James McAvoy

McAvoy was born on 21 April 1979 in Glasgow, Scotland, to Elizabeth (nee Johnstone), a nurse, and James McAvoy, Sr. He was raised in Drumchapel, Glasgow by his grandparents after his father, a roofer by trade, abandoned his mother when James Jr. was 7. He went to St Thomas Aquinas Secondary in Jordanhill, Glasgow, where he did well enough and started 'a little school band with a couple of mates'.McAvoy toyed with the idea of the Catholic priesthood as a child but, when he was 16, a visit to the school by actor 'David Hayman' sparked an interest in acting. Hayman offered him a part in his film The Near Room (1995) but despite enjoying the experience McAvoy didn't seriously consider acting as a career, though he did continue to act as a member of PACE Youth Theatre. He applied instead to the Royal Navy and had already been accepted when he was also offered a place at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama.He took the place at RSAMD (now the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland) and, when he graduated in 2000, he moved to London. He had already made a couple of TV appearances by this time and continued to get a steady stream of TV and movie work until he came to attention of the British public in 2004 playing car thief Steve McBride in the successful UK TV series Shameless (2004) and then to the rest of the world in 2005 as Mr Tumnus in Walt Disney's adaptation of CS Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005). In The Last King of Scotland (2006) McAvoy portrayed a Scottish doctor who becomes the personal physician to dictator Idi Amin, played by Forest Whitaker. McAvoy's career breakthrough came in Atonement (2007), Joe Wright's 2007 adaption of Ian McEwan's novel.Since then, McAvoy has also starred in Shakespeare's 'Macbeth', launching the first Trafalgar Transformed season in London's West End and earning him an Olivier award nomination for Best Actor. On screen, McAvoy was recently seen as corrupt cop Bruce Robertson in Filth (2013), for which he received a Scottish BAFTA award for Best Actor, a BIFA Best Actor award, London Critics Circle Best British Actor award and an Empire Award for Best Actor.McAvoy has also reprised his role as Professor Charles Xavier in X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014), and will star in the next film in the franchise: X-Men: Apocalypse (2016).

Born:

Apr 21, 1979 In Glasgow, Scotland, UK

Movie/TV Credits:

19

First Appeared:

In the series The Tonight Show with Jay Leno 1992-05-25

Latest Project:

Series Late Night with Seth Meyers 2014-02-24

Nominated for 1 Golden Globe. Another 11 wins & 22 nominations.