James McAvoy

James McAvoy made his acting debut in The Near Room (1995) and continued performing with PACE Youth Theatre before graduating from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in 2000. Early in his career, he appeared on stage in Out in the Open (2001) and Privates on Parade, while building a television résumé with roles in Band of Brothers (2001), White Teeth (2002), Frank Herbert's Children of Dune (2003), State of Play (2003), and Shameless (2004–2005). His early film credits include Bollywood Queen (2003), Wimbledon (2004), Strings (2004), and Inside I'm Dancing (2004).

McAvoy gained wider recognition as Mr. Tumnus in The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005). He followed with starring roles in Starter for 10 (2006), The Last King of Scotland (2006), Becoming Jane (2007), Penelope (2007), and Atonement (2007), the latter earning him a Golden Globe nomination. He then starred opposite Angelina Jolie in the action hit Wanted (2008), appeared in The Last Station (2009), and performed on stage in Three Days of Rain (2009).

In the 2010s, McAvoy expanded into major franchise and leading film roles. He portrayed Professor Charles Xavier in X-Men: First Class (2011), X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014), X-Men: Apocalypse (2016), and Dark Phoenix (2019). Other notable projects during this period include The Conspirator (2011), Gnomeo & Juliet (2011), Arthur Christmas (2011), Trance (2013), The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby (2013), Filth (2013), Split (2016), Glass (2019), It Chapter Two (2019), and the television series His Dark Materials (2019).

His stage career remained active throughout the decade, including acclaimed performances in Macbeth (2013) and The Ruling Class (2015) in London's West End. He also appeared in radio productions of Neverwhere and How The Marquis Got His Coat Back. Voice acting credits include Angelina Ballerina: The Next Steps (2009), Watership Down (2018), and The Sandman audio drama (2020).

In the 2020s, McAvoy starred in the Jamie Lloyd Company production of Cyrano de Bergerac, which played in London's West End in 2020 and at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in 2022. In 2024, he began principal photography on his directorial debut, California Schemin'.