Matthew Paige Damon (born October 8, 1970) is an American film actor and screenwriter.

Born in Cambridge, Massachusetts the son of an investment banker and realtor, Kent Damon, and an early-childhood education professor, Nancy Carlsson-Paige, who are mostly of British, Finnish and German ancestry. He attended Cambridge Rindge and Latin, the only public High School in Cambridge, MA where he helped the school win many state drama festivals. Damon's first film job was one line in the romantic comedy Mystic Pizza (1988). He went on to attend Harvard University, but dropped out a few credits shy of graduating to pursue his acting career, a move that brought him to Los Angeles. He, Ben Affleck, Rory Cochrane, and Matthew McConaughey are good friends.