Ryan Gosling Biography

Before he was Ken from the Barbie movie, Ryan Gosling was best known for his breakthrough role in 2004’s The Notebook and for his Oscar-nominated performance in the 2016 musical La La Land.

His performance in Greta Gerwig’s Barbie (2023) earned him his third Oscar nomination and a spot on Billboard’s top 100 pop music hits (“I’m Just Ken” was performed by Gosling at the Oscars in 2024 as one of the nominees that year for best original song).

Ryan Gosling got his start on the Disney television show MMC (the Mickey Mouse Club), alongside Justin Timberlake, Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera. From there he worked in television (Breaker High and Young Hercules) until moving into feature films. Gosling received critical raves for his performance as a neo-Nazi in the drama The Believer (2001), and held his own with Don Cheadle and Kevin Spacey in 2003’s The United States of Leland.

His turn opposite Rachel McAdams in the romance The Notebook (2004, with James Garner) earned him legions of female fans, and his past romances with Rachel McAdams and Sandra Bullock (his co-star in 2002’s Murder by Numbers) put him in the gossip columns.

Ryan Gosling received an Oscar nomination for his performance in 2006’s Half Nelson, and went on to appear in Lars and the Real Girl (2007), Blue Valentine (2010, opposite Michelle Williams) and Crazy, Stupid, Love (2011, with Emma Stone).

Gosling honed his tough-guy chops as a stunt-driving robber in the 2011 film The Driver. Since then, he’s been a reliable leading man in movies such as The Ides of March (2011, directed by George Clooney), The Place Beyond the Pines (2012) and The Big Short (2015, co-starring Steve Carell).

La La Land was an update on an old-fashioned singing-and-dancing musical, with Gosling as a jazz musician winning and losing an actress played by Emma Stone. Gosling was nominated for a best actor Oscar; La La Land itself infamously was wrongly announced as the winner of the best picture Oscar at that year’s Academy Awards.

Ryan Gosling played Officer K, a replicant cop, in the sci-fi sequel Blade Runner 2049 (2017, with Harrison Ford reprising his role as Deckard from the 1982 original).

Gosling’s other films include First Man (2018, as astronaut Neil Armstrong), The Gray Man (2022) and The Fall Guy (2024).