Matt Bomer

At 47 years old, Matt Bomer has this physical status:

Shortly after graduating from Carnegie Mellon University, Bomer moved to New York City, where he worked in theater and got his first role on television. His television debut came in 2000 on the ABC network, when he played Ian Kipling on the 1970s drama soap opera All My Children. Two years later he made a guest appearance in the mystery fantasy series Relic Hunter (2002).

In 2001, he landed a contract role on the soap opera Guiding Light. He played Ben Reade, a character connected to several core families on the show. When Bomer left the show in 2003, his exit was controversial; Ben was suddenly revealed to be a male prostitute and serial killer. He received a Gold Derby Awards for Younger Actor – Daytime Drama for his performance in the series. Years later in 2015, Bomer talked about his participation in the series, he said: "I told them to just throw the kitchen sink at me, and they did."

His next role was in the supernatural drama series Tru Calling (2003–2004). Starring alongside Eliza Dushku, Bomer starred as Luc Johnston the love interest of the protagonist of the series played by Dushku, in the first season. In 2003, Bomer returned to theatre to star in a Powerhouse Theater production of Paul Weitz's play Roullete in New York. A year later, he appeared in the episode Bellport in the primetime TV show of North Shore.

His screen debut occurred in the 2005 starring in the Robert Schwentke directed mystery thriller Flightplan, opposite Jodie Foster. Bomer's character was a flight attendant. The film grossed $223.3 million worldwide, becoming the seventeenth highest-grossing film of the year and Bomer's most lucrative film so far. In the slasher film The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (2006), Bomer portrayed Eric, a Vietnam War veteran who is driving across Texas to re-enlist after his brother is drafted.

He acted in his first television film Amy Coyne (2006); he plays the role of Case. The film tells the story of a young woman who inherits her father's sports agency. His first leading role was in the series Traveler (2007), along with Logan Marshall-Green, Aaron Stanford and Viola Davis, a short-lived midseason replacement television series which premiered on ABC on May 30, 2007, the series tells the story of two graduate students, become suspected of terrorism after a skateboarding race inside a museum. The series was canceled after eight episodes.

He had a supporting role in the NBC action-comedy spy-drama Chuck (2007–09). The series is about an "average computer-whiz-next-door" named Chuck Bartowski (played by Zachary Levi), who receives an encoded e-mail from Bomer's character, Bryce Larkin, an old college friend now working for the CIA. In 2007, Bomer took on the role of Ernest Hemingway in a Williamstown Theatre Festival production of Crispin Whittell's play Villa America in Massachusetts, starring in it with Jennifer Mudge and Nate Corddry.

2009 marked a significant turning point in Bomer's career as he starred as the con artist Neal Caffrey in the police procedural drama series White Collar. He was part of an ensemble cast that included Tim DeKay, Willie Garson, and Tiffani Thiessen. White Collar premiered on August 23, 2009, on USA Network and was watched by more than 5.40 million people. His performance as well as the rest of the cast were praised; Mary McNamara of the Los Angeles Times wrote: "terrific acting, crackling dialogue and geek-hip crime are not the only things that make this the most electric drama to premiere this fall." She also liked the performance of the two leads together saying they "are so easy" and "perfect together". He won a People's Choice Award at the 2015 ceremony. Additionally Bomer produced 19 episodes of White Collar along with DeKay.

2010 began with Bomer invited to sing with actress and Tony Award winning singer Kelli O'Hara at the Kennedy Center Honors. In September 2011, Bomer starred in Dustin Lance Black's play, 8, a staged re-enactment of the federal trial that overturned California's Proposition 8. Bomer starred as Jeff Zarrillo. The production was directed by actor Joe Mantello and presented at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre in New York City. In March 2012, he was featured in the Wilshire Ebell Theatre production as well.

In 2011, Bomer was cast as a 105-year-old man in Andrew Niccol's science fiction thriller film In Time, starring alongside Justin Timberlake. On April 10, 2012, Bomer made a guest appearance in the third season of the television series Glee, playing Blaine's older brother, Cooper Anderson, a Hollywood commercials actor who comes to Lima for a visit, and while in town gives an acting masterclass to New Directions. His performance on Glee received critical acclaim; critic Emily VanDerWerff of The A.V. Club described his performance as "absolutely fantastic." Crystal Bell of the Huffington Post called his appearance "perfectly cast" and Bomer as one of her favorite guest stars. For this performance on Glee, he won a Gold Derby award in the category of Best Comedy Guest Actor.

For his next film, Bomer starred opposite Channing Tatum in Steven Soderbergh's comedy drama Magic Mike (2012). He studied with a group called Hollywood Men in Los Angeles to prepare for the role. The film premiered as the closing film for the 2012 Los Angeles Film Festival on June 24, 2012. Magic Mike was a critical success and his performance was praised. Sara Stewart of the New York Post noted that; "Matt Bomer is also in fine form as a dancer, Ken, whose signature performance plays off his doll-like face." Bomer and Tatum were nominated for the MTV Movie & TV Awards at the 2013 ceremony in Best Musical Moment category.

Bomer made two appearances in 2013, the first as a guest performer on the NBC sitcom The New Normal, portraying the role Monty, ex-boyfriend of the protagonist of the series Bryan Collins played by Andrew Rannells. The second was to voice Superman in the direct to video Superman: Unbound, based on the 2008 comic book story "Superman: Brainiac" by Geoff Johns. His voiceover assured him an invitation to the Behind the Voice Actors Awards in 2013.

In 2014, Bomer appeared in five projects. His first two releases, Winter's Tale, and Space Station 76, were commercially unsuccessful. The first film, a romantic and supernatural fantasy drama film, was written and directed by Akiva Goldsman, and based on Mark Helprin's novel Winter's Tale. Bomer plays the young father of Colin Farrell's character. Winter's Tale received negative reviews. His second release of the year was in the black space fiction comedy Space Station 76 by Jack Plotnick, alongside Liv Tyler and Patrick Wilson. James Rocchi of The Wrap said; "all the performers are game" and the performance of Bomer; "as a melancholy engineer with a prosthetic hand that looks like a Nintendo Power Glove".

Bomer's next project involved Ryan Murphy casting him opposite Mark Ruffalo, Jim Parsons and Julia Roberts in the drama romance film The Normal Heart (2014). Based on Larry Kramer's play of the same name, it featured Bomer as a closeted writer of The New York Times and love interest of Ruffalo's character. The film shows the rise of the HIV-AIDS crisis in New York City between 1981 and 1984, as seen through the eyes of writer/activist Ned Weeks (Ruffalo), the founder of a prominent HIV advocacy group. The production of The Normal Heart stopped for a few months while he was on a diet. Bomer's performance was praised by a reviewer for The Hollywood Reporter, who considered his acting as the highlight of the production. Matthew Gilbert of The Boston Globe noticed that Bomer is: "quite simply, devastating in this movie, his beauty adding resonance because it begins to fade so suddenly, as his cheeks protrude and lesions gather." Gilbert also lauded the chemistry between Bomer and Ruffalo saying that: "is among the movie's strengths, too, as it provides the core of love and compassion amid all the acrimony." Bomer received his first Golden Globe Award in the Best Supporting Actor category and his first Primetime Emmy Awards nomination.

After narrating the documentary Hunted: The War Against Gays in Russia, following LGBT people in Russia. later that year, Bomer was cast by Murphy in "Pink Cupcakes", an episode in the fourth season of American Horror Story. His participation was described by Lauren Piester of E! Online as "one of the show's most shocking moments". Bomer's first release of 2015 was Magic Mike XXL, a sequel to the popular 2012 film, again featuring Channing Tatum and Joe Manganiello. Magic Mike XXL grossed $122 million worldwide. Reviewing the film for Rolling Stones, Peter Travers noted that; "the movie is just a rambling, loosey-goosey road trip, with Bomer and Manganiello getting extra time to shine." He also sang two songs for the film's soundtrack: "Heaven" and "Untitled (How Does It Feel)". After Bomer's participation in American Horror Story: Freak Show; Murphy put him in the main cast of the fifth season, American Horror Story: Hotel. Bomer plays the son of Iris (Kathy Bates) and the lover of the Countess (Lady Gaga).

Bomer appeared in two films in 2016. He played for the first time a villain in the movie The Nice Guys, as a psycho killer named John Boy. Directed by Shane Black, starring Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe. Gosling and Bomer were at the premiere of the film at the Cannes Film Festival in 2016. The Nice Guys generated positive reviews and enjoyed moderate box office success. His next role was as Matthew Cullen in Antoine Fuqua's Western action film The Magnificent Seven, playing the farmer husband of Haley Bennett's character. The film received mixed reviews from critics, although the cast and action sequences were praised, and grossed $162.4 million worldwide. He was cast as Monroe Stahr, the lead in Billy Ray's 2016 series The Last Tycoon, loosely based on the F. Scott Fitzgerald novel of the same name, along with actors Kelsey Grammer, Lily Collins, and Dominique McElligott.

In 2017, he starred in Alex & Andrew Smith's drama Walking Out, as an estranged father to a 14-year-old son (played by Josh Wiggins). He said that he related to the character "in a really profound way.” Walking Out was screened in the U.S. Dramatic Competition section of the 2017 Sundance Film Festival and was released on October 6, 2017. Justin Chang of Los Angeles Times noted that he "steps confidently into the boots of a rugged, know-it-all mountain man whose idea of tough love can turn unexpectedly toward tenderness around a flickering campfire." David Ehrlich of IndieWire stated that Bomer fortunately plays against his "pretty boy type so convincingly that you might forget where you’ve even seen him before", concluding that Bomer "gives a commanding performance in a movie that fails to realize how evocative he is, the Smiths defaulting to flashbacks that show us less about cowboys and gender codes than we can glean from the wild look in its lead actor’s face. The Village Voice included his performance in the film in a list of the 17 Most Overlooked Performances of 2017.

Timothy McNeil's drama Anything marked Bomer's final film release of 2017 and McNeil making his feature directorial debut. Bomer was cast as Freda Von Rhenburg, a transgender sex worker who lives in Los Angeles and begins a relationship with her neighbor, Early Landry (played by John Carroll Lynch). Anything is based on McNeil’s play of the same name. He has received some criticism from the transgender community for the casting of a cisgender man, to play a transgender woman. Jon Frosch of The Hollywood Reporter felt that Bomer: "gives a performance of real warmth and delicacy," saying that: "rather than play Freda as a force of nature or a collection of mannerisms—the typical default modes of actors playing trans women—Bomer renders her fully dimensional: an unpredictable tangle of impulses, by turns defensive and tender." Anything had its release at the Los Angeles Film Festival on June 17, 2017.

In 2018, Bomer began working on his directorial debut on series The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story. Written by Tom Rob Smith and starring Jon Jon Briones and Darren Criss, in the roles of father and son, respectively, the episode that Bomer directs is titled "Creator/Destroyer". The episode was watched by more than 1 million people. Bomer had other opportunities to direct before but always wanted to wait for the optimum chance to immerse himself in a project. He read 3,000 pages of books on directing. He found a part in a 2018 revival of the Mart Crowley play The Boys in the Band, which was staged at Booth Theatre and marked his Broadway debut. Directed by Joe Mantello, it tells the story a group of gay men who gather for a birthday party in New York City. Theater critic Michael Sommers noted that "Matt Bomer tends to fade in the glare of flashier personalities, but he lends the character a watchful quality as one of those deferential souls who is content to observe others." The play won a Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play. Bomer's first film in 2018 was Bill Oliver's science fiction film Jonathan. His role was that of a detective who appears in only one scene of the film. Jonathan had its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival on April 21, 2018.

Two of Bomer's films in 2018 premiered at the 43rd Toronto International Film Festival—the comedy drama Papi Chulo and the drama Viper Club. In the former, Bomer plays Sean, a local network television weather forecaster. A reviewer for Screen Daily argued that Bomer is "terrific" and concluded that "while he may not yet have the name recognition to act as a key selling point for this film, it’s the kind of performance which gets noticed". In Viper Club, Bomer played Sam, a journalist who helps Helen (played by Susan Sarandon), to save her son who was kidnapped by a group of terrorists. He had a guest starring role on the NBC series Will & Grace (2018–2019) and he also appeared as Negative Man in the DC Universe superhero series, Doom Patrol (2019).

In 2020, Bomer portrayed Jamie Burns on the USA Network anthology series The Sinner.

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