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A recent news article said that actor and activist Harrison Ford talked to students at Arizona State University about climate change. He said people must help protect nature and stop global warming. Harrison Ford and other activists are trying to protect land, oceans, and animals through environmental work.

https://nypost.com/2026/05/20/us-news/harrison-ford-urges-arizona-state-graduates-to-extend-social-justice-during-commencement-speech

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Billie Eilish just wrapped her 14-month tour Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour and it might have been the first somewhat climate friendly world tour. Merch made from recycled materials and vegan dishes were sold at the concert venues all around the world and the venue screens displayed statistics about how our everyday behaviours impact the climate. More than 30 venues launched or expanded their envinmental projects as a result of the tour. James Cameron wanted to direct a film about the world tour so he joined Eilish on tour and together they decided that the film should pay extra attention to the sustainability issues in the music industry.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/billie-eilish-sustainable-green-tour

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Jane Fonda said that even after being diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, she didn’t want to stop speaking out about climate change. She said filming 80 for Brady was a fun break, but she stayed focused on fighting fossil fuel projects and joining climate protests. She also said she believes pollution and chemicals linked to fossil fuels can increase the risk of cancer.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/politics-news/jane-fonda-climate-change-non-hodgkins-lymphoma-80-for-brady-1235268990/

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The article is about the launch of the Jane Fonda Gender and Climate Justice Fund in New York. The fund supports women’s groups that protect nature and support climate action. Jane Fonda and WEDO say women are important in building a fair energy transition.

Nature, forests, ecosystems and the climate are being protected. Women-led organizations and local communities are protecting them by promoting renewable energy, defending land and forests. Jane Fonda supports this work through climate activism and funding for grassroots environmental initiatives.

https://wedo.org/resources/moving-money-where-it-matters-wedo-and-the-jane-fonda-gender-and-climate-justice-fund

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Moving Money Where It Matters: WEDO and the Jane Fonda Gender and Climate Justice Fund — WEDO

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On September 24, during Climate Week 2025 in New York, partners gathered to mark the launch of the Jane Fonda Gender and Climate Justice Fund.

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Long known for her work in film and television, Jane Fonda became a defining voice in climate activism through Fire Drill Fridays. She launched this weekly protest series in 2019 in Washington, DC, to galvanize public demand for urgent federal climate action. Through acts of bold civil disobedience, she directly challenged the fossil fuel industry and amplified calls for environmental justice.

8 Celebrity Activists Making a Big Climate Impact

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Jason Momoa is helping to protect oceans, coral reefs, water resources, and the sacred lands of indigenous people in Hawaii. He raises awareness about plastic pollution and climate change through social media, films, and environmental organizations. He also created ManaNalu, a company that uses recyclable aluminum bottles instead of single-use plastic.

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Mark Ruffalo became a climate activist after energy companies threatened to drill a fracking well near his family farm in upstate new york. Fracking is the environmentally harmful process of injecting a chemical-laced fluid into rock formations deep underground to extract methane gas, a potent climate pollutant. Fighting against fracking in his hometown led Mark to co-found the solutions project, a philanthropy that for 12 years has been dedicated to funding and amplifying community-led, equity-focused projects to cut climate pollution and build people power.

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A recent article explained how Emma Watson supports sustainable fashion and environmental protection. She encourages people to choose eco-friendly clothes and reduce waste in the fashion industry. Nature is being protected through sustainable brands and climate awareness.

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Emma Watson is an actress that has focused on environmental sustainability among other things she does. She was a part of the sustainable fashion brand, Eco Age, in 2020. Her commitment to sustainability led her to become a part of the G7 Climate And Environment ministers' meeting where she advocated for stronger measures against climate change.

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Prince William hosted a roundtable welcoming Indigenous peoples' leaders and political figures. The point of the meeting was to highlight the work of Indigenous people in safe-guarding wildlife and climate. The roundtable was hosted as a part of his activities during London's Climate Action Week.

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William, Prince of Wales (William Arthur Philip Louis; born 21 June 1982), is the heir apparent to the British throne. He is the elder son of King Charles III and Diana, Princess of Wales.

William was born during the reign of his paternal grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II. He was educated at Wetherby School, Ludgrove School and Eton College. He earned a Master of Arts degree in geography at the University of St Andrews where he met his future wife, Catherine Middleton. They have three children: George, Charlotte and Louis.

After university, William trained at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst prior to serving with the Blues and Royals. In 2008 he graduated from the Royal Air Force College Cranwell, joining the RAF Search and Rescue Force in early 2009. He served as a full-time pilot with the East Anglian Air Ambulance for two years from July 2015.

William performs official duties and engagements on behalf of the monarch. He is patron of multiple charitable and military organisations, including the Tusk Trust, Centrepoint, The Passage, Wales Air Ambulance and London's Air Ambulance Charity. Through the Royal Foundation, his work focuses on mental health, conservation, homelessness, and emergency workers. In 2020 William launched the Earthshot Prize, a £50 million initiative to incentivise environmental solutions.

William was made Duke of Cambridge immediately before his wedding in April 2011. He became Duke of Cornwall and Duke of Rothesay upon his father's accession to the throne on 8 September 2022. The following day he was made Prince of Wales.

William was born at 9:03pm on 21 June 1982 at St Mary's Hospital, London, as the first child of Charles, Prince of Wales (later King Charles III), and his first wife, Diana, Princess of Wales, during the reign of his paternal grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II. He was the first direct heir to the British throne to be born in a hospital. Buckingham Palace announced his name - William Arthur Philip Louis - on 28 June. William was christened in the Music Room of Buckingham Palace by the then Archbishop of Canterbury, Robert Runcie, on 4 August, coinciding with the 82nd birthday of his paternal great-grandmother, Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother.

William was the first child born to a Prince and Princess of Wales since Prince John was born to Prince George and Princess Mary (later King George V and Queen Mary) in July 1905. When he was nine months old, William accompanied his parents on their 1983 tour of Australia and New Zealand, as his first trip overseas. It also marked the first time that a royal baby was taken on an overseas tour. Family photographs of William and his parents on the grounds of Government House in Auckland, New Zealand, received significant global coverage, and have been identified as a major reason why the Buzzy Bee, the toy which William was playing with, became a New Zealand cultural icon.

With his parents in Auckland playing with a Buzzy Bee during the 1983 tour of New Zealand

His younger brother, Prince Harry, was born in September 1984. Both of them were raised at Kensington Palace in London, and Highgrove House in Gloucestershire.

Known informally as "Wills" within his family, William was nicknamed "Willy" by his brother and "Wombat" by his mother. Diana wished her sons to obtain broader and more typical life experiences beyond royal upbringing, taking them to Walt Disney World, McDonald's, AIDS clinics and shelters for the homeless. The biographer Robert Lacey asserts that William, described as a "rambunctious" and "bratty" child, became "more reflective" with a "noticeably quiet character" as he began boarding school. Diana was reported to have described William as "my little wise old man" on whom she started to rely as her confidant by his early teens.

William carried out his first public engagement while accompanying his parents on a visit to Llandaff on Saint David's Day in 1991. He and Harry travelled to Canada on an official visit with their parents in 1991 and again with Charles in 1998. William's parents divorced in 1996. Diana died in a car accident in the early hours of 31 August 1997. William, then aged 15, together with his 12-year-old brother and their father, was staying at Balmoral Castle at the time. The following morning, Charles informed William and Harry of their mother's death. William was reportedly uncertain as to whether he should walk behind his mother's coffin during the funeral procession. His grandfather Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, told him: "If you don't walk, I think you'll regret it later. If I walk, will you walk with me?". At the funeral, William and Harry walked alongside their father, grandfather, and maternal uncle, Charles Spencer, 9th Earl Spencer, behind the funeral cortège from Kensington Palace to Westminster Abbey.

After his mother's death, William stated that he was "in a state of shock for many years". He and Harry inherited the majority of the £12.9 million left by their mother on their respective 30th birthdays, a figure that had grown to £10 million each by 2014. In 2014 the brothers inherited their mother's wedding dress along with many other of her personal possessions including dresses, diamond tiaras, jewels, letters and paintings. They also received the original lyrics and score of " Candle in the Wind" by Bernie Taupin and Elton John as performed by the latter at Diana's funeral. In 2002 reported that William and Harry would also share £4.9 million from trust funds established by their great-grandmother on their respective 21st birthdays, as well as £8 million upon their respective 40th birthdays.

William was educated at private schools. He started at Jane Mynors' nursery school and the pre-preparatory Wetherby School (both in London) before continuing at Ludgrove School near Wokingham, Berkshire. At Ludgrove, William was active in sport before being admitted to Eton College, where he studied geography, biology, and history of art at A-Level. He also took part in several sports.

The decision to send William to Eton broke with royal tradition, as his father and grandfather had both attended Gordonstoun. The royal family and the press agreed William would be allowed to study free from media intrusion in exchange for periodic official updates. In June 1991, William was admitted to the Royal Berkshire Hospital after being accidentally hit on the forehead by a fellow pupil wielding a golf club. He suffered a depressed fracture of the skull and was operated on at Great Ormond Street Hospital, resulting in a permanent scar. The incident received widespread media attention. After leaving Eton, William took a gap year. He joined British Army training exercises in Belize, worked on English dairy farms, and visited Africa. He also spent ten weeks in southern Chile with Raleigh International, taking part in community projects and teaching English.

In 2001 William enrolled at the University of St Andrews in Scotland. Similar to his time at Eton, the media agreed not to invade his privacy, and students were warned not to leak stories to the press. William embarked on a degree course in art history but later changed his main subject to geography. He focused his dissertation on the Indian Ocean's Rodrigues coral reefs and graduated with an undergraduate Master of Arts (MA Hons) degree with upper second class honours in 2005. While at university, he represented the Scottish national universities water polo team at the Celtic Nations tournament in 2004. He was reportedly known as "Steve" by other students to avoid any journalists realising his identity.

Early appointments and duties

At the age of 21, William became a Counsellor of State. In July 2005, he undertook his first solo public engagements on an overseas tour of New Zealand, travelling to participate in World War II commemorations. In 2009 the Queen set up a private office for William and Harry with David Manning as their adviser. Manning accompanied William on his first official tour in January 2010 as the latter toured Auckland and Wellington. The visit spurred crowds of "many thousands", with positive public reception compared to that of his mother's 1983 tour. In March 2011, William visited Christchurch, New Zealand, shortly after the earthquake, and spoke at the memorial service at Hagley Park on behalf of his grandmother. He also travelled to Australia to visit areas affected by flooding in Queensland and Victoria.

Before attending Sandhurst, William did a three-week internship at several institutions, including the Bank of England, the London Stock Exchange and Lloyd's of London. To prepare for his eventual management of the Duchy of Cornwall, in 2014, he entered St John's College, Cambridge to undertake an executive agriculture management degree run by the Cambridge Programme for Sustainability Leadership (CPSL), of which his father is patron. In April 2019, Kensington Palace announced that William had completed a three-week internship at MI5, MI6 and GCHQ, during which he was tasked with monitoring extreme Islamist terror cells, identifying potential threats abroad, and observing code breaking technology.

Military and air ambulance service

In Royal Air Force uniform at the 2010 Trooping the Colour

Having decided on a military career, William was admitted to the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in January 2006; his admission was based on successfully completing a 44-week course as an Officer Cadet which led to his commission as a British Army officer. As "Lieutenant Wales" - a name based on his father's then title Prince of Wales - he followed his brother into the Blues and Royals in December that year as a second lieutenant after which he spent five months training for the post at Bovington Camp in Dorset.

Despite the Queen's approval for William to serve on the frontline, his position as second-in-line to the throne at the time cast doubts on his chances of seeing combat. Plans by the Ministry of Defence to send William to Southern Iraq leaked and the government eventually decided against sending him as it would endanger both his life and the lives of people around him if he was targeted. William instead trained in the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force, obtaining his commission as a sub-lieutenant in the former and a flying officer in the latter, both broadly equivalent to the army rank of lieutenant. After completing his training, he undertook an attachment with the Royal Air Force at RAF Cranwell.

Upon completing the course he was presented with his RAF wings by his father, who had received his own wings after training at Cranwell. During this secondment, William flew to Afghanistan in a C-17 Globemaster that repatriated the body of Trooper Robert Pearson. William was then seconded to train with the Royal Navy. He then completed an accelerated Naval Officer training course at the Britannia Royal Naval College. Whilst serving on HMS Iron Duke in July 2008, William participated in a £40m drug seizure in the Atlantic, north-east of Barbados. He was part of the crew on the Lynx helicopter which helped seize 900 kg of cocaine from a speedboat.

In January 2009, William transferred his commission to the RAF and was promoted to Flight Lieutenant. He trained to become a helicopter pilot with the RAF's Search and Rescue Force. As part of his training across all branches of the military in 2009, he spent up to six weeks with the Special Air Service, the Special Boat Service, and the Special Reconnaissance Regiment. In January 2010, he graduated from the Defence Helicopter Flying School at RAF Shawbury. In the same month, he transferred to the Search and Rescue Training Unit at RAF Valley, Anglesey, to receive training on the Sea King search and rescue helicopter; he graduated in September 2010. This made him the first member of the British royal family since Henry VII to live in Wales.

William's first rescue mission as co-pilot of a RAF Sea King was in response to an emergency call from Liverpool Coastguard in October 2010. In November 2011, he participated in a search-and-rescue mission involving a cargo ship that was sinking in the Irish Sea; William, as a co-pilot, helped rescue two sailors. He was deployed to the Falkland Islands for a six-week tour with No. 1564 Flight from February to March 2012. The Argentine government condemned William's deployment to the islands close to the 30th anniversary of the beginning of the Falklands War as a "provocative act". In June 2012, he gained a qualification to be captain or pilot in command of a Sea King rather than a co-pilot. His active service as an RAF search-and-rescue pilot ended in September 2013. He conducted 156 search and rescue operations, which resulted in 149 people being rescued. He later became patron of the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight.

In July 2015, William began working full-time as a pilot with the East Anglian Air Ambulance (EAAA) based at Cambridge Airport, which he felt was a natural progression from his previous search-and-rescue role. He donated his full salary to the EAAA charity. William required a civil pilot's licence and further training before being permitted to begin his role. He underwent part of his training at Norwich Airport. William described working irregular shifts and dealing mostly with critical care cases. He also discussed the impact of witnessing intensive trauma and bereavement on his mental health and personal life. The BBC has written that William was "exposed to the National Health Service in a way that no other senior royal has been or possibly ever will be."

William left his position with EAAA in July 2017 to assume full-time royal duties. After supporting an anniversary campaign for London's Air Ambulance Charity in 2019, he became the charity's official patron in March 2020. In May 2020, he granted permission to the charity to use Kensington Palace's private lawn to refuel during the COVID-19 pandemic. In February 2023, he became patron of the Wales Air Ambulance charity.

Personal life

Relationship with Catherine Middleton

With Catherine on the Buckingham Palace balcony on their wedding day

In 2001 William met Catherine Middleton, while they were students in residence at St Salvator's Hall, at the University of St Andrews, and they became close friends. She reportedly caught William's attention at a charity fashion show at the university in 2002. During their second year, William shared a flat with Middleton and two other friends. The couple began dating in 2003. From 2003 to 2005 they both resided at Balgove House on the Strathtyrum estate with two roommates. They began staying at a cottage on the Balmoral estate known as Tam-Na-Ghar, which was a gift from the Queen Mother to William shortly before her death. The property has remained a private retreat for the couple in subsequent years. In 2004 the couple briefly split but reconciled soon afterwards.

The relationship was followed closely by the tabloid press. Media attention became so intense that William asked the press to keep their distance from Middleton. In December 2006, Middleton and her family attended William's passing out parade at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. In April 2007, William and Middleton were reported to have split. Middleton and her family attended the Concert for Diana three months later; the couple were subsequently reported to have "rekindled their relationship". She also attended the Order of the Garter procession at Windsor Castle in June 2008, where William was made a Royal Knight of the Garter. In June 2010, the couple moved into a cottage on the Bodorgan Estate in Anglesey, Wales, where they resided until 2014.

Marriage and children

The couple became engaged in October 2010, at a remote alpine cabin on Mount Kenya, during a 10-day trip to the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy to celebrate William's passing the RAF helicopter search and rescue course. Clarence House announced their engagement on 16 November. William gave his fiancée his mother's engagement ring. The wedding took place in Westminster Abbey on 29 April 2011. The global audience for the wedding ranged around 300 million, whereas 26 million watched the event live in Britain alone.

William and Catherine used Nottingham Cottage as their London residence until 2013, when £4.5 million renovations completed at Apartment 1A at Kensington Palace, which continues to be their official residence in the capital. The couple were given the country house Anmer Hall, on the Sandringham House estate, as a wedding gift from the Queen, where they lived from 2015 to 2017. Kensington Palace was the couple's primary residence until 2022; Adelaide Cottage in Windsor is their current residence.

Catherine was admitted on 22 July 2013 to the Lindo Wing of St Mary's Hospital, London, where Prince William had been delivered. Later that day, she gave birth to Prince George. She was admitted on 2 May 2015 to the same hospital where she gave birth to Princess Charlotte the same day. Their third child, Prince Louis, was born on 23 April 2018. William and Catherine have owned two English Cocker Spaniels, named Lupo and Orla.

Duke of Cambridge

William was created Duke of Cambridge, Earl of Strathearn, and Baron Carrickfergus on the day of his wedding in April 2011. He and Catherine toured Canada that summer. Nicholas Witchell, writing for BBC News, described the tour as an "unqualified success", noting the couple's relaxed approach-from tree planting to street hockey-charmed the public and bolstered support for the monarchy. The couple served as ambassadors for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, during multiple sporting events throughout the games.

In September 2013, William and Catherine visited Singapore, Malaysia, Tuvalu, and the Solomon Islands as part of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee celebrations. William hosted his first investiture ceremony at Buckingham Palace in October that year. In April 2014, he and Catherine undertook a royal tour to New Zealand and Australia accompanied by their son George. In August that year, the couple along with Prince Harry represented the royal family at World War I commemorations in Belgium. In December, the couple visited New York and Washington DC, where William made a speech at the World Bank condemning the illegal trade in wildlife.

In 2015 and 2016 William embarked on various visits of Asian countries, including Japan, China, Bhutan and India; he was the first royal to visit mainland China in almost three decades, with the press referring to William's diplomacy as "deft" and "polished". In response to media allegations of being "work-shy", he asserted his commitment to his duties, emphasising his dedication to fatherhood and his role in air ambulance work. Countries visited by William and Catherine in 2017 included France, Poland, Germany, and Belgium. In January 2018 the couple visited Sweden and Norway. The visits were, like others, requested by the Foreign Office, and interpreted to benefit UK-European relations post Brexit. In June 2018, William toured Jordan, Israel and Palestine.

With Catherine greeting members of the public on their visit to Sweden in 2018

William and Catherine toured Pakistan in October 2019, which was the royal family's first visit to the country in 13 years. The tour was a success, helping promote diplomatic relations with Pakistan while also reflecting the couple's personal interests in climate change and the significance of quality education. In November 2020, it was reported that William had tested positive for COVID-19 in April but decided not to alert the media to 'avoid alarming the nation'. The Daily Telegraph reported he had been "very ill" and had isolated away from his family; other sources said that he had not been seriously ill, not bed-ridden and working for most of the time. In December that year, the couple embarked on a tour of England, Scotland, and Wales via the British royal train "to pay tribute to the inspiring work" of communities and charities in 2020. Boris Johnson expressed his support, while Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon criticised the tour, citing travel restrictions; local governments were consulted before planning the tour.

In William's capacity as Lord High Commissioner to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, he and Catherine toured the country in May 2021. The couple attended the G7 summit for the first time in June 2021 in Cornwall. In March 2022, they embarked on a tour of Belize, the Bahamas and Jamaica as part of the Queen's Platinum Jubilee celebrations. Reparations for slavery emerged as a major demand of public protesters during the couple's visit. During the unveiling of the National Windrush Monument in London, William described the tour as "an opportunity to reflect" and condemned racism faced by both members of the Windrush generation and British minorities in 2022. In May 2022, he attended the State Opening of Parliament for the first time as a counsellor of state, where his father delivered the Queen's Speech on behalf of Elizabeth II.

Prince of Wales

Queen Elizabeth II died on 8 September 2022, and William's father succeeded as Charles III. William, now heir apparent, was created Prince of Wales by his father on 9 September. Controversy regarding the title became a topic of public debate in Wales. Senedd Llywydd Elin Jones said an investiture was not constitutionally required and likely unnecessary, a view echoed by Kensington Palace, which stated it was "not on the table". As the eldest son of the British monarch, William inherited the Duchy of Cornwall, a £1.3 billion private estate established in 1337 to provide a private income to the monarch's eldest son. The duchy paid him £23.6 million in his first full year as Duke of Cornwall.

With Catherine and Keir Starmer at a Holocaust Memorial Day ceremony, January 2025

William and Catherine visited Anglesey and Swansea on 27 September 2022, which marked their first visit to Wales since becoming Prince and Princess of Wales. In February 2023, William and Catherine visited Falmouth, marking their first visit to the region since becoming Duke and Duchess of Cornwall. In October 2023, William and Catherine condemned the Hamas-led attack on Israel. In February 2024, he visited the British Red Cross headquarters, met aid workers assisting civilians in the Israel-Gaza conflict, and issued a government-approved call to end the fighting. Later that month, William pulled out at the last moment from the thanksgiving service of his godfather, Constantine II of Greece, due to an undisclosed "personal matter". In December 2024, William attended the official reopening of the Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris during which he greeted the president-elect of the United States, Donald Trump, and later held a private meeting with him to discuss the relationship between the United Kingdom and the United States. In April 2025, William attended the funeral of Pope Francis in place of his father. In October 2025, William appeared on the Apple TV+ series The Reluctant Traveler, described by commentators as his "most open and authentic" interview, in which he discussed his family life and the need for the monarchy to remain "fit for purpose".

Charity work

William became aware of HIV/AIDS in the mid-1990s when he accompanied his mother and brother on visits to shelters and clinics for patients. In January 2005, he and Harry volunteered at a British Red Cross aid distribution centre to pack emergency supplies for countries affected by the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami. Later, that December, William spent two weeks in North Wales with Mountain Rescue England and Wales (MREW). In May 2007, he became patron of MREW and president of the Royal Marsden Hospital, the latter of which was a role previously held by his mother. In January 2025, William was announced as the hospital's joint royal patron alongside his wife, Catherine.

In July 2007, William and Harry organised the Concert for Diana, in memory of their mother, which benefitted the charities and patronages of Diana, William, and Harry. In October 2008, the brothers embarked on the 1,000 mile eight-day Enduro Africa motorbike ride across South Africa to raise money for Sentebale, UNICEF and the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund. In 2010 William became a patron of 100 Women in Hedge Funds' philanthropic initiatives for the following three years until 2012. The same year, he succeeded Lord Attenborough as the fifth president of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA). BAFTA has since set up the Prince William BAFTA Bursary to help junior creatives in the UK to cover costs needed to progress in their careers in film, TV or games. In March 2011, he and Catherine set up a gift fund held by The Foundation of Prince William and Prince Harry to allow well-wishers to donate money to charities supporting the armed forces, children, the elderly, art, sport and conservation in lieu of gifts. The foundation was renamed The Royal Foundation of The Prince and Princess of Wales in September 2022.

Humanitarian causes

In March 2020, William appeared in a video for the National Emergencies Trust, launching a fundraising appeal to support charities during the COVID-19 pandemic. In April 2020, he officially became patron of the organisation.

In December 2020, William and Catherine became joint patrons of NHS Charities Together. In February 2021, he visited a vaccination centre in King's Lynn and later encouraged use of the vaccine, denouncing false information that could cause vaccine hesitancy. In September 2021, he reportedly helped evacuate a Sandhurst-trained Afghan officer and his family from Kabul during the 2021 Taliban offensive. In March 2022 amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine, William and Catherine made a donation to help the refugees. In February 2023, they donated to the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) which was helping victims of the 2023 Turkey-Syria earthquake. In July 2023, William became patron of the appeal to launch The Fleming Centre, driving a new global movement to tackle antimicrobial resistance. In July 2024, he and Catherine made donations to help victims of Hurricane Beryl. In January 2025, William was announced as patron of the College of Paramedics.

Conservation

At a United for Wildlife Taskforce meeting at Buckingham Palace, 2017

William became patron of the Tusk Trust in December 2005, a charity that works towards conserving wildlife and initiating community development across Africa. He carried out his first official duty with the Trust in launching a 5,000-mile (8,000 km) bike ride across the African continent in April 2008. Later, William helped with launching the Tusk Conservation Awards, which have been presented to selected environmental activists annually since 2013. In June 2010, he and his brother visited Botswana, Lesotho, and South Africa, undertaking projects relating to wildlife, sport, and young children. In 2013 he succeeded his grandfather, the Duke of Edinburgh, as president of Fields in Trust and transitioned into the role of patron in 2024. He established the United for Wildlife Transport Taskforce in December 2014, with the goal of reducing global illegal wildlife trade. In 2014 Jane Goodall stated that William had expressed the view that all ivory in the royal collection needed to be destroyed. William has occasionally commented on the effects of overpopulation on the wildlife of Africa, but his remarks have been criticised in the media for not taking resource consumption and population density into consideration.

After two years of research, William launched the Earthshot Prize in October 2020, designed to provide funding and incentive for environmental solutions over the next decade. Following the launch, he gave a TED Talk on environmental protection and conservation as part of the TED Countdown climate change initiative. Later that month, William took over the patronages of Fauna and Flora International and the British Trust for Ornithology, passed on from his grandparents. In the same month, he appeared in an ITV documentary titled Prince William: A Planet For Us All to discuss environmental issues.

In 2021 William made a private donation to the Thin Green Line Foundation, which provides grants for the relatives of conservation park rangers that are killed every year while protecting wildlife. In July 2022, he condemned the murder of South African park ranger Anton Mzimba and asked for the responsible parties to "be brought to justice". William has called for stricter penalties for poachers and wildlife traffickers, having spoken at the Illegal Wildlife Trade Conference in 2018 and supported a court sentencing in the United States to a man responsible for trafficking rhinoceros horns and elephant ivory in 2022.

LGBT rights

William has spoken out for LGBT rights as part of his work against cyberbullying, stating the importance of being "proud of the person you are" and discussing the effects of online abuse and discrimination. In 2016 he appeared in the July issue of and became the first member of the royal family to be featured on the cover of a gay magazine. He was recognised at the British LGBT Awards in May 2017. William hosted a commemorative Pride Month discussion with mental health charity volunteers at the Royal Vauxhall Tavern in June 2023.

Mental health

Since 2009, William has been patron of Child Bereavement UK, which provides support to children and families who have lost a loved one. In 2016 the Royal Foundation launched multiple mental health initiatives, including Heads Together, a campaign led by William, Catherine and Harry to de-stigmatise mental health. Legacy programmes include Mental Health at Work, launched in September 2018 to change the approach to workplace mental health in the United Kingdom, as well as Heads Up, launched in May 2019 in partnership with the Football Association, utilising football to affect the conversation surrounding mental health in adults. Later that month, William and Catherine, together with William's brother Harry and sister-in-law Meghan, launched Shout, the United Kingdom's first 24/7 text messaging service for those who suffer from mental issues. William later volunteered on the crisis helpline during the COVID-19 lockdowns to provide support via text message. He attributes his interest in mental health to his experiences as an air ambulance pilot, his work with the homeless, veterans' welfare, and his wife's anti-addiction advocacy.

In March 2020, William and Catherine began supporting a new mental health initiative by the Public Health England agency amidst the coronavirus pandemic. In April 2020, the couple announced Our Frontline, an initiative providing mental health support to emergency medical workers. In September 2020, William established the Emergency Responders Senior Leaders Board, commissioned by the foundation to research the mental health and wellbeing of emergency responders, in partnership with King's College London and the Open University. In May 2021 and 2022, William and Catherine voiced the Mental Health Minute message, which was broadcast on every radio station in the United Kingdom on and asked people to help individuals around them that suffer from loneliness. In October 2022, to mark the World Mental Health Day, the couple took over and interviewed four guests on topics related to mental health. In September 2023, William unveiled two organizations that had partnered with the Duchy of Cornwall to raise better mental well-being and provide mental health services for all its tenants. In October 2023 and to mark World Mental Health Day, he and Catherine took part in a forum for young people in Birmingham, alongside BBC Radio 1 and charity called The Mix, called Exploring our Emotional Worlds continuing their longstanding work to promote mental well-being. In May 2024, he announced a three-year funding package for the charity We Are Farming Minds to provide mental health support for farmers on the Duchy of Cornwall lands. In December 2024, he and Catherine announced that they were jointly funding a pilot scheme with the charity Norfolk and Waveney Mind to offer extra support for rural and farming communities on the Sandringham estate. In March 2025, William was announced as patron of We Are Farming Minds.

Homelessness

In September 2005, William became patron of Centrepoint, a charity that assists the homeless. In December 2009, as part of a Centrepoint-organised event, the prince spent the night in a sleeping bag near Blackfriars Bridge to raise awareness of the experiences of homeless youth. He opened their new facility, Apprenticeship House, in November 2019 to mark their 50th anniversary.

William has been patron of homelessness charity The Passage since 2019 after first visiting the centre in 1993 with his mother. In October 2020, he wrote the introduction to the organisation's 40th-anniversary fundraising cookbook, discussing the importance of helping victims of homelessness during the COVID-19 pandemic. In December 2020, William volunteered at the charity to help prepare donation bags for homeless residents in emergency hotel accommodations and spoke with residents about their experiences. In 2022 and 2023 he was spotted selling copies of The Big Issue, usually sold by homeless and unemployed people to earn money.

In June 2023, William launched Homewards after two years of development, with aims to end homelessness in the United Kingdom. The five-year initiative aims to tackle homelessness in six pilot locations across the United Kingdom with an initial seed funding allocated for each area by the Royal Foundation, working with existing private sector and grassroots charity partners. The project focuses on early intervention and providing housing to families before other issues, such as abuse and joblessness, are addressed. In February 2024, William, in partnership with Cornish charity St Petrocs, announced plans for building 24 homes on Duchy of Cornwall land in Nansledan to provide temporary accommodation for people experiencing homelessness in the area. Future plans include building more than 400 social rented homes and a further 475 affordable dwellings in South East Faversham.

William often plays polo to raise money for charity. He is a fan of football, and supports the English club Aston Villa. He became president of England's Football Association (FA) in May 2006 and vice-royal patron of the Welsh Rugby Union (WRU) in February 2007, supporting the Queen as patron. The same year, the WRU's decision to name the Prince William Cup drew criticism as some believed it would have been more appropriate to name it after Ray Gravell. William became patron of the WRU and the FA in 2016 and 2024, respectively.

In December 2010, William, alongside David Cameron, attended a meeting with FIFA vice-president Chung Mong-joon at which Chung suggested a vote-trading deal for the right to host the 2018 World Cup in England. The English delegation reported the suggestion to FIFA, considering it a violation of anti-collusion rules. In 2011 William, as president of the English FA, voted against Australia's 2022 FIFA bid and instead voted for South Korea, despite being Australia's future heir. In 2020 he voted against the joint Australia-New Zealand 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup bid and instead voted for Colombia.

In February 2021, following an investigation into racism directed at Marcus Rashford, William released a statement as president of the FA, denouncing the "racist abuse... whether on the pitch, in the stands, or on social media" as "despicable" and stating that "we all have a responsibility" to create an environment of tolerance and accountability. In April 2021, William criticised the planned breakaway competition The Super League, adding that he "share[d] the concerns of fans about the proposed Super League and the damage it risks causing to the game we love." In July 2021, he condemned racist attacks against England football players following their loss at the UEFA Euro 2020 finale.

In May 2007, William became patron of the English Schools' Swimming Association. In 2012, together with his wife Catherine and brother Harry, William launched Coach Core. The program was set up following the 2012 Olympics and provides apprenticeship opportunities for people who desire to pursue a career as a professional coach. In May 2020, he appeared in a BBC One Documentary titled Football, Prince William and Our Mental Health as a part of a campaign to promote men to discuss their mental issues using football as a common medium.

Both William and Harry are enthusiastic motorcyclists; William owns a Ducati 1198 S Corse. In May 2014, William, like his father and grandfather, became president of the British Sub-Aqua Club (BSAC). He also took part in a bandy event in Stockholm in January 2018.

In November 2022, William was criticised by Welsh football followers and Welsh actor Michael Sheen for holding the Prince of Wales title whilst having affiliations with the England national football team, particularly after he presented jerseys to the squad in advance of the 2022 FIFA World Cup in which both Wales and England were placed in the same Group B. William commented that he had supported the England football team from a very young age, but happily supported Welsh rugby union, of which he is patron, over England. In August 2023, he was criticised in segments of the press and social media for not attending 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup final in Australia as president of the FA.

Public image

William in 2009

William has been one of the most popular members of the British royal family since his birth. Having lived a public life since birth, he was regarded as a "heartthrob" and eligible as a young adult, similar to his father. Ruth La Ferla of The New York Times contrasted William's "refined" and "polite" appeal to Leonardo DiCaprio's "bad-boy" popularity. Following his marriage, William's public image assumed a more "staid" and fatherly demeanour, having "settled into a stable domestic order".

Anne McElvoy has described William's public personality as a "genial presence" with a "tougher side", alongside his mother's "inimitable style". Much of his royal duties focus on "big bet" projects, rather than "plaques and patronages". In a 2016 interview, William said his aim was to keep the royal family relevant over the next 20 years. William and Catherine's close partnership has been described by as a "good double act" with both valuing normality, privacy, and control.

In 2011 magazine listed him as one of the most influential people in the world alongside his then-newlywed wife Catherine. In August 2023, Gallup, Inc. named him as the most popular public figure in the US after conducting a survey that asked for people's views on 15 prominent individuals. He was found to be the most popular member of the royal family by YouGov in December 2022 and September 2023, and as the second most popular in April 2024. In December 2024, The Daily Telegraph included William in its annual list of best-dressed celebrities. In 2025 he was listed alongside Catherine on the inaugural Time 100 Philanthropy list; that year the couple also topped 's social power index.

The death of Diana, Princess of Wales while being chased by the paparazzi in 1997 has shaped William and Catherine's guarded stance towards the media. They have regularly asked for privacy when off-duty.

In 2005 William spoke with the ITV reporter Tom Bradby and concluded that it was likely that their voicemails were being accessed. An investigation under then Deputy Assistant Commissioner Peter Clarke concluded that the compromised voice mail accounts belonged to William's aides, including Jamie Lowther-Pinkerton, and not the prince himself. However, Clive Goodman later stated that he had hacked William's phone on 35 occasions. Andy Coulson, the editor of News of the World from 2003 to 2007, apologised to William and his brother for invading their privacy, accepting "ultimate responsibility" for Goodman's actions. William later sued News Group Newspapers, publisher of News of the World and , which resulted in an out-of-court settlement in 2020. He and Harry brought a private claim through mutual solicitors, but Harry later pursued it separately with a new one.

At the time of Middleton's 25th birthday in January 2007, William issued a statement expressing that the level of media intrusion had become intolerable. In October that year, he condemned the "aggressive pursuit" by photographers as the couple left a London nightclub. The Press Complaints Commission warned editors against publishing images obtained through harassment; the Daily Mail, Daily Mirror and Daily Express complied, while The Sun ran shots taken before their car departed. In April 2009, William's lawyers secured an apology from the Daily Star over a false claim he had "wrecked" a $2 million training aircraft.

In September 2012, the French edition of and Italian magazine published topless photos of Catherine sunbathing at Château d'Autet. William and Catherine filed a criminal complaint and civil suit in Nanterre. A court granted an injunction banning further publication and launched a criminal inquiry. In 2017 Closer was fined €100,000, and its editor and owner €45,000 each.

In October 2014, Catherine and William issued a legal warning to a freelance photographer for "harassing and following" their son George and his nanny. In August 2015, Kensington Palace released a letter describing the media's "dangerous" efforts to photograph George and Charlotte.

In November 2016, William issued a statement supporting Harry and his girlfriend, Meghan Markle, following their complaints about the press intrusion. During a visit to the BBC studios in central London in November 2018, William criticised social media companies for failing to address misinformation and their role in fuelling social problems.

In June 2022, a three-minute video of William confronting Terry Harris, a paparazzi photographer, was posted on Harris' YouTube channel. It was recorded in January 2021 and shows William arguing with Harris as the latter attempts to film William's family on a bike ride near Anmer Hall. Kensington Palace called the video a privacy breach and requested its removal from public sites.

In October 2025, Prince Harry named William and Catherine in his court case against Associated Newspapers, alleging that private investigators had been employed to collect information about them, including a payment for details of William's 21st-birthday party in 2003.

Titles, styles, and honours

Titles and styles

William has been a British prince since birth, and was known as "Prince William of Wales" until April 2011. He was created Duke of Cambridge, Earl of Strathearn and Baron Carrickfergus by Elizabeth II on the day of his wedding. The letters patent granting these titles were issued on 26 May that year.

As the eldest son of the monarch, William automatically became Duke of Cornwall, Duke of Rothesay, Earl of Carrick, Baron of Renfrew, Lord of the Isles, and Prince and Great Steward of Scotland on the accession of his father on 8 September 2022. From 8 to 9 September, William was styled as "His Royal Highness the Duke of Cornwall and Cambridge". On 9 September, Charles announced the creation of William as Prince of Wales, the traditional title for the male heir apparent to the British monarch. William has since been known as "His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales", except in Scotland, where he is called "His Royal Highness the Duke of Rothesay" instead. The letters patent formally granting him this title and that of Earl of Chester were issued on 13 February 2023.

William is a Royal Knight Companion of the Most Noble Order of the Garter (KG), an Extra Knight of the Most Ancient and Most Noble Order of the Thistle (KT), Great Master of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath (GCB), a member of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom (PC), and a Personal Aide-de-Camp (ADC) to the sovereign.

William's ancestry is royal and aristocratic. Patrilineally, he is a member of the House of Windsor and also descends from the House of Oldenburg, one of Europe's oldest royal houses. More specifically, he descends from the cadet branch known as the House of Glücksburg.

Through his mother, William descends from the Earls Spencer - a cadet branch of the Spencer family descended from the Earls of Sunderland (the senior branch are now also Dukes of Marlborough); the Barons Fermoy; and more anciently from Henry FitzRoy, 1st Duke of Grafton, and Charles Lennox, 1st Duke of Richmond - two illegitimate sons of King Charles II. As king, William would be the first monarch since the death of Anne in 1714 to undisputedly descend from Charles I and the first to descend from Charles II.

William descends matrilineally from Eliza Kewark, a housekeeper for his 18th-century ancestor Theodore Forbes - a Scottish merchant who worked for the East India Company in Surat. She is variously described in contemporary documents as "a dark-skinned native woman", "an Armenian woman from Bombay", and "Mrs. Forbesian". Genealogist William Addams Reitwiesner assumed Kewark was Armenian. In June 2013, it was reported that genealogical DNA tests on two of William's distant matrilineal cousins confirm Kewark was matrilineally of Indian descent.

Bibliography

Book contributions

Authored letters and articles

References

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William, Prince of Wales (William Arthur Philip Louis; born 21 June 1982), is the heir apparent to the British throne. He is the elder son of King Charles III and Diana, Princess of Wales. William was born during the reign of his paternal grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II.

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The Hulk actor Mark Ruffalo helps protect nature and local groundwater from pollution caused by fracking and toxic chemicals. He supports climate projects through The Solutions Project and raises awareness about environmental problems in the movie Dark Waters.

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Leonardo DiCaprio is promoting nature conservation by supporting rewilding projects in Scotland. He shared the message of the Scottish Rewilding Alliance to encourage the protection and restoration of forests, wildlife, and natural landscapes. He is helping the nature in many ways. For example rewilding, habitat restoration and public awareness campaigns.

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Actor and writer Ben Affleck's (left) ECI (Eastern Congo initiative) working with Congolese organizations has the goal of improving the economic and environmental conditions in this central African country.

Together with Matt Damon (right), Affleck produced the Film "Thirst" showcasing the dimensions of the global water crisis.

https://goldenglobes.com/articles/actors-and-environmentalism/

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Jane Fonda made a new documentary called Gaslit about pollution from gas production in Texas and Louisiana. The film explains how these projects can hurt nature, the climate, and people’s health. Fonda also says celebrities should help raise awareness about environmental problems.

Jane Fonda Talks Climate Change and Celebrity Activism in 2026

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Prince William has visited local farmers and residents to better understand the problems that have been facing the rural areas recently. He met a group of young farmers who wanted to diversify the way they use their farms. Local farmers also wanted to protect the natural landscape in Swaledale. William learned new things about the hydro plan and how it could be used across the U.K.

Peppi ja Nella

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Former Formula 1 champion Sebastian Vettel has been recognized for promoting environmental protection and sustainability. He supports efforts to preserve nature, reduce carbon emissions, and protect biodiversity through climate campaigns, public speaking, and environmentally friendly projects. The award is regarded as one of the world’s most prestigious conservation awards, with previous recipients including Sir David Attenborough, Dr Jane Goodall, HSH Prince Albert II of Monaco, Kristin Davis and Ellie Goulding.

https://news.cision.com/climate-aid-world-forum/r/formula-1-world-champion-sebastian-vettel-to-receive-one-of-the-world-s-most-prestigious-conservatio%2Cc4294292?

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Leonardo DiCaprio recently promoted climate action and environmental protection through his foundation and public campaigns. He helps protect forests, oceans, wildlife, and endangered ecosystems by funding conservation projects and supporting renewable energy initiatives. He uses his fame and social media influence to raise awareness about climate change and encourage people to protect nature.

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Leonardo DiCaprio supports environmental protection and climate action. He helps protect wildlife and nature through donations and awareness campaigns. Nature and endangered animals are being protected by Leonardo DiCaprio and environmental organizations.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonardo_DiCaprio?.

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Leonardo Wilhelm DiCaprio (; Italian: [diˈkaːprjo]; born November 11, 1974) is an American actor and film producer. Known for his work in biographical and period films, he is the recipient of numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, an Actor Award, a British Academy Film Award, an Emmy Award, a Silver Bear and three Golden Globes. His films as a leading actor have grossed $7 billion worldwide, and he has been placed eight times in annual rankings of the world's highest-paid actors.

Born in Los Angeles, DiCaprio began his career in the late 1980s by appearing in television commercials. He had a recurring role in the sitcom Parenthood (1990-1991), and had his first major film part as author Tobias Wolff in This Boy's Life (1993). He received critical acclaim and his first Academy Award nomination for playing a developmentally disabled boy in What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993). DiCaprio achieved international stardom with the star-crossed romances Romeo + Juliet (1996) and (1997). After the latter became the highest-grossing film in the world at the time, he reduced his workload for a few years. In an attempt to shed his image of a romantic hero, DiCaprio sought roles in other genres, including the 2002 crime dramas Catch Me If You Can and Gangs of New York; the latter marked the first of his many successful collaborations with director Martin Scorsese.

DiCaprio continued to gain acclaim for his performances in the biopic The Aviator (2004), the political thriller Blood Diamond (2006), the crime drama The Departed (2006), and the romantic drama Revolutionary Road (2008). He later made environmental documentaries and starred in several high-profile directors' successful projects, including the thrillers and Shutter Island (both 2010); the western Django Unchained (2012); the romantic drama The Great Gatsby (2013); the biopic The Wolf of Wall Street (2013); the survival drama The Revenant (2015), for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor; the comedy-drama Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019); the crime drama Killers of the Flower Moon (2023) and the action film One Battle After Another (2025).

DiCaprio is the founder of Appian Way Productions-a production company that has made some of his films and the documentary series Greensburg (2008-2010)-and Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation, a nonprofit organization devoted to promoting environmental awareness. A United Nations Messenger of Peace, he regularly supports charitable causes. In 2005, he was named a Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters for his contributions to the arts, and in 2016, he appeared in magazine's 100 most influential people in the world. DiCaprio was voted one of the 50 greatest actors of all time in a 2022 readers' poll by magazine.

Early life and acting background

Leonardo Wilhelm DiCaprio was born on November 11, 1974, in Los Angeles, California. He is the only child of Irmelin Indenbirken, a legal secretary from Germany, and George DiCaprio, an American underground comix artist and distributor. The couple met while attending college and moved to Los Angeles after graduating. George's paternal grandparents, Salvatore Di Caprio and Rosina Cassella, were Italian, while his mother, Olga Anne Jacobs, was of German descent. Irmelin's father, Wilhelm Indenbirken, was German, while her mother, Helene Indenbirken, was a Russian immigrant living in Germany. Some sources have falsely claimed that Helene was born in Odesa, Ukraine; there is no evidence that DiCaprio has any relatives of Ukrainian birth or heritage.

DiCaprio got his name because his pregnant mother first felt him kick while she was looking at a Leonardo da Vinci painting in the Uffizi museum in Florence, Italy. When he was a year old, his parents divorced after his father fell in love with another woman and moved out. To raise DiCaprio together, his parents moved into twin cottages with a shared garden in Echo Park, Los Angeles. DiCaprio's father lived with his girlfriend and her son, Adam Farrar, with whom DiCaprio developed a close bond. DiCaprio and his mother later moved to other neighborhoods, such as Los Feliz. He has described his parents as " bohemian in every sense of the word" and as "the people I trust the most in the world". DiCaprio has mentioned growing up poor in a neighborhood plagued with prostitution, crime and violence. He was raised Catholic. DiCaprio attended the Los Angeles Center for Enriched Studies for four years and later Seeds Elementary School. He enrolled at John Marshall High School, but disliked public school and wanted to audition for acting jobs instead. He decided to drop out of high school, and later earned a general equivalency diploma (GED).

As a child, DiCaprio wanted to become either an actor or a marine biologist. He chose to pursue acting because he enjoyed imitating people and impersonating characters, and liked seeing people's reactions to his impressions. According to DiCaprio, his interest in performing began at the age of two, when he went onstage at a performance festival and danced spontaneously to a positive response from the crowd. He was also motivated to learn acting when his stepbrother's appearance in a television commercial earned him $50,000. DiCaprio has said in interviews that his first television appearance was in the children's series Romper Room, and that he was dismissed from the show for being disruptive. The show's host has denied that any children were removed from the show in this way. At age 11, DiCaprio almost quit acting to pursue breakdancing, after winning second place in a breakdancing competition in his mother's native Germany. Starting at age 14, he appeared in several commercials for Matchbox cars, which he calls his first role. DiCaprio also appeared in commercials for Kraft Singles, Bubble Yum, and Apple Jacks. In 1989, he played the role of Glen in two episodes of the television show The New Lassie.

At the beginning of his career, DiCaprio had difficulty finding an agent. When he finally found one, the agent suggested that he change his name to Lenny Williams to appeal to American audiences, which he refused to do. DiCaprio remained jobless for a year and a half, even despite 100auditions. Following this frustrating lack of success, DiCaprio was about to give up acting but his father convinced him to persevere, and he continued to audition. After a talent agent (who knew a friend of his mother's) recommended him to casting directors, DiCaprio secured roles in about 20commercials.

By the early1990s, DiCaprio began acting regularly on television, beginning with a role in the pilot of The Outsiders (1990) and one episode of the soap opera Santa Barbara (1990), in which he played an alcoholic teenager. Following this, DiCaprio was cast in Parenthood, a series based on the 1989 comedy film. To prepare for the role of Garry Buckman, a troubled teen, he analyzed Joaquin Phoenix's performance in the original film. His work that year earned him two nominations at the 12th Youth in Film Awards-Best Young Actor in a Daytime Series for Santa Barbara and Best Young Actor Starring in a New Television Series for Parenthood. Around this time, he was a contestant on the children's game show ; on the show he performed several stunts, including catching the fish inside a small pool using only his teeth.

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 -a part he later described as "your average, no-depth, standard kid with blond hair". DiCaprio has stated that he prefers not to remember Critters 3, viewing it as "possibly one of the worst films of all time" and the kind of role he wanted to avoid in the future. Later in 1991, he became a recurring cast member on the sitcom Growing Pains, playing Luke Brower, a homeless boy who is taken in by the show's central family. Co-star Joanna Kerns recalls DiCaprio being "especially intelligent and disarming for his age" but she noted that he was also mischievous and jocular on set, and often made fun of his co-stars. 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 .

Lasse Hallström directed DiCaprio in What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993), for which he earned his first Academy Award nomination.

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. Bilge Ebiri of Rolling Stone found that the powerful bond between Barkin and DiCaprio elevated the film, praising DiCaprio's portrayal of his character's complex growth from a rebellious teen to an independent young man. This Boy's Life was the first film that gained him recognition. DiCaprio's first talk show appearance was in 1992 on the Looseleaf Report, hosted by Victoria Looseleaf, who later wrote a 1998 (unauthorized) biography on him.

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. To ensure authenticity in his portrayal, DiCaprio studied similarly impaired children and their mannerisms, and Hallström allowed him to create the character using his own researched attributes. The film became a critical success. 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. Although the film failed commercially, it has been included in the catalog of the Warner Archive Collection, which releases classic and cult films from Warner Bros.' library on home video. 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 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.

DiCaprio at a press conference for The Beach in 2000

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". A writer for Vanity Fair in 2008 labeled them "Hollywood's most iconic screen couple" since Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman. Writing about her first viewing of Titanic in 2017, 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, . 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's 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 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. Budgeted at $50 million, the film earned almost three times that at the box office, but was negatively reviewed by critics, and earned him a nomination for the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actor. Todd McCarthy of thought DiCaprio gave a compelling performance but his character lacked defining qualities. The film received criticism for damaging the filming location in Thailand, after which DiCaprio worked to restore the area. After shooting The Beach, DiCaprio auditioned for Luhrmann's Moulin Rouge! (2001) but was rejected; He later asserted it was due to his poor singing abilities.

In the mid-1990s, DiCaprio agreed to be in the mostly improvised black-and-white short film as a favor to aspiring director R. D. Robb. When Robb expanded it to a full-length film in the early 2000s to capitalize on the fame of DiCaprio and co-star Tobey Maguire, DiCaprio and Maguire had its release blocked in the US and Canada by court order, arguing they never intended to make a feature film. The film premiered at the 2001 Berlin International Film Festival but remains obscure.

2002-2009: Work with Martin Scorsese and film production

DiCaprio attending an event for Gangs of New York with Martin Scorsese and Cameron Diaz at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival

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. Directed by Steven Spielberg, the film was shot across 147 different locations in 52 days, making it "the most adventurous, super-charged movie-making" DiCaprio had experienced yet. The film received critical acclaim and grossed $355 million against a budget of $52 million, becoming his second highest-grossing release after Titanic. Roger Ebert praised his departure from dark and troubled characters, 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 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 15 pounds (6.8 kg) 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. Peter Travers of Rolling Stone praised DiCaprio's and co-star Matt Damon's performances as "explosive, emotionally complex", but felt that Nicholson overshadowed the two. 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.

In Blood Diamond, DiCaprio starred as a diamond smuggler from Rhodesia who is involved in the Sierra Leone Civil War. While filming, he worked with 24 orphaned children from the SOS Children's Village in Maputo, Mozambique, and said he was touched by his interactions with them. 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 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 Reporter's 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. The film received mixed reviews from critics, 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 called it the "most mature and memorable performance of his lifetime". DiCaprio earned his seventh Golden Globes nomination for the film. 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 (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.

DiCaprio (first from the right) with the cast of Inception at the film's premiere in 2010

DiCaprio's second role in 2010 was in Christopher Nolan's critically acclaimed ensemble science-fiction film . 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 (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 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 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 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 Guardian's 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 Wolf of Wall Street received positive reviews for Scorsese's and DiCaprio's work together. The Hollywood Reporter's 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 in 2014

DiCaprio was an executive producer on , 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. Built on a budget of $135 million, the film earned $533 million worldwide. 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 also produced, hosted and narrated the documentary Before the Flood about climate change. 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 and the commercially failed action-adventure .

After producing and narrating the 2019 global warming documentary , 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. The film premiered at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, where critics praised his and Pitt's performances. 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 . 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

Early in his career, DiCaprio gained a reputation for his reckless behavior and intense partying with a group of male celebrities dubbed "the Pussy Posse" in the 1990s. In an infamous article published by magazine in 1998, journalist Nancy Jo Sales criticized the group as men whose pursuit was to "chase girls, pick fights and not tip the waitress". While parachuting, DiCaprio almost got himself and friend Justin Herwick killed when his parachute failed to open, after which his instructor opened the reserve parachute. In response, DiCaprio said he is fond of doing things that scare him. John McCain, who was a United States Senator for Arizona, called him "an androgynous wimp". DiCaprio found people's perception of him exaggerated, adding, "They want you miserable, just like them. They don't want heroes; what they want is to see you fall." His Catch Me If You Can director Steven Spielberg defended DiCaprio's reputation as a "party boy", believing it is a common behavior for young people and describing him as a family-oriented person during the film's production. Considering DiCaprio to be conscious of his public reputation, The New York Times' Caryn James credited him as one of the few actors to use his celebrity to further social causes. Carole Cadwalladr of The Guardian wrote that DiCaprio is "polite, charming, makes jokes, engages eye contact. And manages[...] to give almost no hint whatsoever of his actual personality."

Life can get pretty monotonous. Acting is like living multiple lives. When you make a movie, you go off to different places, live different cultures, investigate somebody else's reality, and you try to manifest that to the best of your ability. It is incredibly eye-opening. That's why I love acting. There's nothing as transformative as what a film, a documentary, can do to get people to care about something else besides their own lives.

DiCaprio is regarded as one of the finest actors of his generation. In a 2022 readers' poll by Empire, he was voted one of the 50 greatest actors of all time. The magazine praised his willingness to "go to the ends of the earth (often literally) to get under his characters' skin". Colin Covert of The Seattle Times similarly believed DiCaprio "redefines film stardom" through his willingness to take on challenging roles that few of his contemporaries are capable of performing.

Since his international stardom with Titanic (1997), he has admitted feeling nervous about starring in big-budget studio films because of their hype and marketing campaigns. As an actor, he views film as a "relevant art form, like a painting or sculpture. A hundred years from now, people will still be watching that movie." He often plays roles based on real-life people and stories told in specific periods. According to Caryn James, DiCaprio is unafraid of working with established directors on unconventional projects; taking such risks has led him to star in failed films like The Beach (2000), but also his successful collaborations with Martin Scorsese. DiCaprio has described his relationship with Scorsese as dreamlike and admires his knowledge of film, crediting the director with having taught him its history and importance. Scorsese has commented on DiCaprio's ability to repeatedly demonstrate emotion on screen. Jesse Hassenger of considers the duo's collaborations-which earned them the 2013 National Board of Review (Spotlight Award)-to be career-defining moments for both of them and as vital as Scorsese's acclaimed collaborations with Robert De Niro.

Author Michael K. Hammond wrote that DiCaprio built his star reputation by demonstrating his acting ability, and praised him for "revealing a character while concealing the actor" and "disappearing into [his] roles". According to Agnieszka Holland, who directed DiCaprio in Total Eclipse (1995), DiCaprio is "one of the most mature actors" she has worked with and is "courageous" in his choice of roles. Holland remarked that he does not rely on method acting but rather on a trick that allows him to truly "become the character". His Marvin's Room co-star Meryl Streep said that DiCaprio possesses the kind of unpredictability that makes his career difficult to classify, his life precarious and his work thrilling. Analyzing DiCaprio's career, film critic Philip French identified a theme of "characters who are still in the process of becoming a man" and suggested that the actor's propensity for films about dysfunctional families and characters seeking father figures alludes to his own troubled childhood. DiCaprio often plays characters who themselves are playing roles, which Caryn James says looks simple on screen but requires sophisticated acting. He tends to play antiheroes and characters who lose their mental stability as the narrative progresses. Derek Thompson of The Atlantic argued that DiCaprio gives his best performances when playing "frauds and cheats and double-crossing liars and mercenaries".

Several media publications, such as , Empire and Harper's Bazaar, have included DiCaprio in their listings of the most attractive actors. In 1998, he sued magazine over plans to publish a fully nude picture of him. He has said he does not believe in focusing on appearance-as this is only temporary and can negatively affect one's profession in the industry-and looks for career longevity instead. In 2005, DiCaprio was made a commander of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Minister of Culture for his contributions to the arts. In 2016, he was named one of the 100most influential people in the world by magazine. He was included on ' annual list of the world's highest-paid actors in 2008 and from 2010 to 2016 with respective earnings of $45 million, $28 million, $77 million, $37 million, $39 million, $39 million, $29 million and $27 million, topping the list in 2011. The magazine has commended DiCaprio's ability to star in risky, R-rated films that become box office successes. The Hollywood Reporter listed him as one of the 100 most powerful people in entertainment from 2016 to 2019. A writer for the same magazine credits DiCaprio as the rare actor to have a successful career "without ever having made a comic book movie, family film or pre-branded franchise. Leo is the franchise." In a 2016 analysis of his career trajectory, Stacey Wilson Hunt of New York magazine opined that DiCaprio, unlike most of his contemporaries, had not starred in a bad film in the previous ten years. Of his success, DiCaprio says, "My attitude is the same as when I started. I feel very connected to that fifteen-year-old kid who got his first movie."

DiCaprio has named Robert De Niro and James Dean as two of his favorite and most influential actors, stating "There were a lot of great actors I really fell in love with, but if I were to pick two, from different generations, it would be De Niro and James Dean". When asked about a performance that stayed with him the most, DiCaprio responded, "I remember being incredibly moved by Jimmy Dean, in East of Eden. There was something so raw and powerful about that performance. His vulnerability [...] his confusion about his entire history, his identity, his desperation to be loved. That performance just broke my heart."

Other ventures

Climate change is real, it is happening right now. It is the most urgent threat facing our entire species, and we need to work collectively together and stop procrastinating. We need to support leaders around the world who do not speak for the big polluters, but who speak for all of humanity, for the indigenous people of the world, for the billions and billions of underprivileged people out there who would be most affected by this. For our children's children, and for those people out there whose voices have been drowned out by the politics of greed.

An active celebrity in the climate change movement, DiCaprio believes global warming is the world's "number-one environmental challenge". Eager to learn about ecology from an early age, he would watch documentaries on rainforest depletion and the loss of species and habitats. In 1998, he established the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation, a non-profit organization devoted to promoting environmental awareness. It supports organizations and campaigns committed to ensuring a viable future for planet Earth, and produced the short web documentaries Water Planet and Global Warning. The foundation has also funded debt-for-nature swaps. By 2018, the foundation had funded more than 200 projects, providing $100 million in support. He has been an active supporter of numerous environmental organizations and sat on the board of the World Wildlife Fund and International Fund for Animal Welfare.

DiCaprio has owned environment-friendly electric-hybrid vehicles. His use of private jets and large yachts have been criticized as hypocritical due to their large carbon footprints. DiCaprio chaired the national Earth Day celebration in 2000 where he interviewed Bill Clinton and they discussed plans to deal with global warming and the environment. He presented at the 2007 American leg of Live Earth. DiCaprio donated $1 million to the Wildlife Conservation Society at Russia's Tiger Summit. DiCaprio's persistence in reaching the event after encountering two plane delays caused then Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to describe him as a " muzhik" or "real man". In 2013, he organized a benefit fine art auction, "11th Hour", which raised nearly $38.8 million for his foundation. In September 2014, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon designated DiCaprio as a United Nations Messenger of Peace with a focus on climate change. Later that month, he made an opening statement to members of the UN Climate Summit; his speech reached an estimated one billion people worldwide. In 2015, he announced his intention to divest from fossil fuels. He again spoke at the UN in April 2016 prior to the signing of the Paris Climate Change Agreement.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and DiCaprio at the Our Ocean Conference in 2016

At a 2016 meeting with Pope Francis, DiCaprio donated to charity and discussed environmental issues with him. A few days later, possibly influenced by this meeting, the Pope said he would act in a charity film. DiCaprio traveled to Indonesia in early 2016 where he criticized the government's palm oil industry's slash-and-burn forest clearing methods. In July 2016, his foundation donated $15.6 million to help protect wildlife and the rights of Native Americans, along with mitigating climate change. That October, DiCaprio joined Mark Ruffalo in support of the Standing Rock tribe's opposition to the Dakota Access Pipeline.

In April 2017, DiCaprio protested against President Donald Trump's inaction on climate change by attending the People's Climate March. In July, a charity auction and celebrity concert arranged by DiCaprio's foundation had raised over $30 million in one night. The DiCaprio foundation donated $100 million in December 2018 to fight climate change. In May 2021, DiCaprio pledged $43million to enact conservation operations across the Galápagos Islands.

DiCaprio endorsed Hillary Clinton for the 2016 presidential election. In March 2020, DiCaprio attended a fundraiser for Joe Biden at the home of Paramount Pictures executive Sherry Lansing. Prior to the 2020 election, DiCaprio narrated a Netflix documentary series about voting rights, stating, "All of us may have been created equal. But we'll never actually be equal until we all vote. So don't wait." On social media, DiCaprio urged voters to make a plan to cast their ballots and to draw attention to voter suppression and restrictive voter ID laws, citing VoteRiders as a source of information and assistance. In 2023, DiCaprio testified during the trial against Prakazrel Michel, who is being accused of participating in a foreign influence campaign that was aimed at the Obama and Trump administrations. During October 2024, DiCaprio formally endorsed Democratic nominee Kamala Harris for president due to her policies on climate change mitigation, and criticized her Republican opponent Donald Trump.

Philanthropy

In 1998, DiCaprio and his mother donated $35,000 for a "Leonardo DiCaprio Computer Center" at a library in Los Feliz. In May 2009, DiCaprio joined Kate Winslet, director James Cameron and Canadian singer Celine Dion, in a campaign to raise money to financially support the fees of the nursing home where Millvina Dean, a survivor of the RMS Titanic, was residing. DiCaprio and Winslet donated $20,000 to support Dean. In 2010, he donated $1 million to relief efforts in Haiti after the earthquake. In 2011, DiCaprio joined the Animal Legal Defense Fund's campaign to release Tony, a tiger that had spent the last decade at a truck stop in Grosse Tête, Louisiana. DiCaprio donated $61,000 to the gay rights group GLAAD in 2013.

In 2016, DiCaprio donated $65,000 to the annual fundraising gala for the Children of Armenia Fund, where he was a special guest of his friend and honorary chair, Tony Shafrazi. Supporting Hurricane Harvey (2017) relief efforts, DiCaprio provided $1 million through his foundation. In 2020, DiCaprio's foundation donated $3 million to Australia bushfire relief efforts. Amidst the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the media announced DiCaprio donated $10million to support Ukraine, although the news agency Associated Press suggested this amount was inaccurate.

Motorsport

In line with his ongoing environmental activism, DiCaprio has been involved with the FIA Formula E World Championship since its inception. In December 2013, DiCaprio became a co-founder of the Venturi Racing team alongside Monegasque businessman Gildo Pallanca Pastor. Venturi were one of the ten Formula E founding teams, making their debut in the inaugural 2014-15 Formula E Championship. They recorded their first race victory with driver Edoardo Mortara at the 2019 Hong Kong ePrix, winning eight races in total and recording a best championship finish of second place in 2021-22 before being taken over by Stellantis and becoming Maserati MSG Racing ahead of the 2022-23 season.

In October 2015, DiCaprio was named as the chairman of the Formula E Sustainability Committee by then-Formula E chief executive officer Alejandro Agag. The committee aims to "focus on urban mobility and [promote] the mass use of electric vehicles". Ahead of the 2018 Marrakesh ePrix, DiCaprio drove one of the Spark-Renault SRT01-e cars used in the series around the Circuit International Automobile Moulay El Hassan.

DiCaprio produced the feature-length documentary And We Go Green, which followed the events of the 2017-18 Formula E Championship and provided access behind the scenes; it was released in May 2019.

Personal life

I'm not an atheist, I'm agnostic. What I honestly think about is the planet, not my specific spiritual soul floating around. I know that sounds slightly eco-boy, but I think about the idea that there's going to be a mass extinction, and then something else is going to evolve.

DiCaprio is agnostic. His personal life is the subject of widespread media attention, though he rarely grants interviews and is reluctant to discuss his private life. Since his 40s, DiCaprio has been the focus of various reports detailing his involvement with women aged 25 or younger, and has faced criticism for the age disparity of those relationships. In 1999, DiCaprio met Brazilian model Gisele Bündchen, whom he dated until 2005. He was romantically involved with Israeli model Bar Refaeli from 2005 to 2011. He later dated German fashion model Toni Garrn from 2013 to 2014 and later in 2017. DiCaprio was briefly romantically linked with Barbadian singer Rihanna, with the pair attending Coachella together in 2016. DiCaprio successfully sued French tabloid Oops after it made claims that DiCaprio had gotten Rihanna pregnant. DiCaprio was in a relationship with American model and actress Camila Morrone from 2017 until 2022. He has been dating Italian model Vittoria Ceretti since August 2023.

DiCaprio owns houses in Los Angeles and apartments in New York City. In 2009, he bought an island, Blackadore Caye, off mainland Belize-on which he is set to open an environmentally friendly resort-and in 2014, he purchased the original Dinah Shore residence designed by architect Donald Wexler in Palm Springs, California.

In 2005, DiCaprio's face was severely injured when model Aretha Wilson hit him over the head with a broken bottle at a Hollywood party. As a result, he required seventeen stitches to his face and neck. Wilson pleaded no contest to the assault and was sentenced in 2010 to two years in prison.

In 2017, DiCaprio endorsed the film The Promise, a movie set during the Armenian genocide, stating, "I applaud the entire team... [for bringing] this important project and subject to life." In 2017, when The Wolf of Wall Street producer Red Granite Pictures was involved in the 1Malaysia Development Berhad scandal, DiCaprio turned over the gifts he received from business associates at the production company, including from fugitive businessman Jho Low, to the US government. These included a Best Actor Oscar trophy won by Marlon Brando, a $3.2 million Pablo Picasso painting, and a $9 million Jean-Michel Basquiat collage.

On December 30, 2019, while vacationing near St. Barts, DiCaprio agreed to divert the boat he was on to search for a man who had fallen overboard. As the only vessel to respond to the mayday call, his crew rescued the man, who had been treading water for 11 hours, shortly before a storm hit.

In June2025, DiCaprio drew criticism by attending the wedding of Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez. Amazon has faced criticism for its impact on the environment. People questioned DiCaprio's decision, considering his activism regarding environmental and humanitarian causes. A photo of DiCaprio at the event showed him hiding his face with his baseball cap. In July2025, DiCaprio received backlash from activists for co-financing a luxury hotel project near Tel Aviv in Israel despite the ongoing Gaza genocide, on which he has not commented.

Filmography and accolades

According to the online portal Box Office Mojo and the review aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes, DiCaprio's most critically and commercially successful films include What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993), Romeo + Juliet (1996), (1997), Catch Me If You Can (2002), Gangs of New York (2002), The Aviator (2004), The Departed (2006), Blood Diamond (2006), Revolutionary Road (2008), Shutter Island (2010), (2010), Django Unchained (2012), The Great Gatsby (2013), The Wolf of Wall Street (2013), The Revenant (2015), Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019), Don't Look Up (2021), Killers of the Flower Moon (2023), and One Battle After Another (2025). His films have grossed $7.2 billion worldwide.

DiCaprio has been recognized with seven nominations, including one win, by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for the following:

66th Academy Awards (1994): Best Supporting Actor, nomination, for What's Eating Gilbert Grape

77th Academy Awards (2005): Best Actor, nomination, for The Aviator

79th Academy Awards (2007): Best Actor, nomination, for Blood Diamond

86th Academy Awards (2014): Best Picture and Best Actor, nominations, for The Wolf of Wall Street

88th Academy Awards (2016): Best Actor, win, for The Revenant

92nd Academy Awards (2020): Best Actor, nomination, for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

98th Academy Awards (2026): Best Actor, nomination, for One Battle After Another

DiCaprio has won three Golden Globe Awards: Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama for The Aviator and The Revenant and Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for The Wolf of Wall Street, as well as a BAFTA Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actor for The Revenant.

References

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Leonardo Wilhelm DiCaprio (; Italian: [diˈkaːprjo]; born November 11, 1974) is an American actor and film producer. Known for his work in biographical and period films, he is the recipient of numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, an Actor Award, a British Academy Film Award, an Emmy Award, a Silver Bear and three Golden Globes.

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Leonardo di caprio was recently participating in earth day 2026. He has his own foundation wich helps with wildlife conservation and protects endangered ecosystems.

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Earth Day 2026: Leonardo DiCaprio to Jane Fonda celebrities using fame to protect planet

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International Mother Earth Day, celebrated annually on April 22nd, is a global event dedicated to the protection of the land, which gives us everything!Not only do activists serve their whole lives in this good cause, but some of Hollywood’s big…

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Jason Mamoa, the actor most known from playing Aquaman does his part to help the environment.

He helps indigenous people, promotes recycling and speaks about ocean health.

He helps by raising awareness about problems, being part of different organizations and helps people in need.

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Doctor and reality-tv star Pippa Laukka is worried about unhealthy habits of finnish people. She tells about peple having more diabates nowdays and the count is rising. She also tells about eating disorders. The main message from her is that people should exercise more and eat more healthy.

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HS Visio | Lääkäri Pippa Laukan mukaan systeemi on rikki: "Harmittaa, miten verotuloja tuhlataan"

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Hyvinvointivaikuttaja ja tv-juontaja Pippa Laukka on Suomen tunnetuimpia lääkäreitä. Hän on huolissaan, miten epäterve yhteiskunta on.

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Through the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation, he has funded over 200 projects focused on wildlife conservation, ecosystem restoration, and renewable energy innovation. His 2016 documentary, Before The Flood brought scientific insights and global climate challenges into living rooms across the planet.He has also delivered powerful addresses at the United Nations and major climate forums, urging leaders to act with greater ambition.

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Leonardo DiCaprio made a post on Instagram urging people to call their representative and tell them to vote no on the ESA Amendments Act of 2025. The vote is to gut the Endangered Species Act which allowed wildlife and plants that were listed as threatened or endangered to be protected but also rehabilitated. The gutting of this act would cause only profit and gain for a few wealthy people and disregard the future of the environment.

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Leonardo DiCaprio Shares Passionate Earth Day Message, Opposes Rolling Back Endangered Species Act

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Leonardo DiCaprio issued a strong, impassioned message on Earth Day. “Today, on Earth Day of all days, the U.S. House of Representatives is set to vote to gut the Endangered Species Act (ESA), trading…