Matt Damon
About
Matt Damon (born Matthew Paige Damon, 8 October 1970) is an American actor, screenwriter and producer from Cambridge, Massachusetts. He is one of the most bankable leading men of his generation, equally at home anchoring an action franchise, disappearing into character work for auteur directors, and writing and producing his own material.
Damon broke through in 1997 with Good Will Hunting (1997), which he co-wrote with his childhood friend Ben Affleck. The pair won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, and Damon was nominated for Best Actor in the same year. He followed it with Saving Private Ryan (1998) for Steven Spielberg and a chilling turn as the title character in The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999).
Two franchises made him a global star: he played the amnesiac assassin Jason Bourne across The Bourne Identity (2002), The Bourne Supremacy (2004), The Bourne Ultimatum (2007) and Jason Bourne (2016), and the pickpocket Linus Caldwell in Steven Soderbergh's Ocean's trilogy. Alongside them he built a run of acclaimed dramatic work including The Departed (2006), Invictus (2009), True Grit (2010), The Martian (2015) and Ford v Ferrari (2019).
He is a regular in Christopher Nolan's company, appearing as the marooned Dr. Mann in Interstellar (2014), as General Leslie Groves in Oppenheimer (2023), and as Odysseus in The Odyssey (2026), Nolan's adaptation of Homer and the first feature shot entirely with IMAX film cameras.
Damon produces as well as acts. He founded Pearl Street Films with Ben Affleck in 2010 and the studio Artists Equity with him in 2022, and has taken producer credits on films including Manchester by the Sea (2016), The Last Duel (2021) and Air (2023).
Movie List
- The Odyssey (2026), as Odysseus
- The Rip (2026), as Lt. Dane Dumars; also producer
- The Instigators (2024), as Rory; also producer
- Oppenheimer (2023), as General Leslie Groves
- Air (2023), as Sonny Vaccaro; also producer
- The Last Duel (2021), as Jean de Carrouges; also co-writer and producer
- Stillwater (2021), as Bill Baker
- Ford v Ferrari (2019), as Carroll Shelby
- Downsizing (2017), as Paul Safranek
- Suburbicon (2017), as Gardner Lodge
- Jason Bourne (2016), as Jason Bourne; also producer
- The Great Wall (2016), as William Garin
- Manchester by the Sea (2016), producer
- The Martian (2015), as Mark Watney
- Interstellar (2014), as Dr. Mann
- The Monuments Men (2014), as James Granger
- Elysium (2013), as Max Da Costa
- Behind the Candelabra (2013), as Scott Thorson
- Promised Land (2012), as Steve Butler; also co-writer and producer
- We Bought a Zoo (2011), as Benjamin Mee
- Contagion (2011), as Mitch Emhoff
- The Adjustment Bureau (2011), as David Norris
- True Grit (2010), as LaBoeuf
- Hereafter (2010), as George Lonegan
- Green Zone (2010), as Roy Miller
- Invictus (2009), as François Pienaar
- The Informant! (2009), as Mark Whitacre
- The Bourne Ultimatum (2007), as Jason Bourne
- Ocean's Thirteen (2007), as Linus Caldwell
- The Departed (2006), as Sergeant Colin Sullivan
- The Good Shepherd (2006), as Edward Wilson
- Syriana (2005), as Bryan Woodman
- The Brothers Grimm (2005), as Wilhelm Grimm
- The Bourne Supremacy (2004), as Jason Bourne
- Ocean's Twelve (2004), as Linus Caldwell
- Stuck on You (2003), as Bob Tenor
- The Bourne Identity (2002), as Jason Bourne
- Ocean's Eleven (2001), as Linus Caldwell
- The Legend of Bagger Vance (2000), as Rannulph Junuh
- All the Pretty Horses (2000), as John Grady Cole
- The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), as Tom Ripley
- Dogma (1999), as Loki
- Saving Private Ryan (1998), as Private James Francis Ryan
- Rounders (1998), as Mike McDermott
- Good Will Hunting (1997), as Will Hunting; also co-writer
- The Rainmaker (1997), as Rudy Baylor
- Courage Under Fire (1996), as Specialist Ilario
- School Ties (1992), as Charlie Dillon
- Mystic Pizza (1988), as Steamer Windsor
Links
Academy Awards
Damon has received five Academy Award nominations and won once, for writing rather than acting.
- 1998 — Best Original Screenplay, Good Will Hunting (1997), shared with Ben Affleck — won
- 1998 — Best Actor, Good Will Hunting (1997) — nominated
- 2010 — Best Supporting Actor, Invictus (2009) — nominated
- 2016 — Best Actor, The Martian (2015) — nominated
- 2017 — Best Picture, Manchester by the Sea (2016) as producer — nominated
Collaborations
Damon works repeatedly with a small group of directors. He has made five films with Steven Soderbergh across the Ocean's trilogy, The Informant! (2009) and Contagion (2011), and three with Christopher Nolan in Interstellar (2014), Oppenheimer (2023) and The Odyssey (2026). His longest-running partnership is with Ben Affleck, stretching from Good Will Hunting (1997) through The Last Duel (2021) and Air (2023) to the founding of Pearl Street Films and Artists Equity.
