"Eventually stardom is going to go away from me. It goes away from everybody and all you have in the end is to be able to look back and like the choices you made. "

Damon in Demand!

Matt Damon is an American actor made famous for his acting and screenwriting of Good Will Hunting (1997).

Matt Damon was born Matthew Paige Damon in Cambridge, Massachusetts to Kent Telfer Damon and Nancy Carlsson-Paige. His father was a realtor and worked in tax preparation. His mother was a professor of early childhood education at Lesley University. Damon has one brother, Kyle, who is a sculptor.

Damon attended public school until his admission to Harvard University in 1988. While at Harvard he studied English but his college career was broken up in pursuit of his acting career. He first began with a few lines in Mystic Pizza (1988). Between classes he took on roles in the films Rising Sun (1990) and School Ties (1992). Finally, leaving school before his final semester for a part in the film Geronimo: An American Legend (1993).

His next portrayal was a drug addicted soldier in Courage Under Fire (1996). Damon was required to lose 40 pounds within a hundred days for the part and received medical attention for several years after for the extreme stress his body endured.

Damon and personal friend and fellow actor, Ben Affleck, wrote the screenplay for Good Will Hunting (1997). The film was originally intended to be a thriller but with the guidance of Rob Reiner, they changed the focus of the script earning Damon and Affleck an Academy award for best original screenplay. Damon was also nominated best actor for his leading part in the film.

Following the success of their film, Damon and Affleck co-founded Project Greenlight; a production company established to fund worthy film projects by novice filmmakers.

Other notable films with Damon include: The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), Dogma (1999), The Legend of Bagger Vance (2000), Ocean's Eleven (2001), Stuck on You (2003), The Bourne Identity (2002), The Bourne Supremacy (2004), Ocean's Twelve(2004), The Brothers Grimm (2005), Syriana (2005), The Good Shepard (2006), The Departed (2006) and Infernal Affairs (2006).

The final films to complete the Ocean's trilogy, Ocean's Thirteen , and the Bourne trilogy, The Bourne Ultimatum , are due for release in 2007. Also for release in 2007, Damon has a supporting role in the film Margaret and a cameo in Youth Without Youth.

Damon supports ONE, a campaign fighting AIDS and poverty in third world countries.

Growing up, Damon was neighbors with Howard Zinn. He included Zinn's book, A People's History (1980) in the dialogue of Good Will Hunting and narrated the documentary on Zinn titled, You Can't be Neutral on a Moving Train (2004).

Damon married Argentine-born Luciana Bozan Barroso in 2005. Barroso was a bartender at the nightclub Crobar in Miami Beach when she met Damon. Barroso has one daughter, Alexia, from a previous marriage. The couple had their first child, Isabella, in 2006.