Matthew William Goode (born 3 April 1978) is an English actor. His notable films have included Match Point, Watchmen, Brideshead Revisited, Leap Year, Imagine Me and You and A Single Man.Born in Exeter, Devon, England, Goode is the youngest child of five siblings (he has a brother, two half brothers, and a half sister, television presenter Sally Meen, from his mother's other marriage). He grew up in the village of Clyst St. Mary in Devon with a geologist father and a nurse mother, Jennifer, who was also an amateur theatre director.
Goode was educated at Exeter School, an independent school in the city of Exeter in Devon, followed by the University of Birmingham and London's Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art.
Goode is known for his role as romantic interest of Mandy Moore's character in the 2004 film Chasing Liberty. Beforehand, Goode had played the brother of Inspector Lynley in the BBC production Inspector Lynley Mysteries: A Suitable Vengeance and had parts in the TV-movie Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister and the Shakespeare play The Tempest. In recent years he has appeared in the films Match Point, Imagine Me & You, My Family and Other Animals, opposite Imelda Staunton, Copying Beethoven, opposite Ed Harris and Diane Kruger, and The Lookout. Standing the test of time is his whimsical take on Brooke Burgess in the BBC serial based upon Anthony Trollope's He Knew He was Right.
Recent roles have included Charles Ryder in the 2008 film Brideshead Revisited, the role previously taken by Jeremy Irons in the hugely popular 1980s serial. In 2009, he played the character of Adrian Veidt in Zack Snyder's Watchmen, and also appeared in the drama A Single Man (2009) (based on the Christopher Isherwood novel). In 2010, he co-starred with Amy Adams in the romantic-comedy Leap Year. He is in talks to join the cast of Stoker to be directed by Park Chan-wook.
