Leonardo DiCaprio's Biography

Leonardo DiCaprio was born on 11 November 1974 in Hollywood, California.

He grew up in a difficult neighbourhood scattered with crack and heroin addicts.

DiCaprio started work in television at the ripe old age of 5 on the television show 'Romper Room'. In an interview with Rolling Stone, DiCaprio explained his early inclination to perform:

"The earliest memory I have of myself as a child is me with this strange, almost sickening desire to perform. I guess it's my aiming-to-please issues. I don't know where it comes from. But the earliest memory I have is me at some hippie concert with my dad, and the band hadn't come on. There was an audience of hundreds of people chanting for the band, and my dad scooted me onstage. I don't know how old I was, probably three or so, and I got up there and tap-danced for hundreds of people. That's the personality I have. I want to please this mass audience."

His film debut came with 'Critters 3' in 1991.

DiCaprio was nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his role in the excellent 1993 film, 'What's Eating Gilbert Grape'.

He played the male lead in 'William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet' (1996), and hit the height of fame with the hugely popular 'Titanic' (1997).

DiCaprio also had starring roles in 'Celebrity' (1998), 'The Beach' (2000), 'Gangs of New York' (2002), and the multi-Oscar nominated 'The Aviator'.

In June 2005 Leonardo DiCaprio suffered a laceration to the left side of his neck, after being slashed by a woman with a glass object.

In 2006 Leonardo Di Caprio starred in another Martin Scorsese film, The Departed, alongside Matt Damon.

When DiCaprio was named amongst The Time 100, Scorsese wrote:

"He holds the screen, like a great silent actor. With his face, his eyes. He knows how to use them and how to use his body; he has an innate sense of how much to give and how much to hold back. I look at him, and I know he's a true actor. The camera knows it. And most important, the audience knows it."

In January 2007, DiCaprio was shortlisted for the best actor Oscar for his performance in Blood Diamond.

In November 2008, Leonardo DiCaprio took his mother Irmelin DiCaprio to the London premiere of Body of Lies. In 2016, he would praise his mother, whose 73rd birthday (February 15) it was when he collected the Bafta award for best actor.

Leonardo DiCaprio was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama for his work on Revolutionary Road.

In 2010, Leonardo DiCaprio starred in Shutter Island, directed by Martin Scorsese, which topped the US and Canada box office chart when it was released.

In 2010 he was also cast in Inception as Dom Cobb, the leader of a team of thieves who raid secrets from people's dreams.

In December 2010, Aretha Wilson who slashed Leonardo DiCaprio's face with a broken bottle in 2005 was sentenced to two years in prison.

His subsequent credits include Django Unchained, The Wolf on Wall Street, and The Revenant.

In 2016, he won an Oscar for best actor for his role in The Revenant, for which he also won a Bafta.

In 2019, he starred alongside Brad Pitt in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, directed by Quentin Tarantino.

In 2023, he starred in Martin Scorsese's Killers of the Flower Moon.