My mind works in a strange way. While I can be introduced to someone only to forget their name seconds after it's said, or drive down the same road for years without know the name of the road, there are 2 things that I never forget: the car that a person drives and a surname that I have entered, sometimes years earlier, into my family tree. Matt Bomer falls into the latter of these 2 categories, but only because I don't know what he drives :)

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As I mentioned earlier, I seem to have a strange way of remembering almost all the surnames contained in my family tree, and since I branch out from my direct relatives to include aunts/uncles, cousins and their spouses, my tree count is up to 23,349 individuals at the moment, and for someone who had trouble remembering my new phone number for 18 months,  I seem to have this odd super power of remembering a surname as soon as I see or hear it. Maybe one day this unusual talent will pay dividends, but for now at least I find it helpful for my family history research!  This was the case with Matt Bower. 

 

A few weeks back I received a connection request on BlueSky that said it was from Matt Bomer. I instantly remembered the name, and when I checked the profile I thought it was a little odd, but I accepted the connection request. That was it for awhile, and I remembered the name and went to check my family tree and found that I already had Mat Bomer (and his family - husband, sons, siblings, parents, etc.) there and I double checked our relationship which I will explain a little further on.

 

I thought it was odd that the Matt Bomer would randomly connect with me via social media, but I thought nothing more of it. I have a close friend and neighbour who is a celebrity, and I've had a few interactions with celebs over the years (mostly quick "hellos" as I accidentally found myself at the same hotel or on the same plane as them), and even an email exchange with one distant famous cousin when I reached out to her to send her an 80 year old photo of one of her grandmother's in a girl's signing group (she's a singer), but still, I thought this was unusual.

 

I was soon receiving messages from this Matt Bomer person on BlueSky and quickly determined that this was yet another sad person pretending to be a celebrity; I'm not sure why people do this, but I took care of that quickly and got his/her fake account removed in case someone vulnerable would fall victim to whatever they were up to.

 

It was at that point that I decided to learn more about Matt Bomer - I knew his name, but I wasn't exactly sure of who he was and what he was famous for. I searched online, of course, and found some information about him, and then I checked YouTube (great resource for learning more about your favourite celebs, their work, etc.) and I found a ton of interviews, movies, TV shows and more about him. I spent about 2 weeks (he has done a LOT of work - I'm ashamed to admit that I was unfamiliar with his work before!) watching his interviews, watching show reals of his work and finding some series work that he had done and watched them. I was impressed with what I saw and heard, so I thought that Matt Bomer would be my first new distant cousin to receive my brief bio treatment on this site, so here goes nothing:

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My relationship to Matt is distant just as most of my relationships to celebrities, living and dead, are or have been. He is my 26th paternal cousin, 3x removed. Our common ancestors were King John I of England (Plantagenet) and Isabella of Angouleme, Queen Consort) who were my 24th paternal great-grandparents and Matt's 22nd maternal great-grandparents. These 2 relatives are the nearest ones that I could confirm, but I suspect that there may be a slightly closer connection hiding somewhere in our respective family lines. If and when I find it, I'll be sure to update this page.

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Matt was born on October 11, 1977 in Webster Grove, Missouri, USA and is the son of John O'Neill Bomer IV and my 25th cousin 4x removed, Elizabeth Macy Staton. Matt also has a brother, Neill and a sister, Megan. Unfortunately at the time that I am writing this, I do not have Neill or Megan's birthdates. Both Neill and Megan would also be my 26th cousins, 3x removed.

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Matt was raised in Spring, Texas, a small town located about an hour north of Houston. After high school, Matt attended Carnegie-Melon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in drama in 2000.  From watching his online interviews, he attended University with fellow actor, Joe Manganiello, and the two of them have worked alongside each other Magic Mike and Magic Mike XXL. 

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In several interviews that this author has watched, Bomer credits both his parents and some teachers who encouraged and nurtured his desire for acting. While still in high school, Matt made his stage debut as "Young Collector" in a production of A Streetcar Named Desire staged by the Alley Theatre in Houston. The Alley Theatre is a Tony-award winning theatre company based in downtown Houston and is the oldest professional theatre company in Texas. An impressive start for the upcoming 17 year old Bomer.

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In 1998, Bomer appeared in a production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat as well as in Romeo and Juliet at the Utah Shakespeare Festival in Cedar City, Utah. 

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Shortly after Matt graduated from Carnegie-Melon, he headed to New York City and that same year (2000), he made his TV debut on the soap opera All My Children. Then, in 2001, Matt landed a contract role on the soap Guiding Light, where he played a rather interesting role as Ben Reade. In one of Matt's interviews, he said that he told the writer's to "throw the kitchen sink at me" which they did. Matt's recounting of this role is funny, and he said that his character was a rich trust fund kid who lost everything, became a male prostitute and was revealed at the end of his role as a serial killer. Matt goes on to tell the audience that, once his character died on the show, the writers told him that if he ever wanted to come back to the soap, they had already thought up a way to bring his character back to life. That never happened as Matt moved on in his career, but he said that he would love to know what the writers had in mind...and I'm sure thousands of fans would too!

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Moving on from Guiding Light, Matt appeared on the TV drama series Tru Calling in 2003-2004. Also in 2003, Matt appeared in a theatre production of Roulette and in 2004 he appeared on an episode of North Shore, a prime time soap opera set in a fictional hotel on Oahu's North Shore (great place to visit btw, and much quieter than Honolulu!). Matt was well on his way with an impressive resume before he had turned 28, and the best was yet to come.

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Matt's screen debut was in the 2005 thriller Flightplan which starred Jodie Foster in which he played a flight attendant. In 2006, Bomer portrayed a Vietnam veteran in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning, part of the famous The Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise. In this iteration, Matt's role was that of one of the six main characters.  This was followed up by Matt's first TV movie in 2006 Amy Coyne. 

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Bomer's first leading role came in 2007 in the ABC mid-season replacement series, Traveler which was cancelled after 8 episodes. Matt's next role was in Chuck, a TV series which ran from 2007-2009 in which he played the supporting role of Bryce Larkin, the former university roommate of the title character, Chuck, and who is now a CIA agent who subliminally planted top secret information in Chuck's mind after sending Chuck an email. In the same year Matt played the role of Ernest Hemingway in a Williamstown Theatre Festival (MA) production of Villa America.

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In 2009, Matt landed the role of Neal Caffrey in the drama series White Collar. Matt's character is a charismatic con artist who teams up with an FBI agent, played by Tim DeKay. White Collar debuted on USA Network (which is probably why I never heard of it until recently, as the Canadian division [Discovery Channel] aired primarily documentaries, Canadian content programming and then reality TV) in October, 2009 and ran for 6 seasons, ending in December, 2018. I've recently started watching the show and think it would have done well here in Canada...and if the reboot announced in 2024 happens, I hope that with the advent of streaming, Canadians (and citizens in other countries) will have the chance to watch this entertaining and interesting crime/mystery drama.

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For his efforts on White Collar, Bomer won a People's Choice Award in 2015. This wasn't Matt's first award as an actor, nor would it be his last. From my research I have found that in addition to his People's Choice Award, Matt has, as of April 1st, 2025, racked up a very impressive 29 nominations for a multitude of awards, and an additional 14 wins. A full list of Matt's nominations and awards can be found on his IMDb page online.

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As with many of the people that I research within my family tree, whether they be relatively close (no pun intended) relations or much further relations such as Matt Bomer and his siblings are, I'm always amazed at how much more there is to know about the person behind the name. In Matt's case, I recognized hearing his name before I discovered that he was another celebrity (very) distant relative, but I really didn't know much about him. For some reason I thought that he was a TV news personality...not sure where that even came from, but as I started learning more about him, I was both impressed with how much he has done with his chosen career, and I was also pleased to see that he shows no sign of slowing down and continues to take on a multitude of new projects.

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Matt's most recent project that I am aware of is in the new series called Mid-Century Modern that is streaming on Hulu (Disney+ here in Canada - Hulu here is all reality TV for some odd reason). The show premiered last week, and for once I'm happy to say that I not only heard about the show prior to launch for once, but that, once I found it online, I watched the entire 10 episodes of the first season (I saw today that a 2nd season has been confirmed - great news too, since it is a really good show!) last Saturday/Sunday as I prayed that the major ice storm we were experiencing wouldn't kill the power here. I got lucky and was able to watch all 10 episodes without the power going out and I have to saw that I thoroughly enjoyed it and the laughter the show caused was very cathartic after all the negative stuff that has been appearing on the TV for the past couple of months. If you haven't seen the show yet, I encourage you to do so - and I know that you'll love it too. The show is timely, has a great cast including Matt Bomer, Nathan Lane, Nathan Lee Graham and the incomparable late Linda Lavin. In my always humble opinion, the show is a breath of fresh air and the laughs come quickly so be prepared to rewatch the show - hell, watch it by yourself first, then gather up your friends that would appreciate the humour (or remind you of the characters) and watch the reactions! If you liked Matt's work on Will and Grace as Will's boyfriend, you will definitely appreciate his role as Jerry Frank on Mid-Century Modern. I guarantee it.

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Inbetween White Collar and Mid-Century Modern Matt has done a ton of other work, from being on stage in theatrical productions, to TV shows, TV mini-series and movies as well as studio and independent films. To list them all here would be too much, but a list of the 50 or so (so far) productions that Matt has been in, you can again find these on his IMDb page. There are several more of Bomer's productions that I want to watch soon, with Fellow Travelers being at the top of my list. The trailers that I have seen, as well as the commentary in interviews that both Bomer and his co-star, Jonathan Bailey have given about the series lead me to believe that the show will be as good as the accolades that it has already received. 

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Matt Bomer is married to Simon Halls, a publicist and actor. The couple have been married since 2011 and have 3 children, all boys - Kit Halls, born in 2005 and twin boys Henry and Walker Halls, born in 2008. Bomer also supports LGBT rights and a recipient of an Inspiration Award in 2012 for his work at the GLSEN Awards. In my research, I have seen a number of causes that Matt has thrown his support behind, including during COVID for SAG-AFTRA members and recently to help those impacted by the horrific wildfires that devastated large parts of Los Angeles in January of this year (2025).

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The last bit of information that I have about Matt Bomer is something that I haven't been able to confirm, but one that has triggered my inner family detective again; Matt is reported to be a cousin of Courtney Cox. I find this quite interesting as I've had Courtney Cox on my "to be researched" list for about a year now ever since I found out that she was descended from Thomas De Berkeley, my paternal 19th Great-Grandfather and also a descendant of William the Conqueror, my 28th paternal Great-Grandfather. The strange thing with Thomas De Berkeley being both mine and Courtner's 19th Great-Grandfather is that he took part in the killing of Edward II (Plantagenet), King of England, who was my 21st paternal Great-Grandfather (I know that this gets confusing, but trust me, the math does make sense if you dig deeply enough). That would pretty much guarantee that Courtney Cox and I are also distant cousins.

 

Until I can find the necessary information and build out the family tree to include Courtney Cox I can't be sure how she, Matt Bomer and I are all related. It looks like I have yet another family mystery on my hands, but luckily I like solving mysteries!

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​There's a lot more that I could write about Matt Bomer, but I couldn't do him justice. Matt is the first celebrity (distant) relative that I have found so much information about in a relatively short amount of time, not only from watching a handful of his on-screen personas (which are exceptional, btw), but from what I gained about Matt's public persona as well through the huge number of interviews that he has given. One thing that I was impressed with was the fact that Matt doesn't just do the usual talk show circuit (he does that too), but he has given a significant number of interviews by himself or along with fellow cast members, to non-traditional interviewers. Through these interviews he clearly comes across as someone who is very dedicated to his craft, and his intelligence and human sides come through loud and clear, without as much as a tidbit of ego or arrogance. But don't believe me, go to YouTube and type in his name and watch some of his interviews...and definitely his shows. I think you will be equally impressed.

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Like the rest of my famous distant cousins, I have never met Matt Bomer and I make no pretense about knowing anything about him that I have not been able to find online or through watching and listen to his interviews. Still, it is always fun to find another relative - distant or not -  that has been so successful in following their dreams. Matt has proven that this is possible, with a lot of hard work, determination and self-confidence.

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