Birthday: Apr 21, 1979

Birthplace: Glasgow, Scotland

Biography: James McAvoy is a BAFTA-winning Scottish actor. He first appeared in film as Kevin Savage in David Hayman's The Near Room in 1995 and then as Anthony Balfour in Gillies MacKinnon's Regeneration in 1997. He later attended the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, in Glasgow, graduating in 2000. He continued acting with the miniseries Band of Brothers (2001), the TV series White Teeth (2002) and the film Bollywood Queen (2002). McAvoy got his first big international break playing... ... (read more...) the role of Leto Atreides II in the Sci Fi Channel miniseries Children of Dune (adapted from Frank Herbert’s novels) which aired in 2003. In the same year he was on the big screen in Stephen Fry’s directorial debut Bright Young Things, and appeared in BBC television serial State of Play, written by Paul Abbott. In 2004 he starred as Steve McBride in another Abbott-written drama series, Shameless on Channel 4, for which he was nominated for the British Comedy Award for Best TV Newcomer. He also played Rory O’Shea, an Irish teenager who has muscular dystrophy in Inside I'm Dancing and appeared in the romantic comedy Wimbledon. In 2005, he played Ben in the Royal Court Theatre's production Breathing Corpses. He had a supporting role in the adaptation of the C.S. Lewis fantasy novel The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe as Mr. Tumnus and played Joe Macbeth in a new adaptation of Macbeth on the BBC. In 2006 he will star alongside Gillian Anderson and Forest Whitaker in The Last King of Scotland. He will also take the lead in Starter for Ten, and will star alongside Christina Ricci in Penelope. McAvoy has roles in two as-yet unreleased films for 2007- Becoming Jane and Atonement. McAvoy is from from Scotstoun, Glasgow. He is a graduate of the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. He is married to his Shameless co-star, Anne-Marie Duff.