Matt Damon , in full Matthew Paige Damon (born October 8, 1970, Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.), American actor, screenwriter, and producer who was noted for his clean-cut good looks and intelligent performances. He won an Academy Award for best original screenplay for Good Will Hunting (1997).

Damon was raised in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and attended the Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, where he took drama classes. At age 18 he landed a small part in Mystic Pizza (1988) and also enrolled in Harvard University as an English major. After appearing in the television movie Rising Son (1990), he left Harvard to pursue an acting career just 12 credits short of graduation. Roles in School Ties (1992) and Geronimo: An American Legend (1993) preceded his acclaimed performance as a young soldier forced to testify about a battle during the Persian Gulf War in Courage Under Fire (1996). This portrayal attracted the attention of director Francis Ford Coppola, who cast Damon as a novice lawyer opposite Danny DeVito in The Rainmaker (1997).

As Damon’s acting career met with success, he also pursued screenwriting. With longtime friend Ben Affleck, he developed the script for Good Will Hunting (1997). The film—based on a one-act play Damon had submitted for a course at Harvard—centres on a troubled but brilliant high-school dropout from Boston. The coauthors persuaded Miramax to let them star in the movie alongside veteran actor Robin Williams. The film garnered nine Oscar nominations, including best actor for Damon. In 1998, at age 27, he won (with Affleck) the Academy Award for best original screenplay.

Highly sought after, Damon appeared in numerous movies in the late 1990s, including Rounders (1998), Steven Spielberg’s World War II blockbuster Saving Private Ryan (1998), and Anthony Minghella’s The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999). After several box-office disappointments, Damon starred in two film series that were hugely popular. He portrayed one of several con men who join forces in the Ocean’s trilogy— Ocean’s