Matthew Paige Damon (born October 8, 1970) is an American actor and philanthropist. He won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for his screenwriting in Good Will Hunting, and was nominated for his lead performance in the same film. Growing steadily in popularity from the 1997 film, he has since matched up with A-list actors in mainstream films, and today is rated among the top actors in Hollywood.

Damon has starred in popular films such as Saving Private Ryan, The Talented Mr. Ripley, Ocean's Eleven, The Bourne Identity, Ocean's Twelve, The Bourne Supremacy, Syriana, The Brothers Grimm, The Good Shepherd, The Departed, Ocean's Thirteen and The Bourne Ultimatum. He has won multiple awards for his film performances and has received a star in the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Damon is one of the top twenty-five highest grossing actors of all time. In 2007, he was named Sexiest Man Alive by People magazine.

Damon has been actively involved in several charitable organizations, including the ONE Campaign and H2O Africa Foundation. With his wife, Luciana Bozán Barroso, Damon has two daughters, Isabella and Gia, and stepdaughter Alexia from Barroso's prior marriage.

Early life

Damon was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the son of Kent Telfer Damon, a stockbroker, realtor, and tax preparer, and Nancy Carlsson-Paige, an early childhood education professor at Lesley University. In an interview with Mail on Sunday, Damon stated that his grandfather is probably the most "impressive person he knows," stating, "He's Finnish, a very proud man, who would never take help from anybody. He came to America when he was a little boy, grew up during the Great Depression and sold shoes. He always used to tell us the story about getting a raise of three and a half cents, and how that was an incredible moment of success. He's extraordinary.". Damon is of English, Finnish, and Scottish ancestry. Damon has a brother, Kyle, who is an accomplished sculptor and artist. He and his family lived in Newton for the first two years of his life, but after his parents divorced, Damon and his brother moved with his mother to Cambridge.

Damon grew up near Ben Affleck, a close friend since childhood and future collaborator on several films, and historian and author Howard Zinn, whose biographical film You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train and audio version of A People's History of the United States Damon narrated. He attended Cambridge Rindge and Latin School in Cambridge, and performed in several theater productions. Damon graduated from the school in 1988 and began attending Harvard University the same year. He could have graduated in 1992, but chose to defer classes to pursue acting projects, including the TNT original film Rising Son and ensemble prep-school drama School Ties.Stated in interview on Inside the Actors Studio While at Harvard, he studied English and lived in Lowell House. He did not take part in student theater generally, but did appear in A... My Name is Alice (in one of the three male roles usually performed by women). Damon dropped out of the university to pursue his acting career in Los Angeles when Geronimo: An American Legend was expected to be a big success.