best Actor. Beyond acting, DiCaprio founded Appian Way Productions in 2004 and has worked as a producer, executive producer, writer and narrator. His environmental interests have also shaped projects including The 11th Hour, Before the Flood and Ice on Fire. Across blockbusters, character dramas and dark comedies, his filmography reflects a sustained preference for ambitious filmmakers and roles that resist easy admiration.