Leonardo DiCaprio

Leonardo Wilhelm DiCaprio, born November 11, 1974, in Los Angeles, is an American actor and film producer known especially for biographical and period films. Across a career that began in the late 1980s, he became one of the most visible screen actors of his era. His films as a leading actor have grossed $7 billion worldwide, and he has appeared eight times in annual rankings of the world’s highest-paid actors. His honors include an Academy Award, an Actor Award, a British Academy Film Award, an Emmy Award, a Silver Bear, and three Golden Globes.

DiCaprio was the only child of Irmelin Indenbirken, a legal secretary from Germany, and George DiCaprio, an American underground comix artist and distributor. His parents divorced when he was one, but they raised him together in neighboring cottages with a shared garden in Echo Park. He later lived with his mother in other Los Angeles neighborhoods, including Los Feliz. DiCaprio has described his parents as “bohemian in every sense of the word” and “the people I trust the most in the world.” He has also spoken of growing up poor in a neighborhood marked by prostitution, crime, and violence.

As a child, DiCaprio wanted to be either an actor or a marine biologist. Acting won out because he liked imitating people, impersonating characters, and watching audiences react. He attended the Los Angeles Center for Enriched Studies and Seeds Elementary School, then enrolled at John Marshall High School, which he disliked. He chose to leave high school to audition for acting jobs and later earned a GED. His early years in the business were not easy. He struggled to find an agent, refused a suggestion to change his name to Lenny Williams, went through many auditions without work, and nearly gave up before his father urged him to continue.

He began with television commercials and small television roles, including The New Lassie in 1989, The Outsiders and Santa Barbara in 1990, and a recurring role in Parenthood from 1990 to 1991. His first major film part came as author Tobias Wolff in This Boy’s Life in 1993. That same year, he received critical acclaim and his first Academy Award nomination for playing a developmentally disabled boy in What’s Eating Gilbert Grape. International stardom followed with Romeo + Juliet in 1996 and Titanic in 1997. After Titanic became the highest-grossing film in the world at the time, he reduced his workload for a few years.

DiCaprio later worked to move beyond the image of a romantic hero, taking roles in crime dramas such as Catch Me If You Can and Gangs of New York in 2002. Gangs of New York began many successful collaborations with director Martin Scorsese. He gained further acclaim for The Aviator, Blood Diamond, The Departed, and Revolutionary Road, then starred in Inception, Shutter Island, Django Unchained, The Great Gatsby, The Wolf of Wall Street, The Revenant, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Killers of the Flower Moon, and One Battle After Another. For The Revenant, he won the Academy Award for Best Actor.

Beyond acting, DiCaprio founded Appian Way Productions, which has made some of his films and the documentary series Greensburg, and the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation, a nonprofit devoted to environmental awareness. He has made environmental documentaries, regularly supports charitable causes, and serves as a United Nations Messenger of Peace. His quoted line, “Every next level of your life will demand a different you,” fits the public shape of his career: a child performer, a young star, a serious actor, a producer, and an environmental advocate, each step asking for change.