Matt

Damon

Matt Damon is one of today’s most respected and in-demand actors and has been honored for his diverse career achievements on both sides of the camera.

In 2022, Damon partnered with Ben Affleck to launch Artists Equity, a production venture that vows to expand profit participation and provide a talent-friendly environment to creatives. The first film produced by the duo under their new banner is Air, in which Damon stars, alongside Affleck, Viola Davis, Jason Bateman, Marlon Wayans and Chris Tucker. Directed by Affleck, the highly acclaimed movie about the groundbreaking 1984 shoe deal between Nike and then-rookie Michael Jordan premiered at the 2023 SXSW Film Festival.

Recent projects of Artists Equity include Apple’s heist comedy The Instigators, and the U2 documentary feature Kiss the Future. Upcoming releases include the biographical sports drama Unstoppable, the historical drama starring Cillian Murphy, Small Things Like These, the action thriller The Accountant 2 and the musical drama Kiss of the Spider Woman.

Damon appeared in several film and television roles before being catapulted to fame in 1997’s hit drama Good Will Hunting, which he co-wrote and starred in with his lifelong friend, Ben Affleck. The duo won an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay and also earned a Writers Guild of America Award nomination, and several critics group awards. For his performance in the film, Damon received an Academy Award nomination, as well as two Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Award nominations, one for Best Actor and another for Outstanding Motion Picture Cast.

Damon has since earned numerous other acting honors, including two more Oscar nominations, the latest in the category of Best Actor, for his performance as an astronaut stranded on Mars, in Ridley Scott’s 2015 hit The Martian, for which he also won a Golden Globe and received BAFTA and Critics’ Choice Award nominations. In 2009, he was Oscar-nominated, for Best Supporting Actor, for his portrayal of South African rugby hero Francois Pienaar in Clint Eastwood’s true-life drama Invictus, also gaining SAG and Critics’ Choice Award nominations.

Hailing from Boston, Damon attended Harvard University and gained his first acting experience with the American Repertory Theatre. He made his film debut in Mystic Pizza, followed by roles in School Ties, Walter Hill’s Geronimo: An American Legend, and the cable projects Rising Son and Tommy Lee Jones’ The Good Old Boys. However, it was his portrayal of a guilt-stricken Gulf War veteran in 1996’s Courage Under Fire that first caught the attention of both critics and audiences.

Damon’s early film credits also include Francis Ford Coppola’s The Rainmaker; the title role in Steven Spielberg’s award-winning World War II drama Saving Private Ryan; John Dahl’s drama Rounders; Kevin Smith’s controversial comedy Dogma, alongside Affleck; and another title role, in Anthony Minghella’s The Talented Mr. Ripley.

In 2001, Damon joined the all-star ensemble cast of the mega-hit heist film Ocean’s Eleven, which marked his first collaboration with director Steven Soderbergh, followed by Ocean’s Twelve and Ocean’s Thirteen. Soderbergh also directed him in The Informant!, Contagion, Che: Part Two, and HBO’s acclaimed biopic Behind the Candelabra, for which Damon received Emmy, SAG, and BAFTA Award nominations.

For his work on the small screen, Damon has also earned two more Emmy Award nominations, both for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series, for his role on 30 Rock and for hosting Saturday Night Live.

Damon originated the role of Jason Bourne in Doug Limon’s 2002 blockbuster The Bourne Identity. He reprised the role in three more action hits: The Bourne Supremacy, The Bourne Ultimatum, and Jason Bourne, all directed by Paul Greengrass. Damon also worked with Greengrass in 2010’s Green Zone.

His film acting credits during that decade also include Robert Redford’s The Legend of Bagger Vance; Billy Bob Thornton’s All the Pretty Horses; Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, directed by George Clooney; the Farrelly brothers’ comedy Stuck on You; Terry Gilliam’s The Brothers Grimm; Stephen Gaghan’s geopolitical thriller Syriana; Martin Scorsese’s Oscar-winning Best Picture The Departed; Robert De Niro’s dramatic thriller The Good Shepherd; Hereafter, which reunited him with Eastwood; and the Coen brothers’ remake of the classic Western True Grit.

Damon went on to star in George Nolfi’s thriller The Adjustment Bureau, Kenneth Lonergan’s Margaret, Cameron Crowe’s We Bought a Zoo, Gus Van Sant’s Promised Land, Neil Blomkamp’s sci-fi thriller Elysium, Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar, Yimou Zhang’s The Great Wall, Alexander Payne’s Downsizing, and the Clooney-directed films Monuments Men and Suburbicon.

He most recently starred in The Instigators, which premiered on Apple TV+; Pixar’s live-action fantasy comedy IF, where he voiced the role of “Flower”; Focus Feature’s Drive Away Dolls for director Ethan Coen; Oppenheimer for director Christopher Nolan; Ford v Ferrari for director James Mangold; Tom McCarthy’s Stillwater; and Taika Waititi’s action adventure hit Thor: Love and Thunder for Marvel Studios. In addition, Damon starred in Ridley Scott’s The Last Duel, for which he also co-wrote the screenplay, with Affleck and Nicole Holofcener, and was a producer.

In 2000, Damon teamed with Affleck and Chris Moore to form the production company LivePlanet, to produce film, television, and new media projects. LivePlanet produced the documentary Running the Sahara, directed by James Moll, as well as three seasons of the Emmy-nominated series Project Greenlight, chronicling the making of independent films by first-time writers and directors and spawning three features: Stolen Summer, The Battle of Shaker Heights and Feast. The series, which first aired on HBO and later Bravo, was resurrected and the fourth season aired on HBO in September 2015 under Damon and Affleck’s Pearl Street Productions banner.

Pearl Street Productions produced the aforementioned Jason Bourne; Promised Land, which was written and produced by Damon and John Krasinski and reunited Damon with director Gus Van Sant; Affleck’s Live By Night; and Kenneth Lonergan’s Manchester by the Sea, which received Academy Award, BAFTA Award, and Independent Spirit Award nominations for Best Picture, among other honors. The company also produced Incorporated, written and directed by Alex and David Pastor, for the Syfy Channel.

In addition, Damon served as an executive producer on the Showtime drama series City on A Hill. He also 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.

Apart from his film and television work, Damon co-founded H20 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. In 2022, Damon and his partner, Gary White, released their first book, The Worth of Water, the incredible true story of two unlikely allies on a mission to end the global water crisis for good.

In 2023, Damon joined Mark Ruffalo and Missy Yager in a special benefit reading of Kenneth Lonergan’s “This Is Our Youth,” the acclaimed Off Broadway play that premiered in 1996. The benefit show raised funds for the Center to save West Park Presbyterian Church on the Upper West Side from demolition.