Ryan Thomas Gosling ( GOSS-ling; born November 12, 1980) is a Canadian actor, singer, and musician. Known for his work in both independent films and major studio features, his films as a leading actor have grossed over US$4 billion worldwide. He has received various accolades including a Golden Globe Award, in addition to nominations for three Academy Awards, nine Critics' Choice Awards, two British Academy Film Awards and a Primetime Emmy Award.
He began his acting career at a young age, starring in Disney Channel's The All New Mickey Mouse Club (1993–1995) and teen dramas such as Breaker High (1997–1998) and Young Hercules (1998–1999). He transitioned to film with his feature length debut in Frankenstein and Me (1996) and a supporting role in the sports drama Remember the Titans (2000). He received praise for his performance in The Believer (2001), before emerging as a leading man for his role Noah Calhoun in the romantic drama The Notebook (2004) and further praise came with the psychological thriller Fracture and comedy-drama Lars and the Real Girl both (2007). For the later he received several Best Actor nominations at major award ceremonies.
Gosling earned Academy Award nominations for his performances in the independent drama Half Nelson (2006), the romantic musical La La Land (2016), and the fantasy comedy Barbie (2023); the latter became his highest-grossing release. He also starred in acclaimed films including the romantic drama Blue Valentine (2010), the comedy Crazy, Stupid, Love, the political drama The Ides of March both (2011), the action drama Drive (2011), the biographical comedy dramas The Big Short (2015) and First Man (2018) and the action comedy The Nice Guys (2016). His highest grossing came with the science fiction films Blade Runner 2049 (2017) and Project Hail Mary (2026). Gosling made his directorial debut with the fantasy film Lost River in 2014.
Off-screen, he is a prominent supporter of several charities. Gosling's band Dead Man's Bones released their self-titled debut album and toured North America in 2009. He is a co-owner of Tagine, a Moroccan restaurant in Beverly Hills, California. Gosling is in a relationship with his longtime co-star actress Eva Mendes.
Ryan Thomas Gosling was born on November 12, 1980, at St. Joseph's Hospital in London, Ontario, to Thomas Ray Gosling, a travelling salesman for a paper mill, and Donna Wilson, a secretary. Both of his parents are of part French Canadian descent, along with some German, English, Scottish, and Irish. He and his family were members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and Gosling has said that the religion influenced every aspect of their lives. Because of his father's work, they "moved around a lot". Gosling lived in Cornwall, Ontario, and Burlington, Ontario. His parents divorced when he was 13, and he and his older sister Mandi lived with their mother, an experience Gosling has credited with programming him "to think like a girl".
Gosling was educated at Gladstone Public School, Cornwall Collegiate and Vocational School and Lester B. Pearson High School. As a child, he watched Dick Tracy and was inspired to become an actor. He "hated" being a child, was bullied in elementary school, and had no friends until he was "14 or 15". In school he picked fights to impress girls. In grade one, having been influenced by the action film First Blood, he took steak knives to school and threw them at other children during recess. This incident led to a suspension. He was unable to read at age 10 and was homeschooled thereafter. His mother left her job and home-schooled him for a year. He has said homeschooling gave him "a sense of autonomy that I've never really lost".
Gosling performed in front of audiences from an early age, encouraged by his sister being a performer. He and his sister sang together at weddings; he performed with Elvis Perry, his uncle's Elvis Presley tribute act, and was involved with a local ballet company. Performing boosted his self-confidence as it was the only thing for which he received praise. He developed an idiosyncratic accent because, as a child, he thought having a Canadian accent did not sound "tough". He began to model his accent on that of Marlon Brando. Gosling dropped out of high school at age 17 to focus on his acting career.
After twelve-year-old Gosling successfully auditioned for a revival of The All New Mickey Mouse Club, he was given a two-year contract as a Mouseketeer and subsequently moved to Orlando, Florida to film the show. He has said he appeared on-screen infrequently because other children were considered more talented. Nonetheless, he has described the job as the greatest two years of his life. Fellow cast members on the show included Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Justin Timberlake, Keri Russell, and JC Chasez. Gosling has credited the experience with instilling in him "this great sense of focus."
Gosling starred in the series from 1993 until it ended in 1995, after which he returned to Canada. He continued to appear in family entertainment television series, including Are You Afraid of the Dark? (1995) and Goosebumps (1996), and starred in Breaker High (1997–98) as Sean Hanlon. When he was 18, he moved to New Zealand to film the Fox Kids adventure series Young Hercules (1998–1999) as the title character. He initially enjoyed working on the series, but began to care too much about the show, making it too difficult to enjoy. He wanted to spend more time sitting with and devising a character as well as play a variety of roles, so he chose to transition into film and not accept any more television work.
Aged 19, Gosling decided to move into "serious acting". He was dropped by his agent and initially found it difficult to secure work because of the "stigma" attached to children's television. After a supporting role in the football drama Remember the Titans, he secured a lead role as a young Jewish neo-Nazi in 2001's The Believer. Director Henry Bean said he cast Gosling because his Mormon upbringing helped him understand the isolation of Judaism. Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times praised an "electrifying and terrifyingly convincing" performance while Todd McCarthy of Variety felt his "dynamite performance" could "scarcely have been better". The film won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival and Gosling has described it as "the film that kind of gift-wrapped for me the career that I have now." Because of the controversial nature of the film, it was difficult to secure financial backing for a full theatrical release, and the film was instead broadcast on Showtime. The film was a commercial failure, grossing $416,925 worldwide from a production budget of $1.5 million.
In 2002, Gosling co-starred in the psychological thriller Murder by Numbers, where Gosling portrayed one of a pair of high school seniors who believe they can commit the perfect murder. Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly described him as "a phenomenal talent even in junk like this" while Todd McCarthy felt that the "strong and "charismatic" young actors were "let down by the screenplay". The film was a minor commercial success, grossing $56 million worldwide from a production budget of $50 million. His second screen appearance of 2002 was in The Slaughter Rule which explores the relationship between a high school football player and his troubled coach, played by David Morse. Gosling has said that the opportunity to work with Morse made him "a better actor". Stephen Holden of The New York Times described Gosling as "major star material" with a "rawness and an intensity that recall the young Matt Dillon" while Manohla Dargis of the Los Angeles Times was won over by his "raw talent". The film was released in just three US theatres and grossed $13,411.
In 2003, Gosling starred in The United States of Leland as a teenager imprisoned for the murder of a disabled boy. He was drawn to the role because it was unusual to find a character that was "emotionally disconnected for the whole film." Critic Roger Ebert felt that the "gifted actor does everything that can be done with Leland, but the character comes from a writer's conceits, not from life." A. O. Scott of The New York Times noted that he "struggles to rescue Leland from the clutches of cliché" while David Rooney of Variety felt that his "one-note, blankly disturbed act has none of the magnetic edge of his breakthrough work in The Believer". The film grossed $343,847 in the United States and was not released overseas.