Ryan Thomas Gosling (born November 12, 1980) is a Canadian actor and musician. He began his career as a child star on the Disney Channel's The Mickey Mouse Club (1993–1995) and went on to appear in other family entertainment programs including Are You Afraid of the Dark? (1995) and Goosebumps (1996). His first starring film role was as a Jewish neo-Nazi in The Believer (2001), and he went on to star in several independent films, including Murder by Numbers (2002), The Slaughter Rule (2002), and The United States of Leland (2003).

Gosling came to the attention of a wider audience in 2004 with a leading role in the commercially successful romantic drama The Notebook. His performance as a drug-addicted teacher in Half Nelson (2006) was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor and his performance as a socially inept loner in Lars and the Real Girl (2007) was nominated for a Golden Globe Award. After a three-year acting hiatus, Gosling starred in the marital drama Blue Valentine (2010), earning him a second Golden Globe Award nomination. Gosling co-starred in three mainstream films in 2011–the romantic comedy-drama Crazy, Stupid, Love, the political drama The Ides of March, and the neo-noir crime thriller Drive–and received two more Golden Globe Award nominations. His directorial debut, Lost River, was released to poor reviews in 2014. Greater success came to Gosling when he starred in two critically acclaimed films–the financial comedy-drama The Big Short (2015) and the musical La La Land (2016). For the latter, he won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy and received a second Oscar nomination.

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 a supporter of PETA, Invisible Children, and the Enough Project and has traveled to Chad, Uganda and eastern Congo to raise awareness about conflicts in the regions. He has been in a relationship with actress Eva Mendes since 2011, and they have two daughters together.