Matthew McConaughey

Matthew McConaughey began his career in television commercials in the early 1990s. In 1992, he appeared in Trisha Yearwood's music video for "Walkaway Joe," featuring Don Henley, and acted in an episode of Unsolved Mysteries. He made his feature film debut as Guy 2 in My Boyfriend's Back (1993) and gained recognition playing Wooderson in Richard Linklater's Dazed and Confused (1993). His subsequent credits included Angels in the Outfield (1994), The Return of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1994), and the music video for Daniel Johnston's "Life in Vain" (1994). In 1995, he appeared in Boys on the Side and Scorpion Spring. In 1996, he played Jake Brigance in Joel Schumacher's legal drama A Time to Kill and appeared in Lone Star, Larger Than Life, and Glory Daze. He later starred in Contact and Amistad (both 1997), The Newton Boys (1998), EDtv (1999), and U-571 (2000).

In the early 2000s, McConaughey starred in several romantic comedies, including The Wedding Planner (2001) and How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days (2003). His other film credits during this period included Frailty (2001), Tiptoes (2003), Two for the Money (2005), and Sahara (2005). In 2006, he starred in Failure to Launch alongside Sarah Jessica Parker and portrayed football coach Jack Lengyel in We Are Marshall. He also provided voice work for a Peace Corps advertising campaign in 2006. In 2008, he appeared in Fool's Gold and became the spokesperson for the national "Beef: It's What's for Dinner" radio campaign. His subsequent credits included Tropic Thunder (2008) and Ghosts of Girlfriends Past (2009).

Beginning in 2011, McConaughey shifted toward more dramatic roles. In 2012, he starred as Dallas in Magic Mike, played the title character in Mud, and portrayed district attorney Danny Buck Davidson in Bernie. In 2013, he played Ron Woodroof in the biographical drama Dallas Buyers Club, earning the Academy Award for Best Actor, the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama, and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role. That year, he also appeared as Mark Hanna in Martin Scorsese's The Wolf of Wall Street.

In 2014, McConaughey starred as Rust Cohle opposite Woody Harrelson in the first season of HBO's crime anthology series True Detective. His performance earned him the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Actor in a Drama Series and nominations for a Primetime Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award. He also starred as Cooper in Christopher Nolan's science fiction film Interstellar (2014). That year, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and began appearing in advertising campaigns for Lincoln Motor Company, including commercials featuring the MKC crossover. The campaigns continued in subsequent years and featured other Lincoln vehicles, including the MKZ, MKX, Nautilus, and Aviator.

In 2015, McConaughey starred in Gus Van Sant's The Sea of Trees alongside Ken Watanabe. In 2016, he appeared in Free State of Jones and Gold and voiced characters in the animated films Kubo and the Two Strings and Sing. That year, he also became creative director and celebrity spokesperson for Wild Turkey's advertising campaign. In 2017, he portrayed Walter Padick in The Dark Tower, an adaptation of Stephen King's novel. His subsequent film credits included White Boy Rick (2018), Serenity (2019), The Beach Bum (2019), and The Gentlemen (2019), in which he played cannabis baron Mickey Pearson.

In 2020, McConaughey published his memoir, Greenlights. In 2023, he voiced an animated version of Elvis Presley in the Netflix animated series Agent Elvis, which premiered on March 17, 2023. He returned to feature films in 2025, starring in the crime film The Rivals of Amziah King, which premiered at the South by Southwest festival in March. That year, he also starred as a bus driver in Paul Greengrass' survival thriller The Lost Bus, about the 2018 Camp Fire, which was released on Apple TV+ in October.