Bio
Matthew McConaughey is an American actor who first gained rose to fame with his breakout role in the coming of age cult classic comedy film Dazed and Confused, in 1993.
He went on to appear in films in a variety of genres including the slasher Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation (1994), the legal thriller A Time to Kill (1996), Steven Spielberg's historical drama Amistad (1997), the science fiction drama Contact (1997), the comedy EDtv (1999) and the war film U-571 (2000).
In the 2000s he became best known for starring in romantic comedies, including The Wedding Planner (2001), How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days (2003), Failure to Launch (2006) and Ghosts of Girlfriends Past (2009).
Since 2010 he has moved away from romantic comedies and has had critically acclaimed roles in the films The Lincoln Lawyer (2011), Bernie (2011), Killer Joe (2011), Mud (2012) and Magic Mike (2012).
He achieved further success in 2013 for portraying a homophobic cowboy diagnosed with AIDS in the biographical film Dallas Buyers Club which earned him the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Drama and an Academy Award for Best Actor nomination, among other awards and nominations.
He also has a starring role as Detective Rust Cohle, a Louisiana State Police detective who transferred out of Texas law enforcement and who holds a negative view of society which sometimes puts him at odds with his partner, Martin Hart, and the rest of the force, in the crime drama anthology series True Detective.
A chance meeting in Austin with casting director and producer Don Phillips led him to director Richard Linklater, who launched the actor's career in the cult classic Dazed and Confused.
Since then, he has appeared in over 40 feature films that have grossed over $1-billion; and has become a producer, director and philanthropist.
He won a Spirit Award in 2012 for his portrayal of Dallas Rising in Steven Soderbergh's Magic Mike, and was named the year's Best Supporting Actor by both the New York Film Critics Circle and the National Society of Film Critics for his work in Magic Mike and Richard Linklater's Bernie.
McConaughey also received acclaim that year for his performance in Lee Daniels' The Paperboy and was a Spirit Award nominee for playing the title role in William Friedkin's Killer Joe.
McConaughey followed these roles with the critically acclaimed and much anticipated Dallas Buyers Club, for which he dropped 47 pounds to play to role of AIDS stricken Ron Woodruff. The film was directed by Jean Marc Valle and also stars Jennifer Garner and Jared Leto.
For his riveting portrayal, McConaughey was nominated for a Golden Globe Award, Screen Actors Guild Award and Critics' Choice Movie Award. He also won the Gotham award for Best Actor.
Jeff Nichols' Mud was also released in 2013. A sleeper hit in the national box office top 10 for five weeks, it received rave reviews. McConaughey ends the year starring opposite Leonardo DiCaprio in Martin Scorsese's The Wolf of Wall Street.
In the first quarter of 2014, he could be seen starring alongside Woody Harrelson in the HBO dramatic series True Detective. He also stars in Interstellar, directed by Christopher Nolan.
His other films include Brad Furman's The Lincoln Lawyer, Ben Stiller's Tropic Thunder, McG's We Are Marshall, Jill and Karen Sprecher's Thirteen Conversations About One Thing, Bill Paxton's Frailty, Jonathan Mostow's U-571, Ron Howard's EDtv, Richard Linklater's The Newton Boys, Steven Spielberg's Amistad, Robert Zemeckis' Contact, Joel Schumacher's A Time to Kill and John Sayles' Lone Star.
In 2008, McConaughey started the "just keep livin Foundation", which is dedicated to helping boys and girls transform into men and women through programs that teach the importance of decision-making, health, education and active living.
The foundation partnered with Communities in Schools (CIS) - the nation's largest, non-profit, dropout-prevention organisation - in West Los Angeles to implement fitness and wellness programs in two large urban high schools.
Through an afterschool program, they are able to give kids a healthy start in life and the promise of a healthy future.