Actor Profile: Leonardo DeCaprio

Leonardo DiCaprio is an actor best known for his roles in; wolf of wall street, Titanic, Gangs of New York, Aviator, 

15 Facts About DiCaprio

1.  full name is Leonardo Wilhelm DiCaprio
2. Although at a young age he was advised to change his name to something more 'friendly and american' 
3. He was born in November 11, 1974 (age 40), in Hollywood, US.
4. He was considered the role of Pete Parker/spiderman in spiderman but the role was given to Toby Maguire. 
5. One of his closest friends is Mark Wahlberg.
6. He supports environmental causes
7. He created a spoken word piece called 'global warning' about global warming and climate change. 
8. Plays basketball, hockey, football and many other sports 
9. Leo owns 2 homes in New York city and one in LA
10. Leo has never won an academy award
11. although he has won 2 golden glove awards for best actor in the aviator and Wolf of Wall Street.
12. two of his favorite films are Taxi Driver and The Shining.
13. He is 6'' tall.
14. his net worth is over $200 million 
15. he attended LA center for enriched studies before attending Marshall High. 

Career

DiCaprio has gone from playing in humble, low budget films to playing the lead role in major blockbuster, movies such as Shakespeare Romeo and Juliet (1996) and Titanic (1997).

leonardo's performance skills became apparent to his parents at an early stage  and after signing him up with a talent agent who wanted Leonardo to perform under the stage name "Lenny Williams Leonardo  began appearing on many  television commercials and educational programs.

This helped his to  attract the attention of producers, who cast him in bit part roles in a number of television series, such as Roseanne (1988) and The New Lassie (1989), but it wasn't until 1991 that DiCaprio made his film debut in Critters 3 (1991), a low-budget horror movie. While Critters 3 (1991) did little to help showcase DiCaprio's acting abilities, it did help him develop his show-reel, and attract the attention of the people behind the hit sitcom Growing Pains (1985), in which Leonardo was cast in the "Cousin Oliver" role of a young homeless boy who moves in with the Seavers. While DiCaprio's stint on Growing Pains (1985) was very short, as the sitcom was axed the year after he joined, it helped bring DiCaprio into the public's attention and, after the show ended, DiCaprio began auditioning for roles in which he would get the chance to prove his acting.

Leonardo took up a diverse range of roles in the early 1990's, including a mentally challenged youth in What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993 and the Dead (1995) and a drug addict in one of his most challenging roles to date, "Jim Carroll", in The Basketball Diaries (1995), a role which the late River Phoenix originally expressed interest in. While these diverse roles helped establish Leonardo's reputation as a diverse actor, it wasn't until his role as "Romeo" that Leonardo became a household name, a true movie star. The following year, DiCaprio starred in another movie about doomed lovers, Titanic (1997), which went on to beat all box office records held before then, as, at the time, Titanic (1997) became the highest grossing movie of all time. 

In more recent years Leo played a leading role in shutter island (2010) and inception (2010) also playing the main character in Wolf of wall street (2013)