Road to the 2024 Oscars: Ryan Gosling's '90s and 2000s roles, from 'Breaker High' to 'The Notebook'

Long before Ryan Gosling gave us the "Kenergy" in Barbie, the Oscar-nominated actor from Ontario was a Mouseketeer and a Canadian TV sensation.

Before the 2024 Oscars, where we'll see Gosling perform "I'm Just Ken" and possibly win his first Oscar, let's take a walk down memory lane with some of the actor's notable, and maybe even forgotten, roles in the 1990s and 2000s.

From charming and goofy characters, to being a brooding lead in more dramatic films, Gosling has been in a wide range of projects, some of which (we think) deserve more attention than they get.

The Mickey Mouse Club (1993-1994)

Back in 1993, a young Gosling was a Mouseketeer on Disney Channel's The Mickey Mouse Club, with legendary costars including Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Justin Timberlake and JC Chasez.

In fact, Gosling and Timberlake actually lived together when Timberlake's mother was Gosling's guardian he while working in the U.S.

Breaker High (1997-1998)

Following The Mickey Mouse Club, Gosling went on to appear in episodes of '90s Canadian-filmed shows like Are You Afraid of the Dark?, Goosebumps, Ready or Not and Flash Forward, but then was one of the stars of the series Breaker High, as Sean Hanlon.

For those of you who may have forgotten about one of our favourite '90s hits (which aired on YTV in Canada and UPN in the U.S.), or maybe you're too young to have watched them on TV at the time, the concept of Breaker High is centred around a group of teens who go to school on a cruise ship.

We're not exactly sure all these cruise routes we saw in each episode really make sense geographically, and in reality, these teen would probably be dealing with far more cruise-related illnesses than we saw on the show, but we absolutely adored the series.

A core part of Gosling's storyline was that Sean, often a bit of a goof ball with his friend Jimmy (Tyler Labine), had a significant will they-won't they arc with Rachel Wilson's character, Tamira.

If you were like us in the '90s, you begged your parents to let you stay up past your bedtime to watch Breaker High, with particular interest in finding out the latest evolution in Sean and Tamira's relationship.

The show had a bit of spike in interest in 2019, when Drake was spotted at a Toronto Raptors game wearing a Breaker High hoodie, which excited nostalgic Canadians.

Young Hercules (1998-1999)

Then we get to the part of Gosling's career that we do hear about a bit more, with Young Hercules, a TV series that aired from 1998 to 1999, more of an adventure tale for the actor, but with a comedic twist.

It's a role that peaked the interest of his Barbie costar, Margot Robbie.

"I'm a huge Xena and Hercules fan, and Ryan was young Hercules, and the world needs to know that," Robbie said in an interview with the Nerdist. "And the world also needs to Google this right now."

It came up again in an interview the pair did with W Magazine, where Robbie said it's her "favourite" thing he's ever done.

Remember the Titans (2000)

Still one of the most infamous movies from the 2000s, Gosling worked alongside Denzel Washington in the football film Remember the Titans, again, playing a character with a lovingly goofy personality.

For a little extra nostalgia, the film also features Kate Bosworth, Wood Harris, who ended up on The Wire and Empire, Scrubs and Clueless star Donald Faison, a very young Hayden Panettiere, and Ethan Suplee, who played fan favourite Boy Meets World character Frankie Stechino.

The Believer (2001)

Quite a departure from a project like Breaker High came a particularly disturbing role for Gosling in The Believer, which won the Sundance Film Festival's Grand Jury Prize in 2001.

Gosling plays Daniel Balint in the film, a Jewish man who is also a neo-Nazi, which he doesn't want to reveal to his gang of skinhead fascists.

That short summary is enough to understand how unsettling the movie is, but critics have continued to praise Gosling in his performance of this horrifying and thought-provoking project.

The United States of Leland (2003)

When most people think about Gosling and Michelle Williams together they will think of the 2010 movie Blue Valentine, but they actually worked together years earlier for the 2003 movie The United States of Leland, with a star-studded cast that also includes Don Cheadle, Kevin Spacey, Chris Klein, Lena Olin, Sherilyn Fenn, Michael Peña and Kerry Washington.

Gosling plays Leland, who ends up in a juvenile detention centre after he kills his ex-girlfriend's brother, Ryan.

The writer and director, Matthew Ryan Hoge, has gotten some criticism about the depiction of Ryan as autistic, which he defended in a Los Angeles Times piece in 2004.

The Notebook (2004)

Now we've reached one of the most notable films Gosling has ever done, The Notebook, with costar and now ex-girlfriend, fellow Canadian actor Rachel McAdams.

This movie, and Gosling and McAdams together, was so iconic. They quickly became one of the most beloved couples, and actors, of the 2000s and beyond.

And of course, who can forget their infamous kiss during the MTV Movie Awards, winning in the Best Kiss award, with the camera cutting to Lindsay Lohan's mouth agape, and Hilary Duff laughing and clapping. That may be the most iconic 2000s mix of people you can get.

Half Nelson (2006)

Gosling received his first Academy Award nomination for the 2006 movie Half Nelson, bringing his mother and sister to the ceremony.

Directed and co-written by Ryan Fleck, who went on to direct episodes of Billions and Masters of the Air, and co-directed the Marvel film Captain Marvel, Gosling plays Dan Dunne in Half Nelson, a middle-school teacher with a crack addiction.

One of his students at the Brooklyn school, Drey (Shareeka Epps), catches him doing drugs, she's terrified at what she's seen her teacher do, but it sets the pair off for an interesting friendship.

Lars and the Real Girl (2007)

We'll end this walk down memory lane with maybe the oddest movie Gosling has ever done, Lars and the Real Girl, directed by Craig Gillespie (I, Tonya, Dumb Money).

Gosling plays Lars Lindstrom, who starts dating someone he met on the internet, but it's a plastic doll, Bianca.

Even though the premise seems completely ridiculous, watching this back in 2007 we couldn't help but kind of fall in love with this story about loneliness. And a lot of that does really hinge on Gosling's performance.

From there, moving into the 2010s and beyond, Gosling's career continued to take off in dramas like Blue Valentine (2010), Drive (2011), The Ides of March (2011), The Place Beyond the Pines (2012) and First Man (2018), along with comedies like Crazy, Stupid, Love. (2011) and The Nice Guys (2016). He also starred the musical La La Land (2016).

While we wait to see if Gosling could take home his first Oscar for Barbie, and we continue to get excited about his performance at the ceremony, all of his fans, and Canadians in particular, can't get enough of our Ontario-raised celeb.