Casey Affleck

Caleb Casey McGuire Affleck-Boldt, born August 12, 1975, is an American actor. He is best known for his performances in acclaimed feature films, including his critically recognized performances in 2007 and his lead role in the drama Manchester by the Sea (2016). Over the course of his career, he has been recognized with major industry accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, and a Golden Globe Award.

Affleck was born in Falmouth, Massachusetts, to Christopher Anne Boldt, an elementary school teacher, and Timothy Byers Affleck, who held various jobs including auto mechanic and stage manager. He was raised in Cambridge, Massachusetts, alongside his older brother, actor Ben Affleck. Encouraged by his mother, he participated in local weather commercials and acted in high school theater productions at Cambridge Rindge and Latin School. At age eighteen, he spent a year pursuing acting in Los Angeles before studying politics at George Washington University and later attending Columbia University, though he left school before graduating to continue acting.

Affleck began working professionally as a child, appearing in the PBS television film Lemon Sky (1988) and the miniseries The Kennedys of Massachusetts (1990). He made his feature film debut in Gus Van Sant's To Die For (1995), followed by a supporting role in Good Will Hunting (1997). During the late 1990s and early 2000s, he appeared in films such as Desert Blue (1998), 200 Cigarettes (1999), Drowning Mona (2000), Committed (2000), and Hamlet (2000). He achieved wider commercial recognition in Steven Soderbergh's Ocean's Eleven (2001), later reprising his role in Ocean's Twelve (2004) and Ocean's Thirteen (2007).

In 2002, Affleck co-wrote and starred in Van Sant's experimental drama Gerry alongside Matt Damon, and in 2006, he played his first leading film role in Steve Buscemi's independent comedy-drama Lonesome Jim. His breakthrough came in 2007 with his portrayal of Robert Ford in the Western drama The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, which earned him nominations for the Academy Award, Golden Globe Award, and Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Supporting Actor. That same year, he starred in the crime drama Gone Baby Gone, directed by his brother.

Affleck made his directorial debut with the 2010 mockumentary I'm Still Here. He subsequently appeared in Tower Heist (2011), ParaNorman (2012), Ain't Them Bodies Saints (2013), and Interstellar (2014). In 2016, he starred as a grieving janitor in Manchester by the Sea, winning the Academy Award for Best Actor. He has since appeared in A Ghost Story (2017), The Old Man & the Gun (2018), and played Boris Pash in the biographical thriller Oppenheimer (2023), which became his highest-grossing release.