Matthew David McConaughey (; born November 4, 1969) is an American actor, producer, model, writer and director. He first gained notice for his breakout role in the coming-of-age comedy Dazed and Confused (1993), before going on to appear in the slasher film Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation (1994), the legal thriller A Time to Kill (1996), the comedy film Larger than Life (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, McConaughey 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), Fool's Gold (2008), and Ghosts of Girlfriends Past (2009). Since 2011, he has preferred dramatic roles, in such films as The Lincoln Lawyer (2011), Bernie (2011), Killer Joe (2011), The Paperboy (2012), Mud (2012), Magic Mike (2012), The Wolf of Wall Street (2013), Interstellar (2014), The Sea of Trees (2016), and Free State of Jones (2016).

McConaughey achieved ample success in 2013 and 2014. In 2013, McConaughey portrayed Ron Woodroof, a cowboy diagnosed with AIDS in the biographical film Dallas Buyers Club, which earned him the Academy Award, Critics' Choice Movie Award, Golden Globe Award, and Screen Actors Guild Award, all for Best Actor, among other awards and nominations. In 2014, he starred as Rust Cohle in the first season of HBO's crime drama anthology series True Detective, for which he won the Critics' Choice Television Award and TCA Award, and was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award, Golden Globe Award, and Screen Actors Guild Award.