Biography And Filmography:

Canadian celebrity Ryan Gosling started his Hollywood career by playing the roles of misfits and outsiders in big-budget award winning movies like "The Believer" (2001), “Murder By Numbers” (2006) starring Sandra Bullock, and “Lars and the Real Girl” (2007) with Emily Mortimer. 

He was born Nov. 12, 1980 in London Ontario, Canada and decided early on that a career in show business would be his way out of his blue-collar mill town. He was a talented dancer, and in 1992 brought his routine to an audition for the Disney Channel’s “The Mickey Mouse Club”, winning a spot on the ensemble cast next to young singing stars Justin Timberlake, Christina Aguilera and Britney Spears. 

After the "Mickey Mouse Club", he appeared in guest roles in various television shows including "Are You Afraid of the Dark?", "Ready or Not", "Flash Forward", "The Adventures of Shirley Holmes", "Goosebumps", "Road to Avonlea" and "Kung Fu: The Legend Continues" with David Carradine.  In 1997, he was hired and cast to play the suave hypochondriac Sean Hanlon in "Breaker High" (1997-98), a USA Network television series about a high school set aboard a cruise ship. His silly charisma and good looks won him young teen idol pin-up standing. He was next cast in the family action series "Young Hercules" (1998-99), a prequel to the trendy series starring Kevin Sorbo. "Hercules" was nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award and a Writers Guild Of America Award, 

He then made his jump to the big-screen with a small role in the football movie "Remember the Titans" (2000), starring Denzel Washington, in a true story about a newly appointed African American football coach and his high school team on their first season as a racially integrated team. He was next cast in the starring role of Danny Bilant in the Henry Bean directed “The Believer” (2001), about a young Jewish man who develops a fiercely anti-Semitic view of the world, and based on the true story of a KKK member in the 1960s who was discovered to be Jewish by a New York Times reporter. Critics and audiences loved the film and Gosling, and his role proved the actor could carry a feature film on his own. Hollywood fell in love with Gosling and made him a celebrity. 

Ryan then accepted the part of another conflicted teen who forms an emotional bond with his football coach in "The Slaughter Rule" (2002), with Amy Adams, where a young man finds comfort with a young woman, his mother, and a high-school football coach who recruits him to quarterback a six-man team. He then got another big break in the blockbuster crime thriller "Murder by Numbers" (2002), a dark psychological suspense thriller that tells the story of a persistent homicide detective, Cassie Mayweather (Sandra Bullock), and her new partner Sam Kennedy who become pitted against two spiteful and brilliant young men in a creative battle of intellect as they try to solve a murder case.

He then accepted a supporting role in the crime drama "The United States of Leland" (2004), starring opposite Don Cheadle, a film that tells the story of a young man's experience in a juvenile detention center that touches on the chaotic changes that take place with his family and the community in which he lives. Ryan then got his big Hollywood break in his role playing the romantic lead opposite Rachel McAdams in Nick Cassavetes' romantic comedy "The Notebook" (2004). The movie focuses on an old man reading a story to an old woman in a nursing home. The story he reads follows two young lovers named Allie Hamilton and Noah Calhoun, who meet one evening at a carnival, but are separated by Allie's parents who disapprove of Noah's unhealthy family, and move Allie away. Gosling and Rachel McAdams then announced their real-life romance after the film's release, staying together until their breakup in 2007.

Next for the actor was the Marc Forster psychological thriller "Stay" (2005) starring Ewan McGregor and Naomi Watts, about a doctor (Ewan McGregor) whose suicidal patient  somehow begins invading his dreams and blurs the lines of their realities and lives. Later that year, he visited the battle torn Darfur region of Uganda and started writing the script for a movie about the tragedy of the Darfur child soldiers. He also became a front man for "Invisible Children" organization that sought to improve conditions for Ugandan children effected by the Darfur war. He addressed the State Department about the necessity for a United States presence and creation of a peace process in the Darfur region.

He returned to the United States and took the starring role of Dan Dunne in the Ryan Fleck directed drama “Half Nelson” (2006), about an inner-city junior high school teacher with a drug habit who forms an unlikely friendship with one of his students after she discovers his secret. "Half Nelson" went on to be nominated for an Oscar Award, and won a Gotham Award for Best Film. He next worked with Anthony Hopkins in the courtroom thriller, “Fracture” (2007), where he portrayed a ruthless Deputy District Attorney in line for a promotion who finds an unlikely opponent in a manipulative criminal he's trying to prosecute

Gosling again appeared in an independent film as another common misfit in the comedy “Lars And The Real Girl” (2007), portraying a small town loner who starts to break out of his shell with the help of a life-like female doll ordered from the Internet. The innovative comedy won great reviews and audiences loved the actor, enough that his maverick performance won him a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy. He was next cast as lead in the dramatic mystery thriller "All Good Things" (2009), with Kirsten Dunst, about a detective who begins to unravel a missing-persons case that turns dangerous, and quite possibly deadly, for the heir to a New York real estate dynasty.

Another starring role followed for him in the romantic "Blue Valentine" (2009) opposite Michelle Williams. "Blue Valentine" centers on a contemporary married couple charting their evolution over a span of years by jumping between time periods. The actor wrapped his year in the dramatic "The Dallas Buyer's Club" (2009), about a man who is told to "go home and die" after developing full-blown AIDS in 1986, but electrician Ron Woodroof delves into the world of underground pharmacies that supply HIV drugs not approved for use in the United States in an attempt to prolong his life, and, ultimately, the lives of thousands of other people. 

Watch Ryan Gosling In "Lars And The Real Girl" Interview 

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