Leonardo DiCaprio, born Leonardo Wilhelm Dicaprio, was born on November 11, 1974 in Los Angeles, California to parents Irmelin Inderberken, a former legal secretary, and to George DiCaprio, an underground comic artist as well as comic book distributor. Leo is best known for his choice of great roles which he has won several awards for. His most notable roles include his breakthrough performance in This Boy's Life, What's Eating Gilbert Grape, Titanic, Romeo + Juliet, Blood Diamond, The Aviator, Gangs of New York, The Departed, and his most recent film, Revolutionary Road. He has been nominated in all the major award giving bodies such as BAFTA, SAG, and the Academy Awards.



Leonardo DiCaprio has always been known to be full of zest and spirit. He was named after the great Leonardo Da Vinci after he kicked his mother while still in her womb when she admired a Da Vinci painting in the Uffizi. Leo was an only child, and unfortunately his parents divorced when he was only a year old. He is half-German and half-Italian, both backgrounds influencing his upbringing greatly. He was also very much interested in visiting museums, and collecting baseball cards and comic books. He then went on to study at the Seeds Elementary School, Center for Enriched Studies as well as at the John Marshall High School in Los Angeles.

Back in school, he was always known to be more interested in entertaining his classmates than concentrating on his school work. By the age of five years old, Leo got his acting debut for the TV show Romper Room. Unfortunately, because of his uncontrollable behavior on set, he was let go from the show. Trying to get into acting at such a young age became hard for Leo as he got rejected from one audition to another. At the age of ten, he was even more discouraged when agents tried to change the way he looked as well as his name, wanting to change it to Lenny Williams. Finally, he was signed on when he was 14 years old and starred in obscure advertisements as well as in educational movies. After doing some guest appearances on several television shows, he finally got his big break when he got the role of Tobias Wolff in the film This Boy's Life. The rest as they say is history.

Leonardo Di Caprio has always been known to be very picky with his roles, but he does pick those roles very well. He has turned down popular roles such as Robin in Batman Forever, but chose to do grittier and darker roles such as his characters in What's Eating Gilbert Grape and Basketball Diaries. He proceeded to work on more electrifying roles and work with seasoned actors and critically-acclaimed directors in films such as Romeo + Juliet, Marvin's Room, The Man in the Iron Mask, The Beach, Catch Me If You Can, Gangs of New York, and The Departed, among many others. He gained his superstar status when he took on the role of Jack Dawson in James Cameron's Titanic which also starred Kate Winslet, with whom he would work with again ten years later in Sam Mendes' Revolutionary Road.