Benjamin Géza Affleck born August 15 1972 is an American actor and filmmaker His accolades include two Academy Awards and three Golden Globe Awards He began his career as a child when he starred in the PBS educational series The Voyage of the Mimi 1984 1988 He later appeared in the independent comingofage comedy Dazed and Confused 1993 and various Kevin Smith films including Mallrats 1995 Chasing Amy 1997 and Dogma 1999 Affleck gained wider recognition when he and childhood friend Matt Damon won the Golden Globe and Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for writing Good Will Hunting 1997 which they also starred in He then established himself as a leading man in studio films including the disaster film Armageddon 1998 the war drama Pearl Harbor 2001 and the thrillers The Sum of All Fears and Changing Lanes both 2002 After a career downturn during which he appeared in Daredevil 2003 and Gigli 2003 Affleck received a Golden Globe nomination for portraying George Reeves in the noir biopic Hollywoodland 2006 His directorial debut Gone Baby Gone 2007 which he also cowrote was well received He then directed cowrote and starred in the crime drama The Town 2010 and directed and starred in the political thriller Argo 2012 both were critical and commercial successes For the latter Affleck won the Golden Globe and BAFTA Award for Best Director and the Golden Globe BAFTA and Academy Award for Best Picture He has since starred in the psychological thriller Gone Girl 2014 the thriller The Accountant 2016 the actionadventure Triple Frontier 2019 and the sports drama The Way Back 2020 In 2016 he began portraying Batman in superhero films set in the DC Extended Universe Affleck is the cofounder of the Eastern Congo Initiative a grantmaking and advocacybased nonprofit organization He is also a stalwart supporter of the Democratic Party Affleck and Damon are coowners of the production company Pearl Street Films Description above from the Wikipedia article Ben Affleck licensed under CCBYSA full list of contributors on Wikipedia