Ryan Thomas Gosling (born November 12, 1980) is a Canadian actor. Prominent in both independent film and major studio features of varying genres, his films have accrued a worldwide box office gross of over 1.9 billion USD. He has received various accolades, including a Golden Globe Award, and nominations for 3 Academy Awards and 2 BAFTA Award.
Born and raised in Canada, he rose to prominence at age 13 as a child actor on Disney Channel’s The Mickey Mouse Club (1993–1995), and went on to appear in other family entertainment programs, including Are You Afraid of the Dark? (1995) and Goosebumps (1996). He made his film debut in Frankenstein and Me (1996), with Jamieson Boulanger, Ricky Mabe, Polly Shannon, Louise Fletcher, and Burt Reynolds.
Other early film roles include Boaz Yakin’s Remember the Titans (2000), with Denzel Washington, Will Patton, Wood Harris, Ryan Hurst, Donald Faison, and Ethan Suplee; The Believer (2001), with Billy Zane, Theresa Russell, and Summer Phoenix; Barbet Schroeder’s Murder by Numbers (2002), with Sandra Bullock, Michael Pitt, Agnes Bruckner, Chris Penn, R.D. Call, and Ben Chaplin; The Slaughter Rule (2002), with David Morse, Clea Duvall, Kelly Lynch, and Amy Adams; and The United States of Leland (2003), with Don Cheadle, Chris Klein, Jena Malone, Lena Olin, Kevin Spacey, Sherilyn Fenn, Michelle Williams, and Martin Donovan.
He achieved worldwide fame in Nick Cassavetes’s romantic drama The Notebook (2004), with Rachel McAdams, James Garner, Gena Rowlands, James Marsden, Kevin Connolly, Sam Shepard, and Joan Allen. He received his first Academy Award nomination for Best Actor for Ryan Fleck’s Half Nelson (2006), with Shareeka Epps and Anthony Mackie. Other films in the mid to late 2000s include Marc Forster’s Stay (2005), with Ewan McGregor, Naomi Watts, Bob Hoskins, Janeane Garofalo, B.D. Wong, and Isaac de Bankolé; Fracture (2007), with Anthony Hopkins, David Strathairn, Rosamund Pike, Embeth Davidtz, Billy Burke, Cliff Curtis, Fiona Shaw, and Bob Gunton; and Craig Gillespie’s Lars and the Real Girl (2007), with Emily Mortimer, Paul Schneider, Kelli Garner, and Patricia Clarkson.
Films in the 2010s include Derek Cianfrance’s Blue Valentine (2010), with Michelle Williams; All Good Things (2010), with Kirsten Dunst, Frank Langella, Philip Baker Hall, Diane Venora, Nick Offerman, and Kristen Wiig; Glenn Ficarra & John Requa’s Crazy, Stupid, Love (2011), with Steve Carell, Julianne Moore, Emma Stone, John Carroll Lynch, Marisa Tomei, and Kevin Bacon; Nicolas Winding Refn’s Drive (2011), with Carey Mulligan, Bryan Cranston, Christina Hendricks, Ron Perlman, Oscar Isaac, and Albert Brooks; The Ides of March (2011), with George Clooney (who also directed), Philip Seymour Hoffman, Paul Giamatti, Tomei, Jeffrey Wright, and Evan Rachel Wood; The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), with Bradley Cooper, Eva Mendes (whom he’s been with since 2011), Dane DeHaan, Emory Cohen, Rose Byrne, Mahershala Ali, Bruce Greenwood, Harris Yulin, Ben Mendelsohn, and Ray Liotta; Ruben Fleischer’s Gangster Squad (2013), with Josh Brolin, Nick Nolte, Stone, Mackie, Giovanni Ribisi, Robert Patrick, Michael Peña, and Sean Penn; and Only God Forgives (2013), with Kristin Scott Thomas and Vithaya Pansringarm.
He received his second Academy Award nomination for Best Actor for Damien Chazelle’s La La Land (2016), with Stone, John Legend, Rosemarie DeWitt, Finn Wittrock, and J.K. Simmons. Other films in the mid to late 2010s includes Adam McKay’s The Big Short (2015), with Christian Bale, Carell, Brad Pitt, John Magaro, Finn Wittrock, Hamish Linklater, Rafe Spall, Jeremy Strong, and Tomei; Shane Black’s The Nice Guys (2016), auth Russell Crowe, Angourie Rice, Matt Bomer, Margaret Qualley, Keith David, and Kim Basinger; Terrence Malick’s Song to Song (2017), with Rooney Mara, Michael Fassbender, Natalie Portman, Cate Blanchett, Lykke Li, Val Kilmer, Bérénice Marlohe, Holly Hunter, and Tom Sturridge; Denis Villeneuve’s Blade Runner 2049 (2017), with Harrison Ford, Ana de Armas, Sylvia Hoeks, Robin Wright, Mackenzie Davis, Dave Bautista, and Jared Leto; and First Man (2018), with Claire Foy, Jason Clarke, Kyle Chandler, Corey Stoll, Christopher Abbott, and Ciarán Hinds.
He received his third Academy Award nomination (this time for Best Supporting Actor) for Greta Gerwig’s Barbie (2023), with Margot Robbie, America Ferrera, Michael Cera, Kate McKinnon, Issa Rae, Simu Liu, Rhea Perlman, and Will Ferrell. Other films in the 2020s include Anthony & Joe Russo’s The Gray Man (2022), with Chris Evans, de Armas, Jessica Henwick, Regé-Jean Page, Wagner Moura, Julia Butters, Dhanush, Alfre Woodard, and Billy Bob Thornton; David Leitch’s The Fall Guy (2024), with Emily Blunt, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Hannah Waddingham, Teresa Palmer, Stephanie Hsu, and Winston Duke; and Phil Lord & Christopher Miller’s Project Hail Mary (2026), with Sandra Hüller, James Ortiz, and Lionel Boyce.
He made his directorial debut on Lost River (2014), wuth Hendricks, Saoirse Ronan, Iain De Caestecker, Matt Smith, Ben Mendelsohn, Barbara Steele, and Mendes. He’s also served as producer or executive producer on such films as Noaz Deshe’s White Shadow (2013), with Hamisi Bazili, James Gayo, Glory Mbayuwayu, and Salum Abdallah; Duke Johnson’s The Actor (2025), with André Holland, Gemma Chan, May Calamawy, Asim Chaudhry, Joe Cole, Fabien Frankel, Olwen Fouéré, Edward Hogg, Toby Jones, Youssef Kerkour, Simon McBurney, Tanya Reynolds, Tracey Ullman, and Scott Alexander Young.
Each review will be linked to the title below.
(*seen originally in theaters)
(**seen rereleased in theaters)
- Frankenstein and Me (1996) – directed by Robert Tinnell
- Nothing Too Good for a Cowboy (1998) – directed by Kari Skogland – TV movie
- The Unbelievables (1999) – directed by Ed Solomon – TV movie
- Remember the Titans (2000) – directed by Boaz Yakin
- The Believer (2001) – directed by Henry Bean
- The Slaughter Rule (2002) – Alex & Andrew Smith
- Murder by Numbers (2002) – directed by Barbet Schroeder
- The United States of Leland (2003) – directed by Matthew Ryan Hoge
- The Notebook (2004)* – directed by Nick Cassavetes
- Stay (2005) – directed by Marc Forster
- Half Nelson (2006) – directed by Ryan Fleck
- Fracture (2007) – directed by Gregory Hoblit
- Lars and the Real Girl (2007) – directed by Craig Gillespie
- Blue Valentine (2010) – directed by Derek Cianfrance
- All Good Things (2010) – directed by Andrew Jarecki
- ReGeneration (2010) – directed by Phillip Montgomery – narrator, producer – documentary
- Crazy, Stupid, Love (2011) – directed by Glenn Ficarra & John Requa
- Drive (2011)* – directed by Nicolas Winding Refn
- The Ides of March (2011) – directed by George Clooney
- The Place Beyond the Pines (2012) – directed by Derek Cianfrance
- Gangster Squad (2013) – directed by Ruben Fleischer
- Only God Forgives (2013) – directed by Nicolas Winding Refn – also executive producer
- White Shadow (2013) – directed by Noaz Deshe – executive producer only
- Lost River (2014) – director only – also writer, co-producer
- The Big Short (2015) – directed by Adam McKay
- The Nice Guys (2016)* – directed by Shane Black
- La La Land (2016) – directed by Damien Chazelle
- Song to Song (2017) – directed by Terrence Malick
- Blade Runner 2049 (2017)* – directed by Denis Villeneuve
- First Man (2018) – directed by Damien Chazelle
- The Gray Man (2022) – directed by Anthony & Joe Russo
- Barbie (2023)* – directed by Greta Gerwig
- The Fall Guy (2024)* – directed by David Leitch
- The Actor (2025) – directed by Duke Johnson – executive producer only
- Project Hail Mary (2026) – directed by Phil Lord & Christopher Miller – also producer
- Star Wars: Starfighter (2027) – directed by Shawn Levy – also executive producer
- Love of Your Life (202-) – directed by Rachel Morrison – producer only
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