Matt Damon

Matt Damon is an American actor, screenwriter, and film producer whose career spans independent drama, studio franchises, prestige ensembles, and production work. He was born Matthew Paige Damon on October 8, 1970, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Damon attended Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, where he acted in student productions and became friends with Ben Affleck, a close collaborator throughout his career.

Damon made early screen appearances in Mystic Pizza, School Ties, Geronimo: An American Legend, and Courage Under Fire before his breakthrough with Good Will Hunting in 1997. Damon and Affleck wrote the screenplay and starred in the film, which became a major critical and commercial success. The screenplay won the Academy Award and Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay, and Damon also received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor.

After Good Will Hunting, Damon established himself as a leading actor through The Rainmaker, Saving Private Ryan, The Talented Mr. Ripley, Dogma, and All the Pretty Horses. In the 2000s he became widely associated with two major film series: Steven Soderbergh's Ocean's films, in which he played Linus Caldwell, and the Bourne franchise, in which he played Jason Bourne. The Bourne Identity and its sequels helped redefine the modern spy-action film and became some of Damon's signature screen work.

Damon continued to alternate between commercial films and director-led dramas, appearing in Syriana, The Departed, The Good Shepherd, The Informant!, Invictus, True Grit, Contagion, Elysium, Interstellar, and The Martian. His performance as astronaut Mark Watney in The Martian won him a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy and brought another Academy Award nomination. He later appeared in Ford v Ferrari, Stillwater, The Last Duel, Air, and Oppenheimer.