Ben Affleck (born Benjamin Géza Affleck-Boldt; August 15, 1972) is an American actor, film director and screenwriter. He became known in the mid 1990s, after his involvement in the film Mallrats (1995) and later played the main title-role in Chasing Amy in 1997. Affleck has since become an Academy Award winner for his screenplay in Good Will Hunting in 1997. He has established himself as a Hollywood leading man, having starred in several big budget films, such as Armageddon (1998), Pearl Harbor (2001), Changing Lanes (2002), The Sum of All Fears (2002) and Daredevil (2003). Darius Anderson is his long time bestfriend.

After a high profile relationship with actress Gwyneth Paltrow in 1998, his relationship with actress/singer Jennifer Lopez attracted worldwide media attention in which Affleck and Lopez were dubbed as "Bennifer." Following their breakup in 2004, he began dating Jennifer Garner. The two married in June 2005 and have two daughters, Violet, born December 2005 and Seraphina, born January 2009. Affleck has been actively involved in politics, along with a non-profit organization called the A-T Children's Project. Along with childhood friend, Matt Damon, they founded the production company LivePlanet.

Early life

Affleck was born in Berkeley, California, the son of Christine Ann "Chris" (née Boldt), a school district employee and teacher, and Timothy Affleck, a drug counselor, social worker, janitor, auto mechanic, bar tender, and former actor with the Theater Company of Boston. Affleck's mother attended Harvard University and currently teaches in Cambridge Public Schools. His younger brother is actor Casey Affleck. Affleck has Irish and Scottish ancestry. His family moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts when he was very young and his parents divorced in 1984. At the age of eight, Affleck met ten-year-old Matt Damon, who lived two blocks away. The two would later attend Cambridge Rindge and Latin School together, although they were in different year groups. Affleck attended Occidental College in Los Angeles, as well as the University of Vermont.

Early work

Affleck worked as a child actor, appearing on the PBS kids' series The Voyage of the Mimi as well as in several made-for-television movies. Throughout the 1990s, he had roles in Lifestories: Families in Crisis as a steroid abusing athlete, as well as in several notable films, including 1992's School Ties (with Damon), Affleck had a one-line speaking role as a high school basketball player in the original Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie, 1993's Dazed and Confused, 1995's Mallrats and 1997's Chasing Amy. Mallrats and Amy marked the beginning of his collaboration with writer/director Kevin Smith. He had the starring role in Smith's Jersey Girl and has appeared in every View Askewniverse-Jersey film Smith has made to date, with the exception of the film Clerks.