Leonardo Wilhelm DiCaprio (Jack) was born November 11, 1974, in Los Angeles, California. He was named Leonardo because his mother was in an art museam looking at a Leonardo DaVinci painting when her unborn son kicked her. She felt this was a "sign" to name her son Leonardo.

Leo's first acting experience was at age five on the TV series "Romper Room." Leo was kicked off the set for acting up. That didn't discourage him at all. At age 12, Leo began to audition for TV commercials. After LOTS of attempts, he finally landed a job for Matchbox cars.
Leo had several commercials and appearences in other TV shows, including "Lassie," "The Outsiders," and "Santa Barbera." He was in the short-lived TV series "Parenthood" and then made his first movie, "Critters 3," which is an experience Leo'd like to forget. He went back to TV and played homeless boy Luke (at age 16) in the final season of "Growing Pains." Co-star Alan Thicke (Jason Seaver) tried to have Leo's character expanded because Leonardo was such an extradinary actor.
Leo's "real" feature film debut was "This Boy's Life" in 1993 (age 19) where he played a tormented teen who is mistreated by his stepfather. Later that same year, he was in "What's Eating Gilbert Grape?" and landed a Best Supporting Actor Oscar Nomination. In 1994, Leonardo appeared in "The Quick and the Dead" with Sharon Stone.
Leonardo's fisrt starring role was in 1995's "The Basketball Diaries," based on the life of Jim Carroll. Leo played Jim, a gifted athlete who develops a herion addiction. 1996 featured 22 year-old Leonardo DiCaprio (who, by the way, was told by a talent agent to change his name to Lenny Williams, but he refused) in "Total Eclipse." Leo is probably best known for his role in 1996's William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet as Romeo Montague with Clarie Danes. Also in 1996, Leo played Hank, son of Meryl Streep, in Marvin's Room

Leonardo recaptured the audiences of both young and old in James Cameron's Titanic as poor artist Jack Dawson who captures the heart of Rose DeWitt Bukater, (Kate Winslet), a wealthy first-class passenger on board.
Leonardo went on to The Man in the Iron Mask in which he protrays Louis IV and his twin brother. He appeared in Woody Allen's Celebrity.
After the completion of Titanic, Leo took a break from filming. Almost a year later, he finally chose his next film, The Beach. The picture was made in Thailand. Leo then went back to reading scripts and waiting for the next role to come along.