Matt Damon

Matt Damon is considered one of the most revered actors in Hollywood today, in terms of talent and box-office draw, his varied and rich career has seen him in front of and behind the camera.

Though far from an overnight success, Damon catapulted into the public eye in 1997 with his first Academy Award® nomination and win for co-writing Good Will Hunting with his lifelong friend Ben Affleck. The script also earned the pair a Golden Globe Award nomination as well as several critics' group nominations and wins, and feted Damon with Academy Award®, Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild (SAG) nominations in the Best Actor category.

More recognition followed as Damon earned his third Golden Globe Award nomination for his performance in 1999's The Talented Mr. Ripley, under the direction of Anthony Minghella; and in 2009, he was nominated for an Academy Award®, SAG and Critics' Choice Movie Award in the Best Supporting Actor category, for his portrayal of South African rugby hero Francois Pienaar in Clint Eastwood's true-life drama Invictus. That same year he garnered a Golden Globe nomination for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Comedy or Musical for his starring role in Steven Soderbergh's The Informant! The connection with Soderbergh proved to be a successful one as he and Damon have collaborated for seven films over his career, including the heist blockbuster films Ocean's Eleven, Ocean's Twelve and Ocean's Thirteen; and in 2013 for the HBO television movie Behind the Candelabra, where Damon played opposite Michael Douglas, which earned Primetime Emmy Award, Golden Globe Award, SAG and BAFTA Award nominations for Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries.

Hailing from Boston, Damon attended Harvard University and gained his first acting experience with the American Repertory Theater. He made his feature-film debut in Mystic Pizza, followed by roles in School Ties, Walter Hill's Geronimo: An American Legend, the cable project's Rising Son and Tommy Lee Jones' The Good Old Boys. However, it was Damon's portrayal of a guilt-ridden Gulf War veteran tormented by memories of a battlefield incident, in 1996's Courage Under Fire, that first put him on the radar of both critics and audiences alike.

In 1998, Damon played the title role in Steven Spielberg's award-winning World War II drama Saving Private Ryan and also starred in John Dahl's drama Rounders with Edward Norton. He reunited with Affleck and director Kevin Smith to star in the controversial comedy Dogma, in 1999.

Damon's more recent film, Ridley Scott's outer space actioner The Martian, in which he played Mark Watney, an astronaut stranded on Mars who struggles to survive until he can be rescued, opened to stellar reviews and is a huge success at the box office. The film received seven nominations at the Academy Awards® with Damon receiving a nomination for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role.

Damon shot Alexander Payne's Downsizing alongside Kristen Wiig, Jason Sudeikis and Christoph Waltz. Damon originated the character of Jason Bourne in 2002 in the blockbuster action film The Bourne Identity and reprised the role in The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum, where he reteamed with director Paul Greengrass, who helmed the latter two.

In  2017, Damon starred in Yimou Zhang's The Great Wall, which is centered around the construction of the Great Wall of China. Additionally, Damon was a producer on the Kenneth Lonergan-directed drama Manchester by the Sea, which stars Casey Affleck and Michelle Williams. The film premiered at Sundance Film Festival in 2016.

Damon's other film credits include Smith's Chasing Amy; Francis Ford Coppola's The Rainmaker, in which he played an idealistic young attorney; Robert Redford's The Legend of Bagger Vance; Billy Bob Thornton's All the Pretty Horses; Gerry for director Gus Van Sant; a cameo appearance in George Clooney's Confessions of a Dangerous Mind; Terry Gilliam's The Brothers Grimm, which also starred Heath Ledger; the Farrelly brothers' comedy Stuck on You, which also starred Greg Kinnear; Stephen Gaghan's geopolitical thriller Syriana, which also starred Clooney; Martin Scorsese's Oscar®-winning The Departed, which also starred Leonardo DiCaprio, Jack Nicholson and Mark Wahlberg; Robert De Niro's dramatic thriller The Good Shepherd, with De Niro and Angelina Jolie; Greengrass' action thriller Green Zone; the drama Hereafter, which reunited him with director Eastwood; the Coen brothers' remake of the classic western True Grit; George Nolfi's thriller The Adjustment Bureau, opposite Emily Blunt; Soderbergh's thriller Contagion, Lonergan's Margaret; Happy Feet 2; We Bought a Zoo, directed by Cameron Crowe; the sci-fi thriller Elysium for director Neill Blomkamp; Clooney's The Monuments Men; and Christopher Nolan's Interstellar.

In 2000, Damon reteamed with Affleck to form the production company LivePlanet, to produce film, television and new media projects. LivePlanet produced the documentary Running the Sahara, directed by Oscar® winner James Moll, as well as three seasons of the Primetime Emmy Award-nominated series Project Greenlight, chronicling the making of independent films by first-time writers and directors, which spawned the three features Stolen Summer, The Battle of Shaker Heights and Feast.

The series, which first aired on Bravo, has been resurrected on HBO and premiered its fourth season in September 2015 under Damon and Affleck's banner, Pearl Street Productions. Pearl Street recently co-produced Promised Land, which reunited Damon with director Van Sant and was written and produced by Damon and John Krasinski.

Working with Jennifer Todd, president of Pearl Street Films, which has a first-look deal with Warner Bros. Pictures, they are currently in pre-production on Affleck's Live By Night. The company produced the pilot of Incorporated for the Syfy Channel which Àlex and David Pastor wrote and directed. Other projects include Bunker Hill: A City, a Siege, a Revolution and Apostle Paul, which Hugh Jackman is attached to star in.

For the small screen, Damon both executive produced and appeared in the History Channel project The People Speak, based on a book co-written by famed historian Howard Zinn and featuring dramatic readings and performances from some of the most famous names in the entertainment industry.

In addition, Damon co-founded H2O Africa in 2006, now known as Water.org, a foundation that brings clean water and sanitation to countries around the world that suffer without that simple need.

Universal Pictures US