Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#115
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Leonardo DiCaprio represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 35 years in, and Leonardo is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Leonardo DiCaprio appears in 49 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Leonardo. Total commitment to men who are losing control at exactly the speed the film requires. Inception is the clearest case: a film rated 9.3 by our editors, where the performance carries weight the script only implies.
The recognisable elements are versatility, transformation, quiet performance. Watch two of these films back to back and the method separates from the material — the same instrument, tuned differently for documentary, comedy, crime. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Sam Levinson, Paul Thomas Anderson, Martin Scorsese and others, Leonardo DiCaprio helped set a standard other performers now audition against. 1 Academy Award confirm what the films already argue.
Inception (2010) as Dom Cobb · The Departed (2006) as Billy · Inception (2010) as Dom Cobb
Career snapshot
Ranked #115 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
49
1991–2026
Career length
37 yrs
Active since 1989
Academy Awards
1
Competitive wins
Oscar nominations
7
Career total
Highest Nutevio score
9.3
Inception
Average Nutevio score
6.7
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
8.8
Inception
Most frequent director
Martin Scorsese
8 films together
Longest collaboration
8×
With Martin Scorsese
Most common genre
Drama
29 titles
Average runtime
1h 55m
Across catalogue work
Golden Globe wins
3
Career total
Nutevio metric
Ten weighted categories, applied identically to everyone we cover.
Nutevio Performer Score
7.4
out of 10
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio metric
Cultural impact and legacy, measured separately from craft — how far the work travelled once it left the cinema.
Nutevio Influence Score
8.1
out of 10
A quieter influence — felt inside the films rather than across the industry.
How far the work travelled past the people who saw it first.
What survives once the release-week conversation has burned off.
Institutional acknowledgement, weighted but never decisive.
Years of chosen, relevant work rather than years merely employed.
Statuettes, read as evidence rather than verdict.
Roles named without needing the film named alongside them.
Directors who wrote parts because this performer existed.
The reading other performers now have to answer.
Actor DNA
A fingerprint derived from the roles themselves — register, range and the kind of film they carry.
The shape of a career
Every performance plotted in time. Hover a point to read the title behind it.
Peak years
Where the scores, the awards and the sheer volume of work agree with each other.
Best decade
2010s
7.6 average MV
The 2010s are where the work and the material meet. Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood, Ice on Fire, And We Go Green — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2010s
7.6
Across 13 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2010s
7.5
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
2010s
4 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood, Ice on Fire, And We Go Green.
Most productive era
2020s
15 films
The busiest stretch of the catalogue — volume that reads as appetite rather than availability.
Range, mapped
Genres down the side, decades across the top. Warmer cells mean stronger titles.
| Genre | 1990s | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | 6.811 films | 7.59 films | 7.77 films | 7.32 films |
| Action | 6.72 films | 7.12 films | 9.02 films | — |
| Thriller | 6.02 films | 7.65 films | 8.43 films | 7.41 film |
| Comedy | 5.72 films | — | 7.43 films | 7.32 films |
| Sci-Fi | — | — | 9.31 film | — |
| Crime | 7.41 film | 8.34 films | 7.32 films | 7.42 films |
| Romance | 7.34 films | 6.82 films | 7.41 film | — |
| Horror | 5.31 film | — | — | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
Career begins
1989Working from 1989
The start of the professional record — years before the catalogue picks the story up.
First film in Nutevio
1991Critters 3
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Josh.
First Nutevio masterpiece
2006The Departed
The first film here to clear 9.0 on our scale — a threshold fewer than one film in ten reaches.
First Academy Award nomination
2007Blood Diamond
Best Actor — the moment the industry started writing the same sentences our editors had been writing.
Highest rated performance · Career peak
2010Inception
9.3 on the Nutevio scale, the top of the catalogue for this performer. Weighing billing against the film's own quality, this is the point where everything aligned at once.
First Academy Award
2016The Revenant
Best Actor. Confirmation rather than revelation, which is how the best of these usually arrive.
Most recent film
The current state of the argument, as Self (archive footage)(uncredited).
Our order
Every performance in the catalogue, ordered by Nutevio Score.
Every title
Filter by genre or decade, and compare any two titles side by side.
49 of 49 films
as Dom Cobb
Directed by Christopher Nolan
as Billy
Directed by Martin Scorsese
as Dom Cobb
Directed by Christopher Nolan
as Teddy Daniels
Directed by Martin Scorsese
as Billy
Directed by Martin Scorsese
From the library
Every movie and TV credit stored for this name in the Nutevio catalogue — filter by media, role or sort by rating.
Showing 24 of 74 titles · 81 total credits · active 1985–2026
Learning, Studying… Always Perfecting: The Making of One Battle After Another
2026 · Self
David Attenborough's 100 Years on Planet Earth
2026 · Self
Killers of the Flower Moon: A Historic Collaboration
2026 · Self
Euphoria: A Look Back
2026 · Self (archive footage)(uncredited)
Sleepwalker
2026 · Producer
A Gorilla Story: Told by David Attenborough
2026 · Executive Producer
The Lake
2026 · Executive Producer
Death Boom
2026 · Producer
Yanuni
2026 · Producer
One Battle After Another
2025 · Bob
Clint Eastwood : la légende
2025 · Self
Mr. Scorsese
2025 · TV · Self
Variety & CNN Actors on Actors
2025 · TV · Self
Sitting Bull
2025 · TV · Executive Producer
OZI: Voice of the Forest
2024 · Producer
Killers of the Flower Moon
2023 · Ernest Burkhart · Executive Producer
Titanic: Stories from the Heart
2023 · Self (archive footage)
Faut Voir - L'Hebdo cinéma
2023 · TV · Self - Guest
The Volcano: Rescue from Whakaari
2022 · Executive Producer
Shining Girls
2022 · TV · Executive Producer
The Savior for Sale
2021 · Self - Actor (archive footage)
Don't Look Up
2021 · Dr. Randall Mindy
Adele One Night Only
2021 · Self
kid 90
2021 · Self (archive footage) · Executive Producer
The defining work
#1
Dom Cobb
Inception (2010)
Performance score9.6
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Dom Cobb gives Leonardo DiCaprio a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Billy
The Departed (2006)
Performance score9.3
The Departed asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Billy is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Dom Cobb
Inception (2010)
Performance score9.1
Inception asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Dom Cobb is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Teddy Daniels
Shutter Island (2010)
Performance score8.8
Shutter Island asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Teddy Daniels is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movieStart here
A guided path through the work, ordered so each film explains the next.
Best entry point
as Dom Cobb
Start here. Inception is the clearest statement of what Leonardo DiCaprio does — accessible, 148 minutes, and rated 9.3 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Leonardo at the most legible performance, then move forward in time so each film reads as a response to the one before it rather than a repetition of it.
The Departed (2006)
Keeps the thriller register of Inception but asks for a colder reading of it.
The Departed (2006)
Same director as The Departed, different problem to solve. Watching them in order shows how much of the effect was the collaboration.
Inception (2010)
A deliberate change of key after The Departed — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Shutter Island (2010)
A deliberate change of key after Inception — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Martin Scorsese
Director
8 films together
Notably The Departed
Christopher Nolan
Director
2 films together
Notably Inception
Baz Luhrmann
Director
2 films together
Notably The Great Gatsby
Fisher Stevens
Director
2 films together
Notably Before the Flood
Quentin Tarantino
Director
2 films together
Notably Django Unchained
Katt Shea
Director
1 film together
Notably Poison Ivy
Michael Caton-Jones
Director
1 film together
Notably This Boy's Life
Lasse Hallström
Director
1 film together
Notably What's Eating Gilbert Grape
Agnieszka Holland
Director
1 film together
Notably Total Eclipse
Sam Raimi
Director
1 film together
Notably The Quick and the Dead
Jerry Zaks
Director
1 film together
Notably Marvin's Room
James Cameron
Director
1 film together
Notably Titanic
Woody Allen
Director
1 film together
Notably Celebrity
Randall Wallace
Director
1 film together
Notably The Man in the Iron Mask
Danny Boyle
Director
1 film together
Notably The Beach
Steven Spielberg
Director
1 film together
Notably Catch Me If You Can
Edward Zwick
Director
1 film together
Notably Blood Diamond
Ridley Scott
Director
1 film together
Notably Body of Lies
Sam Mendes
Director
1 film together
Notably Revolutionary Road
Clint Eastwood
Director
1 film together
Notably J. Edgar
Alejandro G. Iñárritu
Director
1 film together
Notably The Revenant
Soleil Moon Frye
Director
1 film together
Notably kid 90
Paul Dugdale
Director
1 film together
Notably Adele One Night Only
Adam McKay
Director
1 film together
Notably Don't Look Up
Antoine Vitkine
Director
1 film together
Notably The Savior for Sale
Thomas C. Grane
Director
1 film together
Notably Titanic: Stories from the Heart
Paul Thomas Anderson
Director
1 film together
Notably One Battle After Another
Sam Levinson
Director
1 film together
Notably Euphoria: A Look Back
Michael Caine
Actor
1 film together
Notably Inception
Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Actor
1 film together
Notably Inception
Ken Watanabe
Actor
1 film together
Notably Inception
Tom Hardy
Actor
1 film together
Notably Inception
Elliot Page
Actor
1 film together
Notably Inception
Dileep Rao
Actor
1 film together
Notably Inception
Cillian Murphy
Actor
1 film together
Notably Inception
Tom Berenger
Actor
1 film together
Notably Inception
Marion Cotillard
Actor
1 film together
Notably Inception
Pete Postlethwaite
Actor
1 film together
Notably Inception
Lukas Haas
Actor
1 film together
Notably Inception
Talulah Riley
Actor
1 film together
Notably Inception
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Martin Scorsese
Director
8 films together · 7.8 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 8 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
The DepartedChristopher Nolan
Director
2 films together · 9.0 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
InceptionQuentin Tarantino
Director
2 films together · 8.0 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Django UnchainedFisher Stevens
Director
2 films together · 7.3 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Before the FloodBaz Luhrmann
Director
2 films together · 7.2 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
The Great GatsbySteven Spielberg
Director
1 film together · 8.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Catch Me If You CanJames Cameron
Director
1 film together · 8.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
TitanicPaul Dugdale
Director
1 film together · 7.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Adele One Night OnlyEdward Zwick
Director
1 film together · 7.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Blood DiamondLasse Hallström
Director
1 film together · 7.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
What's Eating Gilbert GrapeAlejandro G. Iñárritu
Director
1 film together · 7.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The RevenantPaul Thomas Anderson
Director
1 film together · 7.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
One Battle After AnotherAntoine Vitkine
Director
1 film together · 7.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Savior for SaleAdam McKay
Director
1 film together · 7.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Don't Look UpMichael Caton-Jones
Director
1 film together · 7.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
This Boy's LifeThomas C. Grane
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Titanic: Stories from the HeartSoleil Moon Frye
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
kid 90Sam Mendes
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Revolutionary RoadRandall Wallace
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Man in the Iron MaskJerry Zaks
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Marvin's RoomRidley Scott
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Body of LiesSam Raimi
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Quick and the DeadDanny Boyle
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The BeachAgnieszka Holland
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Total EclipseClint Eastwood
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
J. EdgarWoody Allen
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
CelebrityKatt Shea
Director
1 film together · 5.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Poison IvySam Levinson
Director
1 film together · 3.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Euphoria: A Look BackSix degrees
Follow the thread outward — director, film, co-star, and the film after that.
Recognition
3 wins · 2 nominations
2 wins · 2 nominations · latest 2016
The Revenant · as Actor
Inception
The Wolf of Wall Street · as Actor
Blood Diamond · as Actor
1 win · latest 2016
The Revenant · as Actor
Categories of our own
Six editorial categories we apply to every performer we cover.
Most rewatchable
Inception
as Dom Cobb
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Titanic
as Jack Dawson
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Inception
as Dom Cobb
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
The Lost Leonardo
as Self - Actor (archive footage)
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Inception
as Dom Cobb
If the career had to be argued in a single scene, our editors would pick one from this film and rest the case.
In their films' words
“You can build a whole film around a performer who knows when not to speak. Leonardo DiCaprio has known it for a long time.”
“You mustn't be afraid to dream a little bigger, darling.”
“An idea is like a virus. Resilient. Highly contagious.”
Head to head
Put two careers on the same scale and see where the argument actually sits.
| Nutevio Performer Score | 8.5 | 9.0 |
|---|---|---|
| Career ranking | #19 of 681 | #1 of 681 |
| Awards on file | 4 recorded | 3 recorded |
| Oscar wins | 1 | 1 |
| Oscar nominations | 7 | 5 |
| Average Nutevio score | 9.2 | 9.1 |
| Genres | Sci-Fi, Thriller, Action, Crime | Adventure, Drama, Fantasy, History |
| Directors | Christopher Nolan, Martin Scorsese | Christopher Nolan, Martin Scorsese |
| Performance DNA | Screen presence, Charisma, Transformation | Transformation, Drama, Screen presence |
| Career timeline | 2006–2010 | 2006–2026 |
| Most iconic role | Dom Cobb — Inception | Odysseus — The Odyssey |
| Most rewatchable film | Inception | Interstellar |
| Filmography | 2 catalogue films | 4 catalogue films |
Films together
The Departed
Shared directors
Christopher Nolan, Martin Scorsese
Shared collections
Top 100 Mind-Bending Movies, Sci-Fi Movies, Thriller Movies, Christopher Nolan Movies Ranked, Top 100 Crime Movies, Crime Movies
Collaborators in common
Martin Scorsese · Christopher Nolan · Michael Caine · Cillian Murphy · Jack Nicholson · Mark Wahlberg
Matt Damon edges ahead here — a higher floor across a comparable body of work.
Ours alone
Recognitions handed out by this desk, on criteria no awards body uses.
Career Achievement
Awarded
35 years of relevant work — not merely a long career, but a long career of choices.
Modern Classic Performer
Awarded
Defining performances delivered inside the last twenty-five years, in films already being taught rather than merely remembered.
Most Influential Career
Awarded
Recognised for changing what casting directors thought a leading performance could look like.
Drama Legend
Awarded
29 catalogue titles in drama, each one a reference point for the films that followed.
Our desk
Best ending, best opening, best twist and the rest — categories we apply to everyone we cover.
Best ending
Inception
as Dom Cobb
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Inception
as Dom Cobb
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
The Great Gatsby
as Jay Gatsby
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Inception
as Dom Cobb
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Inception
as Dom Cobb
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Inception
as Dom Cobb
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
The Wolf of Wall Street
as Jordan Belfort
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Inception
as Dom Cobb
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
Across the library
Every Nutevio collection this name turns up in, and how high they rank there.
Collection footprint
Appears in 11 Nutevio collections
Keep reading
genre
Thriller Movies
Includes Inception, The Departed
Read the collectiontheme
Top 100 Mind-Bending Movies
Features Inception at #2
Read the collectiontheme
Best Heist Movies
Features Inception at #2
Read the collectiongenre
Action Movies
Features Inception at #2
Read the collectiongenre
Sci-Fi Movies
Features Inception at #2
Read the collectiongenre
Best Action Movies
Features Inception at #3
Read the collectionFrom the magazine
If you like this performer
Matt Damon
Works with the same directors — Christopher Nolan
Michael Caine
Works with the same directors — Christopher Nolan
David Krumholtz
Works with the same directors — Christopher Nolan
Cillian Murphy
Works with the same directors — Christopher Nolan
Morgan Freeman
Works with the same directors — Christopher Nolan
Robert Downey Jr.
Works with the same directors — Christopher Nolan
Have your say
Community
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Our readers argue about this one. Make your case, or read the ranked debate already in progress.
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