Matt Damon was the founder of H2O Africa Foundation, the charitable arm of the Running the Sahara expedition, which merged with WaterPartners to create Water.org in July 2009.
Matthew Paige “Matt” Damon (born October 8, 1970) is an American actor, screenwriter, producer, and philanthropist whose career was launched following the success of the drama film Good Will Hunting (1997) from a screenplay he co-wrote with friend and actor Ben Affleck.
Matt Damon was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the son of a stockbroker, and an early childhood education professor. His father is of Scottish and English ancestry, while his mother is of Finnish and Swedish descent. He and his family moved to Newton and lived there for two years. After his parents divorced, Damon and his brother moved with their mother back to Cambridge.
Matt Damon grew up near actor Ben Affleck, a close friend since childhood and collaborator on several films (Damon is Affleck’s tenth cousin, once removed, through a common New England ancestor). Another neighbor of Damon’s was historian and author Howard Zinn.
Hailing from Boston, Damon attended Harvard University and gained his first acting experience with the American Repertory Theatre. He made his feature 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.” He first gained attention with his portrayal of a guilt-ridden Gulf War veteran tormented by memories of a battlefield incident in 1996’s Courage Under Fire.
Matt Damon Filmography
2017 Downsizing
2016 The Great Wall
2016 Untitled Matt Damon/Bourne Sequel
2015 The Martian
2014 Interstellar
2013 The Zero Theorem
2014 The Monuments Men
2013 Elysium
2013 Behind the Candelabra
2012 Promised Land
2011 We Bought a Zoo
2011 Happy Feet Two
2011 Margaret
2011 Contagion
2011 The Adjustment Bureau
2010 True Grit
2010 Hereafter
2010 Green Zone
2009 Invictus
2009 The Informant!
2008 Ponyo (voice: English version)
2008 Che: Part Two
2007 Youth Without Youth
2007 The Bourne Ultimatum
2007 Ocean’s Thirteen
2006 The Good Shepherd
2006 The Departed
2005 Syriana
2005 Magnificent Desolation: Walking on the Moon 3D
2005 The Brothers Grimm
2004 Ocean’s Twelve
2004 The Bourne Supremacy
2004 Jersey Girl
2004 EuroTrip
2003 Stuck on You
2002 Confessions of a Dangerous Mind
2002 The Bourne Identity
2002 The Third Wheel
2002 Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron (voice)
2002 Gerry
2001 The Majestic (voice)
2001 Ocean’s Eleven
2000 All the Pretty Horses
2000 Finding Forrester
2000 The Legend of Bagger Vance
2000 Titan A.E. (voice)
1999 The Talented Mr. Ripley
1999 Dogma
1998 Rounders
1998 Saving Private Ryan
1997 Good Will Hunting
1997 The Rainmaker
1997 Chasing Amy
1996 Courage Under Fire
1995 Glory Daze
1995 The Good Old Boys
1993 Geronimo: An American Legend
1992 School Ties
1990 Rising Son
1989 Field of Dreams (uncredited)
1988 The Good Mother (uncredited)
1988 Mystic Pizza
