Ben Affleck: Celebrity Profile

Job: Actor

Born: Benjamin Geza Affleck, August 15, 1972, in Berkeley, CA

Personal: Engaged to actress/singer Jennifer Lopez

• Raised in Cambridge, MA, Ben made his acting debut in a Burger King commercial as a child.
• When he was just 8, he was cast in the PBS miniseries, Voyage of the Mimi.
• As a teenager, Ben acted sporadically, appearing in television movies including The Second Voyage of the Mimi in 1988 and Danielle Steel's Daddy in 1991.
• He made his big-screen debut opposite Brendan Fraser and pal Matt Damon in 1992's School Ties.
• In 1993, he was cast in the comedy Dazed and Confused and followed it with a pair of Kevin Smith films, 1995's Mallrats and 1997's Chasing Amy.
• Frustrated after a career slowdown, Ben and childhood friend Matt Damon decided to pen their own script.
• Good Will Hunting, distributed by Miramax in 1997, was nominated for nine Academy Awards and won two, including Best Screenplay for Ben and Matt. The duo also earned a Golden Globe for their writing efforts.
• The film proved to be Ben's breakthrough and he followed the success with starring roles in the blockbusters Armageddon, Pearl Harbor, and Shakespeare in Love.
• Throughout his career, Ben has balanced romantic leading man roles (Bounce, Jersey Girl) with action heroes (Reindeer Games, The Sum of All Fears).
• In 2001, Ben and Matt, along with producer Chris Moore sponsored a screenwriting contest called Project Greenlight. A film written by Pete Jones was selected as the winner and the filming of the movie was turned into an Emmy-nominated HBO documentary. Project Greenlight 2 premieres in 2003.
• Ben has also produced several other projects including the short-lived 2002 series Push, Nevada, which he also wrote.

• Ben met his friend and collaborator Matt Damon when he was just 8 years old. The two played little league and took drama classes together.
• He owns vintage Ms. Pac-Man and Millipede video arcade games, along with five motorcycles.
• He dropped out of the University of Vermont after one semester and lasted just one year at Occidental College.
• Ben and Matt appeared as extras in the 1989 Kevin Costner baseball film Field of Dreams.
• Ben is known for being an excellent impressionist and once impersonated his Sum of All Fears costar Morgan Freeman so accurately, Freeman told him "You ever do that again, I'll kill you."
• He is engaged to actress/singer Jennifer Lopez and presented her with a $3.5 million engagement ring.
• Ben is the son of a social worker and a school teacher.