Matt Damon

Matthew Paige "Matt" Damon (; born October 8, 1970) is an American actor and filmmaker. Born and raised in Cambridge, Damon made his professional acting debut in the film Mystic Pizza (1988). He came to prominence in 1998 when he and Ben Affleck wrote and starred in Good Will Hunting, which won them the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay and earned him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor. He received further praise for performances as the eponymous character in Saving Private Ryan (1998), the anti-hero in The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), a fallen angel in Dogma, and received critical acclaim for performances in dramas such as Syriana (2005) and The Good Shepherd, as well as his role as a villain in the neo-noir crime drama The Departed (2006). For his supporting role as rugby player Francois Piennar in Invictus (2009) and his leading role as an astronaut stranded on Mars in The Martian (2015), he has received Academy Award nominations.