Benjamin Géza Affleck-Boldt (born August 15, 1972) is a filmmaker and actor from the United States. He has won two Academy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, and a Volpi Cup. He got his start as a kid actor in the PBS educational programme The Voyage of the Mimi (1984, 1988).

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Later, he starred in the independent coming-of-age comedy Dazed and Confused (1993), as well as several Kevin Smith films, including Mallrats (1995), Chasing Amy (1997), and Dogma (1998).

Affleck rose to prominence after he and childhood friend Matt Damon won the Golden Globe and Academy Awards for Best Original Screenplay for their work on Good Will Hunting (1997), in which they also appeared.

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He later rose to prominence as a lead actor in studio pictures such as Armageddon (1998), Pearl Harbor (2001), and the thrillers The Sum of All Fears and Changing Lanes (both 2002).

Following a career slump in which he participated in Daredevil (2003) and Gigli (2003), Affleck won the Volpi Cup for Best Actor and was nominated for a Golden Globe for his portrayal of George Reeves in the noir biography Hollywoodland (2006). His directorial debut, Gone Baby Gone (2007), which he also co-wrote, earned positive reviews.

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He went on to direct, co-write, and appear in the criminal drama The Town (2010) and the political thriller Argo (2012), both of which were critical and commercial hits. Affleck earned the Golden Globe and BAFTA Award for Best Director, as well as the Golden Globe, BAFTA, and Academy Award for Best Picture for the latter.

Since then, he has appeared in several films, including the psychological thriller Gone Girl (2014), the thriller The Accountant (2016), the action-adventure Triple Frontier (2019), the sports drama The Way Back (2020), and the comedy-drama The Tender Bar (2021). In 2016, he began playing Batman in DC Extended Universe superhero flicks. 

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Affleck co-founded the Eastern Congo Initiative, a nonprofit organisation focused on grantmaking and lobbying. He also strongly supports the Democratic Party. Pearl Street Films is a production business co-owned by Affleck and Damon.

From 2005 through 2018, Affleck was married to actor Jennifer Garner. They began dating in August 2004, after meeting on the sets of Pearl Harbor (2001) and Daredevil (2002). (2003). They got married in a private Turks and Caicos wedding on June 29, 2005. The sole visitors were the ceremony’s officiant, Victor Garber, and his companion, Rainer Andreesen.

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Affleck and Garner are the parents of three children: Violet Anne (born December 2005), Seraphina Rose Elizabeth (born January 2009), and Samuel Garner (born February 2012). Affleck and Garner requested shared physical and legal custody of their children in their divorce paperwork.

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From 2002 to 2004, Affleck was in a relationship with Jennifer Lopez. Although they had met several times before (most notably at the 70th Academy Awards and the Armageddon premiere in 1998), their first major encounter was on the set of Gigli (2003) in December 2001. They began dating in July 2002, after Lopez filed for divorce from her second husband, Cris Judd.

Their love was well known, with tabloids dubbing the couple Bennifer, the first celebrity portmanteau. They co-starred in the music video for her song “Jenny from the Block” as well as the film Jersey Girl. Lopez dedicated an entire album to and inspired by Affleck, This Is Me… Then. They got engaged in November 2002, but their wedding on September 14, 2003, was cancelled with only four days’ notice due to “excessive media attention.” In January 2004, they called off their engagement.

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Affleck and Lopez maintained touch in the years following their split and publicly praised each other. They resumed their romance in April 2021, 20 years after they initially met, with Lopez publicly announcing it that July. Lopez has revealed her second engagement to Affleck, which will take place in April 2022. On July 16, 2022, they got married in Las Vegas.