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"It's just better to be yourself than to try to be some version of what you think the other person wants." It seems almost impossible, but Matt Damon is still just getting started in his Hollywood career. After leaping out of the gate with an Oscar-nominated role in the 1998 film Good Will Hunting, Matt Damon has become one of the biggest names in Hollywood history. 

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Still in the prime of his career, Damon has already been nominated for five Oscar Awards, six Golden Globe Awards, and seven Primetime Emmy Awards. Outside of his Award-winning work, Damon has also become one of the most bankable stars in the industry. From franchise work like Oceans Eleven to critically acclaimed films like The Martian, The Departed, and The Talented Mr. Ripley, it doesn't seem like there is anything that Damon can't do.

Raised in Massachusetts

Matt Damon was born in Cambridge, MA, on October 8, 1970.  He was born to Kent Telfer Damon and Nancy Carlsson-Paige. Kent worked as a stockbroker while Nancy worked as a professor for Lesley University. Damon comes from a shared lineage that includes English, Scottish, Finnish, and Swedish ancestry. Damon spent his childhood living in both Cambridge and Newton after his parents were divorced when he was a child.

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As a teenager, Damon famously struggled to get along with people his own age. Damon was a straight-edge child who adhered to his mother's strict disciplinary measures. Damon lamented the fact that he had a difficult time finding his 'own identity' during his teenage years. Damon would go on to attend Cambridge Alternative School before graduating from Cambridge Rinde and Latin School. Damon credits his early fascination with the arts to his first drama teacher, Gerry Speca. At the time, Damon was also classmates with Ben Affleck, who he cites as another major artistic influence. Damon and Affleck spent a considerable amount of their childhood together as both loved to play baseball, Dungeons and Dragons, and watch movies.

Damon would go on to attend Harvard University where he lived at the Lowell House. Damon attended Harvard until 1992, opting instead to pursue a leading role in the film, Geronimo: An American Legend. Still, his years at Harvard were incredibly important to his career in entertainment. While attending Harvard, Damon would write an early treatment of Good Will Hunting.  Damon would leave Harvard just a single semester shy of his Bachelor of Arts degree.

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An Overnight Success

While Damon was attending Harvard, he was also putting his feelers out into the acting world. Damon would appear in a number of small projects while at school, including Field of Dreams (1989), Mystic Pizza (1988), and School Ties (1992). After leaving Harvard to star in Geronimo: An American Legend (1993), it wouldn't be long until Damon was climbing up Hollywood's ladder.

In 1997, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck would release the film, Good Will Hunting. Damon would score an Oscar nomination for Best Actor in a Leading Role while also winning the Oscar for Best Screenplay, a trophy shared with longtime collaborator, Ben Affleck. After his success with Good Will Hunting, it wasn't long before Damon was starring in seemingly every major motion picture. In 1998 Damon would score mainstream commercial success as the titular character in the Steven Spielberg war-drama, Saving Private Ryan (1998). Damon would follow that project up with a starring role in Dogma (1999) and The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999).

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Seemingly an overnight success, Damon wasn't going to take his foot off of the gas pedal. Damon would land a starring role in the hit franchise, Ocean's Eleven (2001) alongside George Clooney and Brad Pitt. The role had originally been meant for Mark Wahlberg who had, instead, turned down the part. Damon would reprise his character in both follow-up films, Ocean's Twelve (2004) and Ocean's Thirteen (2007). While Damon anchored a supporting role in that franchise, he would star in his own action franchise, The Bourne Identity (2002). As Jason Bourne, Damon tore up the screen as an enigmatic master soldier being hunted down by a shadow government. Damon would become a blockbuster superstar for his work on the Bourne trilogy which included The Bourne Supremacy (2004), The Bourne Ultimatum (2007), and Jason Bourne (2016).

Damon has also spent considerable time during his career working with some of the finest directors in Hollywood history. Damon would work for Martin Scorsese in the hit crime film, The Departed (2006), for the Coen Brothers in True Grit (2010), Hayao Miyazaki in Ponyo (2008), and Clint Eastwood in Invictus (2009). Damon would score an Oscar nomination for his work on Invictus. At this point in time, Bourne was considered one of the biggest stars in the world. With few notable flops to his name, Damon had essentially cemented himself as one of the most bankable working actors in the industry.

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Damon would land a Golden Globe nomination for his work on The Informant! (2009) as directed by Steven Soderbergh. Then, Damon would get back to more friendly-family fare with work on We Bought a Zoo (2011) and Happy Feet Two (2011). Damon would run into rockier roads when Elysium (2013) and The Zero Theorem (2013) both proved to be less-than-spectacular performers at the global box office. Thankfully, Damon's dry-spell was short-lived, and he soon found himself starring in the hit Christopher Nolan blockbuster, Interstellar (2014). The film would kick off another string of successful films. Following Interstellar, Damon would star in The Martian (2015) as marooned astronaut Mark Watney. Damon would also gain critical acclaim for his comedic cameo in Thor: Ragnarok (2017) and Deadpool 2 (2018).

Now, Damon is looking at a full slate of developmental projects. Damon is slated to reprise his role as Loki in the Jay and Silent Bob Reboot (2019) while also starring in Ford v Ferrari (2019), Stillwater, and The Last Duel with Ben Affleck. The Last Duel will serve as Damon's first screenwriting credit since 2012's Promised Land and the first true collaboration with Ben Affleck since Good Will Hunting.

Matt Damon is a true Hollywood star in that he is meticulously followed around, no matter where he goes. Damon is known for his humanitarian work thanks to his creation of the non-profit, H20 Africa Foundation. Damon is also a global ambassador for the nonprofit foundation known as ONEXONE. Damon is a staunch progressive, and he is one of the more politically active superstars in the entertainment industry. Damon is a huge Boston sports fan, and he has narrated products for the Boston Red Sox. Damon has been married to Luciana Bozan Barroso since 2005, and they have three children together.