DiCaprio was born in Los Angeles, California, the son of George DiCaprio, a half Italian-half German distributor of comic books, and Irmelin Indenbirken, a former legal secretary who was born in Germany. His name allegedly came about because his pregnant mother was standing in front of a Leonardo da Vinci painting at a museum in Italy when he kicked, which made her decide to name him after the famous artist. His parents divorced when he was a year old. He grew up in Echo Park. He started acting when he was five, can you believe it? Yep. Romper Room was his first gig AND he almost got fired for misbehaving. Don't let those sweet good looks fool you. Leo has had steady work ever since, appearing in a variety of television shows, where he met his best friend, Toby Maguire, star of Spiderman and Pleasantville and also a hottie. Leonardo might have been earning a steady paycheck with his television roles; but, once he looked toward Hollywood, he never looked back again. His real break came with the role of Toby in 'This Boy's Life' in 1993, opposite Robert De Niro and Ellen Brkin. He was named runner-up for Best Supporting Actor by the National Society of Film Critics for that role. Playing Romeo in the slick, updated version of Romeo and Juliet didn't hurt his value, either, and young girly fans swooned over his youthful boyish charm and good looks. What catapulted him to Hollywood's A-list, however, was Titanic, the mega production movie hit that ran away with multiple Oscars and became one of the highest gorssing movies ever made. He didn't win one; but that did not hurt our boy's career one bit. He was launched into super-stardom when he played Jack Dawson. He was deemed the most 'beautiful man on earth'. Over the course of the next few years he would become a household name worldwide, synonymous with labels such as 'teenage heart-throb' and sex symbol. With a status that spawned fantasy crushes and hysteria worldwide, E! Online described him as the most gorgeous celebrity on the planet, while his co-star Kate Winslet said she agreed with others in deeming him the "most beautiful man on Earth". At the peak of his celebrity in 1998, DiCaprio fronted scores of magazine covers ranging from Vanity Fair to Rolling Stone[1], and was once the most searched for personality in the early years of the Internet. DiCaprio agreed to play the spoof role of his real life 'teen idol' persona during this period, in Woody Allen's satirical parody, Celebrity. Time magazine summed up the fame superhighway and its rappings in an interview with the actor in 2000, reporting: 'DiCaprio still thinks of himself as an edgy indie actor, not the Tiger Beat cover boy. "I have no connection with me during that whole Titanic phenomenon and what my face became around the world.", also commenting "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." -- All in all, he's in a very good place, in high demand and his place in the sun is assured for a long future in film.

In 'It's Good to Be Leonardo DiCaprio', this stylin', carefree and filthy-rich episode, you'll see how the young actor naturally grew into the role of a lifetime: movie star. But money's not the only green thing Leo loves. We'll show you how far he'll go for the environment, and why he owns land in three foreign counties--that he can't even live on! It's all here, in this heart-throbbin' It's Good to Be Leonardo DiCaprio. You'll find out, when you download this fabulous episode, just how compassionate Leo is, how wealthy he is, how environmentally conscious he is, and everything that makes Leonardo DiCaprio the multi-dimensional man he is.