1991–1996: Early work and breakthrough DiCaprio made his film debut in 1991 as the stepson of an unscrupulous landlord in the low-budget horror sequel
Critters 3—a part he later described as "your average, no-depth, standard kid with blond hair". DiCaprio was cast by the producers to appeal to young female audience, but his arrival did not improve the show's ratings and he left before the end of its run. He was nominated for a
Young Artist Award for Best Young Actor Co-starring in a Television Series. DiCaprio also had an uncredited role in 1991 in one episode of
Roseanne. directed DiCaprio in ''
What's Eating Gilbert Grape'' (1993), for which he earned his first
Academy Award nomination.|alt=Lasse Hallström holding a mic in his left hand and looking away from the camera In 1992, DiCaprio had a brief role in
the first installment of the
Poison Ivy film series, and was handpicked by
Robert De Niro from a shortlist of 400 young actors to co-star with him in ''
This Boy's Life.'' Adapted from the memoir by
Tobias Wolff, the film focuses on the relationship between a rebellious teenager, Toby (DiCaprio), and his mother (
Ellen Barkin) and abusive stepfather (De Niro). Director
Michael Caton-Jones said that DiCaprio did not know how to behave on set; accordingly, Caton-Jones used a strict mentoring style, after which DiCaprio's behavior began to improve. DiCaprio played the developmentally disabled brother of
Johnny Depp's character in ''
What's Eating Gilbert Grape'' (1993), a comedy-drama about a dysfunctional
Iowa family. Caton-Jones recommended DiCaprio to director
Lasse Hallström who was initially skeptical, as he considered DiCaprio too good-looking for the part. Hallström cast DiCaprio after he emerged as "the most observant" auditionee. At age 19, DiCaprio earned a
National Board of Review Award, as well as nominations for a
Golden Globe Award and an
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, making him the
seventh-youngest Oscar nominee in the category. "The film's real show-stopping turn comes from Mr. DiCaprio," wrote
The New York Times critic
Janet Maslin, "who makes Arnie's many tics so startling and vivid that at first he is difficult to watch. The performance has a sharp, desperate intensity from beginning to end."
Caryn James, also writing for
The New York Times, said of his performances in ''This Boy's Life
and What's Eating Gilbert Grape'': "He made the raw, emotional neediness of those boys completely natural and powerful." DiCaprio's first role of 1995 was in
Sam Raimi's Western
The Quick and the Dead. When
Sony Pictures became dubious over DiCaprio's casting, co-star
Sharon Stone paid his salary herself. The film was released to dismal box office performance and mixed reviews from critics. DiCaprio next starred as a teenage
Jim Carroll, a drug-addicted high school basketball player and budding writer, in the biopic
The Basketball Diaries. He starred in the erotic drama
Total Eclipse (1995), driven by the desire to showcase an exceptional performance, which would focus on his acting talent rather than his much-discussed physical appeal. Directed by
Agnieszka Holland, it is a fictionalized account of the same-sex relationship between
Arthur Rimbaud (DiCaprio) and
Paul Verlaine (
David Thewlis). DiCaprio was cast when
River Phoenix died before filming began. A review in the
San Francisco Chronicle called DiCaprio "his generation's great acting promise" but criticized the mismatch between Thewlis's "cultivated" British accent and DiCaprio's "Southern California twang". DiCaprio next starred opposite
Claire Danes in
Baz Luhrmann's
Romeo + Juliet (1996), an abridged modernization of
William Shakespeare's
romantic tragedy, which retained the original Shakespearean dialogue. DiCaprio was initially unsure about another Romeo and Juliet adaptation, but at his father's suggestion, he agreed to examine Luhrmann's work more closely. DiCaprio and Luhrmann then spent a two-week workshop exchanging ideas, which led to the collaboration.
Romeo + Juliet established DiCaprio as a leading Hollywood actor; according to film scholar
Murray Pomerance, DiCaprio's newfound popularity helped the film become profitable only days after its release. Reviewing DiCaprio's early works,
David Thomson of
The Guardian called DiCaprio "a revelation" in ''What's Eating Gilbert Grape
, "very moving" in This Boy's Life
, "suitably desperate" in The Basketball Diaries
and "a vital spark" in Romeo + Juliet
. The latter earned DiCaprio a Silver Bear for Best Actor at the 1997 Berlin International Film Festival. He then portrayed a young man who has been committed to a mental asylum in Marvin's Room'' (1996), a family drama about two estranged sisters, played by
Meryl Streep and
Diane Keaton, who are reunited through tragedy. He played Hank, the troubled son of Streep's character.
Lisa Schwarzbaum of
Entertainment Weekly praised "the deeply gifted DiCaprio" for holding his own against veteran actresses Keaton and Streep, describing the three as "full-bodied and so powerfully affecting that you're carried along on the pleasure of being in the presence of their extraordinary talent".
1997–2001: Titanic and worldwide recognition DiCaprio rejected a role in
Boogie Nights (1997) to star opposite
Kate Winslet in
James Cameron's
Titanic as members of different social classes who fall in love aboard
RMS Titanic. DiCaprio had doubts, but was encouraged by Cameron to pursue the part. With a production budget of more than $200 million,
Titanic was the most expensive in history at the time. It became the highest-grossing film at the time, earning more than $2.1 billion in box-office receipts worldwide. It won 11
Academy Awards—the most wins for any film—including
Best Picture; DiCaprio's failure to gain a nomination led to a protest against the
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences by more than 200fans. He was nominated for other high-profile awards, including a
Golden Globe Award for Best Actor. '' in 2000|alt=A photograph of Leonardo DiCaprio attending a press conference for The Beach.
Titanic transformed DiCaprio into a superstar, drawing adoration among teenage girls and young women that became known as "Leo-mania". The success bolstered DiCaprio's standing as a
teen idol and romantic lead, an image from which he sought to dissociate himself. Despite the film's success and its positive influence on his career, in 2025 DiCaprio said he regretted the decision to turn down
Boogie Nights, saying it was "a profound movie of my generation". In his 2015
Rolling Stone article, Ebiri called the
Titanic role DiCaprio's best, writing that he and Winslet "infuse their earnest back-and-forth with so much genuine emotion that it's hard not to get swept up in their doomed love affair". Writing about her first viewing of
Titanic in 2017,
Vox contributor Alissa Wilkinson described DiCaprio's "boyish charm" and found his performance "natural and unaffected". DiCaprio had a brief featured role in
Woody Allen's 1998 satire of fame,
Celebrity. Ebiri labeled DiCaprio "the best thing in the film". That year, he also took on the dual roles of villainous
King Louis XIV and his secret, sympathetic twin brother Philippe in
Randall Wallace's
The Man in the Iron Mask, with common elements from
the 1939 film and a
1929 film with
Douglas Fairbanks. It received mixed reviews, but grossed $180 million against a budget of $35 million.
Entertainment Weekly critic
Owen Gleiberman wrote that DiCaprio did not look old enough to play the part, but praised him as "a fluid and instinctive actor, with the face of a mischievous angel".
The Guardian Alex von Tunzelmann was similarly impressed with the actor's performance but found his talent wasted in the film. DiCaprio won a
Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Screen Couple for the dual roles in 1999. Following the release of
Titanic, and
The Man in the Iron Mask, DeCaprio chose to reduce his workload "to learn to hear [his] own voice in choosing the roles" that he wanted to pursue. He said in 2000: "I have no connection with me during that whole
Titanic phenomenon and what my face became around the world[...] I'll never reach that state of popularity again, and I don't expect to[...] It's not something I'm going to try to achieve either." DiCaprio was next cast to star in an earlier version of
American Psycho (2000) for a reported salary of $20 million; after disagreements with
Oliver Stone on the film's direction, DiCaprio left the project, taking the lead role in
The Beach instead. Adapted from
Alex Garland's
1996 novel, the film saw him play a backpacking American tourist who ends up in a secret island commune in the
Gulf of Thailand.
2002–2009: Work with Martin Scorsese and film production '' with
Martin Scorsese and
Cameron Diaz at the
2002 Cannes Film Festival|alt=A photograph Leonardo DiCaprio with Martin Scorsese and Cameron Diaz (from left to right) surrounded by the paparazzi DiCaprio turned down the role of
Anakin Skywalker in
Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones (2002), feeling unprepared to "take that dive" at the time. His first film that year was the biopic
Catch Me If You Can, based on the life of
Frank Abagnale Jr., who before his 19th birthday committed
check fraud to make millions in the 1960s. The film received critical acclaim and grossed $355 million against a budget of $52 million, becoming his second highest-grossing release after
Titanic. and two
Entertainment Weekly critics in 2018 called it DiCaprio's best role, labeling him "delightfully persuasive, deceptive, flirtatious, and sometimes tragic—and we dare you to find a better role, if you can". DiCaprio received his third Golden Globe nomination for his performance in the film. Also in 2002, DiCaprio starred in
Martin Scorsese's
Gangs of New York, a historical drama set in the mid-19th century in the
Five Points district of New York City. Scorsese initially struggled selling his idea of realizing the film until DiCaprio became interested in starring in the film, and thus
Miramax Films got involved with financing the project. Nonetheless, production on the film was plagued by overshooting of budgets and producer-director disagreements, resulting in an eight-month shoot. With a budget of $103 million, the film was the most expensive Scorsese had ever made. DiCaprio was drawn to playing Amsterdam Vallon, the young leader of an Irish-American street gang, as it marked a shift from "boyish" roles to a mature leading man.
Gangs of New York earned $193 million worldwide and received positive critical response. Anne Thompson of
The Observer took note of DiCaprio's "low-key, sturdy performance", but felt that co-star
Daniel Day-Lewis overshadowed him. In 2004, DiCaprio founded the production company
Appian Way Productions, a namesake of
the Italian road. He was interested in finding unique source material and preserving its essence during development, citing previous experiences where the involvement of too many people influenced the final product in a negative way. DiCaprio first executive-produced
The Assassination of Richard Nixon, which starred
Sean Penn as
Samuel Byck, and was screened at the
2004 Cannes Film Festival. DiCaprio and Scorsese reunited for a biopic of
Howard Hughes, an American film director and aviation pioneer suffering from
obsessive–compulsive disorder, in
The Aviator (2004), which DiCaprio also co-produced under Appian Way. He initially developed the project with
Michael Mann who was eventually replaced by Scorsese.
The Aviator became a critical and financial success, grossing $213million against its budget of $110million. Simond Braund of
Empire thought DiCaprio convincingly played a complex role and highlighted the scenes depicting Hughes's paranoia and obsession. He received his first Golden Globe Award for Best Actor — Motion Picture Drama and nominations for an
Academy Award, a
BAFTA Award and a
Screen Actors Guild Award. In 2006, DiCaprio starred in the crime film
The Departed and the political war thriller
Blood Diamond. In Scorsese's
The Departed, DiCaprio played the role of Billy Costigan, a state trooper working undercover in the
Irish Mob in Boston, someone he characterizes as being in a "constant 24-hour panic attack". DiCaprio especially liked the experience of working with co-star
Jack Nicholson, describing a scene with him as "one of the most memorable moments" of his life as an actor. In preparation, he visited Boston to interact with people associated with the Irish Mob and gained of muscle. Critically acclaimed, the film grossed $291 million against a budget of $90 million, becoming DiCaprio and Scorsese's highest-grossing collaboration to that point. Despite DiCaprio's leading role in
The Departed, the film's distributor
Warner Bros. Pictures submitted his performance for a Best Supporting Actor nomination at the AMPAS to avoid internal conflict with his part in
Blood Diamond. Instead, his co-star
Mark Wahlberg was nominated, though DiCaprio earned other accolades for
The Departed, including a
Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actor and Best Actor nominations at the Golden Globes and BAFTA Awards. To prepare, he spent six months in Africa, learned about camouflage from people in South African military and interviewed and recorded people in the country to improve his accent. The film received generally favorable reviews, and DiCaprio was noted for his South African accent, which is generally known as difficult to imitate. Claudia Puig of the
USA Today approvingly highlighted DiCaprio's transition from a boy to a man on screen, and
Ann Hornaday of
The Washington Post similarly noted his growth as an actor since
The Departed. DiCaprio received nominations for an Academy Award and a Golden Globe for
Blood Diamond. In 2007, DiCaprio produced the comedy drama
Gardener of Eden, which according to
The Hollywood Reporters Frank Scheck "lack[ed] the necessary dramatic urgency or black humor to connect with audiences". Later that year, he produced, co-wrote and narrated
The 11th Hour, a documentary on the state of the
natural environment that won the
Earthwatch Environmental Film Award in 2008. DiCaprio's Appian Way produced
Planet Green's
Greensburg (2008–2010), which ran for three seasons. Set in
Greensburg, Kansas, it is about rebuilding the town in a
sustainable way after being hit by the
2007 Greensburg tornado. Also in 2008, DiCaprio starred in
Body of Lies, a spy film based on the
novel of the same name. He played one of three agents battling a terrorist organization in the Middle East. Considering the film to be a throwback to political features of the 1970s like
The Parallax View (1974) and
Three Days of the Condor (1975), DiCaprio dyed his hair brown and wore brown contacts for the role. and grossed $118 million against a budget of $67.5 million. Later in 2008, DiCaprio collaborated with Kate Winslet for the drama
Revolutionary Road, directed by her then-husband
Sam Mendes. As both actors had been reluctant to make romantic films similar to
Titanic, it was Winslet who suggested that they both work with her on a film adaptation of the
1961 eponymous novel by
Richard Yates. She found that the script, by
Justin Haythe, had little in common with the 1997 blockbuster. Playing a couple in a failing marriage in the 1950s, DiCaprio and Winslet spent some time together in preparation, and DiCaprio felt claustrophobic on the small set they used. He saw his character as "unheroic", "slightly cowardly" and someone "willing to be just a product of his environment". Peter Travers liked DiCaprio's pairing with Winslet and his multi-layered portrayal of an overwhelmed character, and Marshall Sella of
GQ called it the "most mature and memorable performance of his lifetime".
Revolutionary Road grossed $75.9million against its budget of $35million. He ended the 2000s by producing director
Jaume Collet-Serra's psychological horror thriller film
Orphan (2009), starring
Vera Farmiga,
Peter Sarsgaard and
Isabelle Fuhrman. Although the film received mixed reviews, it was a commercial success.
2010–2013: Films with high-profile directors DiCaprio continued to collaborate with Scorsese in the 2010 psychological thriller film
Shutter Island, based on
the 2003 novel of the same name by
Dennis Lehane. He played Edward "Teddy" Daniels, a U.S. Marshal investigating a psychiatric facility located on an island, who comes to question his own sanity. DiCaprio and Scorsese became interested in the project in 2007, and the former co-produced the film under Appian Way with
Phoenix Pictures. Because of the film's disturbing scenes, DiCaprio had nightmares of mass murder during production and considered relaxing with his friends a form of therapy. The film was released to mixed reviews;
Peter Bradshaw of
The Guardian praised Scorsese's direction and the acting but criticized its twist ending. Peter Travers called it DiCaprio's "most haunting and emotionally complex performance yet", and particularly liked his cave scene with co-star
Patricia Clarkson. The film was a commercial success, grossing $294 million worldwide against a budget of $80 million. '' at the film's premiere in 2010|alt=A photograph of seven people on stage; except for Leonardo DiCario on the right, they are all clapping cheerfully. DiCaprio's second role in 2010 was in
Christopher Nolan's critically acclaimed ensemble science-fiction film
Inception. Inspired by the experience of
lucid dreaming and
dream incubation, the film features Dom Cobb (DiCaprio), an "extractor" who enters the dreams of others to obtain information that is otherwise inaccessible. Cobb is promised a chance to regain his old life in exchange for planting an idea in a corporate target's mind. DiCaprio was fascinated with the idea of a "dream-heist" and the potential for his character to manipulate his dreamworld and impact his real life. Made on a budget of $160 million, the film grossed $836 million worldwide to become DiCaprio's second highest-grossing film. To star in this film, DiCaprio agreed to a pay cut from his $20 million fee and opted for a share in
first-dollar gross points, which entitled him to a percentage of the cinema ticket sales. The risk proved fruitful, as DiCaprio earned $50 million from the film, becoming his highest payday yet. DiCaprio starred as
J. Edgar Hoover in
Clint Eastwood's
J. Edgar (2011). A biopic about Hoover, the film focuses on his career as an
FBI director, including an examination of his private life as an alleged
closeted homosexual. Critics felt that the film lacked coherence overall but commended DiCaprio's performance. Roger Ebert praised DiCaprio's ability to bring depth and nuance to the character, suggesting that his performance conveyed aspects of Hoover's personality that were possibly even unknown to the man himself. Also in 2011, he produced
Catherine Hardwicke's romantic horror film
Red Riding Hood. Though it was named one of the ten worst films of 2011 by
Time magazine, it had moderate box-office returns. Also that year, DiCaprio's Appian Way produced
George Clooney's political drama
The Ides of March, an adaptation of
Beau Willimon's 2008 play
Farragut North. In 2012, DiCaprio starred as plantation owner Calvin Candie in
Quentin Tarantino's
Spaghetti Western,
Django Unchained. After reading the script, DiCaprio felt uncomfortable with the extent of racism portrayed in the film, but his co-stars and Tarantino convinced him not to sugarcoat it. While filming, DiCaprio accidentally cut his hand on glass, but continued filming, and Tarantino elected to use the take in the final product. The film received critical acclaim; a writer for
Wired magazine commended him for playing a villainous role and found his performance "blood-chilling". The film earned DiCaprio a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.
Django Unchained grossed $425 million worldwide on a production budget of $100 million. In January 2013, DiCaprio said he would take a long break from acting to "fly around the world doing good for the environment". That year, he had four releases as an actor and a producer. His first was in the role of millionaire
Jay Gatsby in Baz Luhrmann's
The Great Gatsby, an adaptation of
F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1925
novel of the same name, co-starring
Carey Mulligan and Tobey Maguire. The film received mixed reviews from critics, but DiCaprio's performance was praised and earned him the
AACTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role. Critic Rafer Guzman of
Newsday wrote that DiCaprio was not only "tough[...] but also vulnerable, touching, funny, a faker, a human. It's a tremendous, hard-won performance." Matt Zoller Seitz of Roger Ebert's website described his performance as "the movie's greatest and simplest special effect", and "iconic—maybe his career best". The film grossed $353 million worldwide, more than three times its budget. Three films were produced by DiCaprio under Appian Way in 2013—the ensemble crime thriller
Runner Runner, which
The Guardians Xan Brooks described as "a lazy, trashy film that barely goes through the motions"; the commercially failed thriller
Out of the Furnace; and the black comedy-drama
The Wolf of Wall Street. DiCaprio reunited with Scorsese for the fifth time in
The Wolf of the Wall Street, a film based on the life of stockbroker
Jordan Belfort (played by DiCaprio), who was arrested in the late 1990s for securities fraud and money laundering. DiCaprio wanted to play Belfort ever since he had read
his autobiography and won a bidding war with Warner Bros. against
Brad Pitt and
Paramount Pictures for the rights to Belfort's memoir in 2007. He was fond of Belfort's honest and unapologetic portrayal of his actual experiences in the book, and was inspired by the
2008 financial crisis to make the film.
The Hollywood Reporter Todd McCarthy lauded DiCaprio for fully realizing his character's potential with a carefree performance. Jonathan Romney of
Film Comment wrote that DiCaprio displays a great deal of comedic talent, excelling in "rubber-limbed
slapstick" humor. The film earned him the
Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy and nominations for a BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role, as well as Academy Awards for Best Actor and Best Picture.
2014–present: Environmental documentaries and awards success DiCaprio was an executive producer on
Virunga, a 2014 British documentary film about four people fighting to protect the world's last
mountain gorillas from war and poaching. The film premiered at the
Tribeca Film Festival in April2014, and DiCaprio was nominated for the
2015 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special.
Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret was another documentary film that year for which he was an executive producer—he took part in the new cut released exclusively on
Netflix that September. It explores the impact of animal agriculture on the environment. DiCaprio is a patron of
The Gorilla Organization, a UK-based charity continuing
Dian Fossey's work to protect gorillas in the Virungas. In 2015, DiCaprio produced and played
fur trapper Hugh Glass in
Alejandro G. Iñárritu's survival drama
The Revenant. DiCaprio found his role in the film difficult; he had to eat a raw slab of bison's liver and sleep in animal carcasses. He also learned to shoot a musket, build a fire, speak two Native American languages (
Pawnee and
Arikara) and apply ancient healing techniques. The film received positive reviews with particular praise for DiCaprio's acting.
Mark Kermode of
The Guardian wrote that DiCaprio shone with a performance that prioritizes physicality over speech, and Nick De Semlyen of
Empire noted that he uplifted the film. The film earned him numerous awards, including the Academy Award, BAFTA, Critics' Choice, Golden Globe and SAG Award for Best Actor. For the next three years, DiCaprio narrated documentaries and served as a producer for films. In 2016, he was an executive producer for
The Ivory Game and
Catching the Sun; He produced the crime drama
Live by Night (2016), which received unenthusiastic reviews and failed to recoup its $65 million production budget. His next production ventures were in 2018—the psychological horror
Delirium and the commercially failed action–adventure
Robin Hood. After producing and narrating the 2019 global warming documentary
Ice on Fire, DiCaprio returned to acting following a four-year break in Quentin Tarantino's comedy-drama
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, which traces the relationship between
Rick Dalton (DiCaprio), an aging television actor and his
stuntman, Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt). To help the film's financing, DiCaprio and Pitt agreed to take a pay cut, and they each received $10 million. DiCaprio liked working with Pitt, and Tarantino described the pair as the most exciting since
Robert Redford and
Paul Newman. DiCaprio was fascinated with the film's
homage to Hollywood and focus on the friendship between his and Pitt's characters. He drew from real-life experience of witnessing the struggles and rejections of his actor friends in the industry. A writer for
Business Insider called it one of the best performances of DiCaprio's career, and Ian Sandwell of
Digital Spy particularly liked the duo's chemistry, believing their scenes together to be some of the film's strongest parts. DiCaprio received nominations for an Oscar, a Golden Globe, a BAFTA Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actor. The film earned $374 million against a budget of $90 million. In 2020, DiCaprio served as an executive producer for
The Right Stuff, a television series adaption of the
1973 namesake book. After being in development at National Geographic, it was released on
Disney+. That May, DiCaprio briefly featured in the finale of the miniseries
The Last Dance. In 2021, DiCaprio appeared in
Adam McKay's satirical comedy ''
Don't Look Up''. He spent five months changing the film's script with McKay before agreeing to the part. Starring alongside
Jennifer Lawrence as two astronomers attempting to warn humanity about an extinction-level comet, DiCaprio saw this film as an analogy of the world's indifference to the
climate crisis. As a frequent supporter of environmentalism, DiCaprio said he has often looked to star in and make films tackling issues related to it, something he found hard due to people's inability to listen. He praised McKay for envisioning a project on how humans would react to a serious issue from a political, social and scientific standpoint. While reviews for the film were mixed, most critics praised DiCaprio's and Lawrence's performances; journalists from Digital Spy and
NDTV lauded their pairing. DiCaprio earned nominations for a Golden Globe and a BAFTA Award for the film. It broke the record for the most views (152 million hours) in a single week in Netflix history. DiCaprio next starred in Scorsese's crime drama
Killers of the Flower Moon (2023) based on the
book of the same name by
David Grann, for which he was paid $30 million. Initially signed for the heroic part of FBI agent
Thomas Bruce White Sr., DiCaprio insisted on playing the morally complex role of murderer
Ernest Burkhart, leading to extensive script rewrites. Declaring it the best performance of DiCaprio's career,
IndieWire's David Ehrlich wrote that "his nuanced and uncompromising turn as the cretinous Ernest Burkhart mines new wonders from the actor's long-standing lack of vanity". He received another Golden Globe nomination for his performance. DiCaprio next starred in
Paul Thomas Anderson's film
One Battle After Another (2025), alongside
Sean Penn and
Regina Hall. For his role as a washed-up ex-revolutionary, he received his seventh Academy Award acting nomination. In December 2025, DiCaprio confirmed he has been cast in an undisclosed role in
Michael Mann's
planned sequel to the 1995 film
Heat. As of February 2026, DiCaprio began shooting
What Happens at Night, helmed by Martin Scorsese, also starring Jennifer Lawrence and Mads Mikkelsen. ==Reception and acting style==