Ryan Gosling

He was born Ryan Thomas Gosling on November 12, 1980 in London, Ontario to Thomas and Donna Gosling. The family moved to Cornwall, Ontario, where Ryan grew up and was home-schooled by his mother. He attended Cornwall Collegiate and Vocational High School in Cornwall, where he excelled in Drama and Fine Arts. The family then relocated to Burlington, Ontario, where Ryan attended Lester B. Pearson High School in Burlington, Ontario.

He attended an open audition in Montreal for the TV series "The Mickey Mouse Club" ("The All New Mickey Mouse Club" (1989) at the age of 12 and beat out 17,000 other aspiring actors for a spot on the show. While appearing on "MMC" for two years, he lived with co-star Justin Timberlake's family. After the “MMC” he moved into acting, appearing on the TV series "Young Hercules" (1998) and "Breaker High" (1997), as well as the films The Slaughter Rule (2002), Murder by Numbers (2002), and Remember the Titans (2000).

Gosling has built a reputation for playing misfits in independent films: a fanatic Neo-Nazi in 2001 the The Believer (which won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival), a drug-addicted junior high school teacher in Half Nelson (2006), a socially inept loner in Lars and the Real Girl (2007) and a frazzled husband in Blue Valentine (2010). He starred the 2004's romantic drama The Notebook , after which, he won the dubious honour of being named one of the 50 Hottest Bachelors by People Magazine. More significantly, he was named the Male Star of Tomorrow at the 2004 Show West convention of movie exhibitors.

Gosling reached the peak of his profession with his performance in Half Nelson (2006) which garnered him an Academy Award nomination as Best Leading Actor and two Golden Globe Awards (for Lars and the Real Girl and Blue Valentine). He continued to expand his horizons in 2011 as he appeared in his first comedic role in Crazy, Stupid, Love and his first action role in Drive. His next film, political drama The Ides of March, is set to premiere at the Venice Film Festival on August 31, 2011. In a short time, he has established himself as one of the finest actors of his generation.