Leonardo DiCaprio Biography

The young Leonardo was encouraged to embrace his creative side and his parents soon got him onto the books of a talent agent who suggested he perform under the pseudonym Lenny Williams. By the age of five, he had already landed his first TV role on a popular children’s television show.

The handsome actor attended the Center for Enriched Studies and John Marshall High School, but was never destined for a career in academia, preferring to perform for his class mates.

He said: "School, I never truly got the knack of."

"I used to, like, take half of the school and do break-dancing skits with a friend in front of them at lunchtime."

To make up for his lack of academic skills, Leo enrolled on summer courses to study acting and performance art. When he was 14, he signed to an agency and began to land television commercial work. His first real acting role came on the TV soap ‘Santa Barbara’ and in 1990 he starred in the short-lived series ‘The Outsiders’ alongside David Arquette.

The ambitious young Leo was keen to make the leap onto the big screen and his chance came in the teen horror flick ‘Critters 3’ in 1991. Although this role did little to showcase the actor's abilities, it did bring him to the attention of the creators of a more defining career moment in 'Growing Pains'.

Casting agents soon took notice of the rising blonde star and he saw off hundreds of hopefuls to land a role in ‘This Boy’s Life’ with Ellen Barkin and Robert De Niro. The role gave Leo the chance to show off the full range of his acting talents and helped secure a string of movie offers.

‘What's Eating Gilbert Grape?’ in 1993 saw Leo team up with Johnny Depp to play a teenager with learning difficulties. The film was a huge critical success and earned the young star an Academy Award nomination. Roles in ‘The Quick and the Dead’ and ‘The Basketball Diaries' added to his rising bankability, but it was his role in 1995’s ‘Total Eclipse’ that raised a few eyebrows. Leo played the tormented, bisexual poet Arthur Rimbaud opposite David Thewlis and the film’s graphical nature was a brave move for a young actor still conquering Hollywood.

Returning with a mainstream hit in 1996, Leo starred in Baz Luhrmann’s adaptation of ‘Romeo and Juliet’. The movie was a huge hit among the MTV generation and succeeded in bring Shakespeare to the masses once more.

However, no matter how successful ‘Romeo and Juliet’ may have been, it was to be eclipsed in 1997 by the film of the year – ‘Titanic’. The £100 million epic picked up 11 Oscars.

Leo had by now hit the big time and started to live the life of a big time movie star - dating models, hard partying and tabloid tales that included suing Playgirl magazine over their plans to publish naked snaps of him.

Despite joining the $20 million earning club for ‘The Beach’ in 2000, the film was savaged by the critics and it would be two years before he returned with the hits ‘Gangs of New York’ and ‘Catch Me If You Can’. Another two year absence saw Leo return with one of the most critically acclaimed films of 2004, Martin Scorsese's ‘The Aviator’.

In 2006, he starred in 'The Departed' with Matt Damon. This film was also directed by Martin Scorsese. Leo also appeared in the adventure thriller 'Blood Diamond' later that year. Both the Golden Globes and Screen Actors Guild nominated the actor twice for Best Actor for both of his 2006 titles.

After another two year gap, he appeared in 'Body of Lies' (2008) for which the actor dyed his hair brown and wore brown contacts to create a look seen in 1970s political films. It received mixed reviews.

He once again teamed up with Kate Winslet in 2008 when they both starred in 'Revolutionary Road', directed by Kate's then husband Sam Mendes. The film is set in the 1950s and tells the story of a couple in a failing marriage. For his part, Leo earned his seventh Golden Globe nomination.

Leo then enjoyed two of his biggest successes in 2010 when he played the lead role in Scorsese's 'Shutter Island' and Chris Nolan's critically acclaimed 'Inception'.

He is now set to star in Clint Eastwood's biopic about J Edgar Hoover and 'Sinatra' - a biopic of the singer directed by Scorsese.

Between 2005 and 2011, the actor enjoyed an on-off relationship with model Bar Rafael, before separating in May. It has recently been reported that Leo has been dating actress Blake Lively since August 2011.

When he’s not flicking through the scripts of multi-million dollar movies, Leo is a keen environmentalist and has set up his own foundation and eco-site through his official website.