James McAvoy
James McAvoy was born on 21 April 1979(1979-04-21) in Port Glasgow, Scotland.He is a Scottish stage and screen actor known for his roles in Atonement, The Last King of Scotland, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Wanted, Frank Herbert’s Children of Dune, and the British TV series’ Shameless and Early Doors. McAvoy has won the BAFTA Rising Star Award and a BAFTA Scotland award. He has also been nominated for an ALFS Award, two BAFTA Awards, a European Film Award, and a Golden Globe award. He is married to Anne-Marie Duff. He is currently working on a new film called Gnomeo and Juliet which is a remake of Romeo and Juliet in animation form and is to be released in 2010.
McAvoy’s first roles were in David Hayman’s The Near Room in 1995 and then as Anthony Balfour in Pat Barker s Regeneration in 1997. He received his first big break with a role in the Steven Spielberg-produced miniseries Band of Brothers. His first international starring role was as Leto Atreides I in the 2003 Sci Fi Channel miniseries Frank Herbert’s Children of Dune (adapted from Frank Herbert’s novels). The same year he also appeared in several episodes of the BBC sitcom Early Doors and co-starred in Paul Abbott’s acclaimed thriller serial State of Play. In 2004, he starred as Steve McBride in another Abbott-written drama series, Shameles on Channel 4, for which he was nominated for the British Comedy Award for Best TV Newcomer. He also appeared in two other productions: Wimbledon as Paul Bettany’s obnoxious brother, Carl Colt; and he played disabled character Rory O’Shea in the Irish film Inside I’m Dancing. In 2005, he starred in three productions: he played Ben in the Royal Court Theatre’s production Breathing Corpses and an adaptation of Macbeth in the four-part BBC production ShakespeaRe-told; he also portrayed Mr. Tumnus, the Faun, in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and Max/Johnny-2008 in Penelope.
In 2006, McAvoy starred alongside Forest Whitaker as Dr. Garrigan in The Last King of Scotland. The film is an adaptation of Giles Foden’s novel of the same name and gives a fictionalized account of the regime of the brutal Ugandan dictator Idi Amin during the 1970s, as seen by his (fictional) personal physician and adviser. The character of Garrigan is a composite of several men who were close to Amin, most notably Englishman Bob Astles, who was a top adviser to Amin during his regime and became known in Uganda as “The White Rat”.
McAvoy previously dated Scottish actress Emma Nielsen (stage name Emma King); they began dating when he was 16 and broke up in 2003. He married actress Anne-Marie Duff on 18 October 2006. They live in London. He enjoys science fiction which he said started from the age of 11 with the Lord of the Rings. He considers himself a spiritual person who no longer practices Catholicism.McAvoy is known by his friends as Jamesy Boy.His big interest outside acting and science fiction is football; he is a huge fan of Celtic Football Club.
