A *-ring R is called a nil *-clean ring if every element of R is a sum of a projection and a nilpotent.Nil *-clean rings are the *-version of nil-clean rings introduced by Diesl.This paper is about the nil *-clean property of rings with emphasis on matrix rings.We show that a *-ring R is nil *-clean if and only if J(R) is nil and R/J(R) is nil*-clean.For a 2-primal *-ring R,with the induced involution given by (aij)* =(a*ij)T,the nil *-clean property of Mn(R) is completely reduced to that of Mn(Z2).Consequently,Mn(R) is not a nil *-clean ring for n =3,4,and M2(R) is a nil *-clean ring if and only if J(R) is nil,R/J(R) is a Boolean ring and a*-a ∈ J(R) for all a ∈ R.