Celebrity News September 24, 2025
Leonardo DiCaprio Reveals Stage Name His First Agent Suggested
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Leonardo DiCaprio’s name is iconic, but he could have been going by a different name if he’d listened to his first talent agent!
During an appearance on Travis and Jason Kelce’s podcast “New Heights,” DiCaprio revealed that his agent thought his name was “too ethnic.”
He explained, “I go, ‘What do you mean? It’s Leonardo DiCaprio?’ They go, ‘No, too ethnic. They’re never going to hire you.’”
Leo was around 12 or 13 years old when this conversation was happening.
He recalled his agent suggesting Lenny Williams as a better name.
“I said, ‘What is Lenny?’… ‘We took your middle name [Wilhelm] and we made it your [last name]. Now you’re Lenny.’”
According to Leo, his dad George DiCaprio did not approve of the name change.
He went on, “My dad saw his photo, ripped it up, and he said, ‘Over my dead body.’”
Leonardo was on the podcast with his “One Battle After Another” co-star Benicio del Toro.
In response to Leonardo’s story, Jason joked that Benicio’s name should be Benny Dell, saying, “This podcast would not be the same with Lenny Williams and Benny Dell. I tell you that right now. That WWE intro would not sound the same.”
More than 10 years ago, Leo opened up about how his parents came up with his name.
DiCaprio recalled that his mom felt his baby kicks while she was looking at paintings in the Uffizi museum in Florence, Italy.
He told NPR, “My father took that as a sign, and I suppose DiCaprio wasn’t that far from da Vinci. And so, my dad, being the artist that he is, said, ‘That’s our boy’s name.’”
