Scottish actor James McAvoy made his acting debut as a teen in the 1995 film The Near Room with Andy Serkis. He appeared in the films Wimbledon (2004) and Inside I'm Dancing (2004), before being cast as Mr. Tumnus in the 2005 fantasy film The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, based on C. S. Lewis's 1950 novel. The following year, he starred in director Kevin Macdonald's drama film The Last King of Scotland. He co-starred in the romance films Penelope (2006) with Christina Ricci, Becoming Jane (2007) with Anne Hathaway, and Atonement (2007) with Keira Knightley. He made his theatre debut as Riff in the West Side Story at the Courtyard Centre for the Arts Hereford. He has since performed in several West End productions, receiving four Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor nominations.
In 2011, McAvoy was cast as Charles Xavier, a fictional character based on the Marvel Comics character in the superhero film X-Men: First Class (2011). He later reprised his role in X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014), X-Men: Apocalypse (2016), Deadpool 2 (2018) and Dark Phoenix (2019). McAvoy starred in the 2013 crime comedy-drama film Filth, for which he won Best Actor in the British Independent Film Awards. A year later, he starred with Jessica Chastain in The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby, the collective title of three films, Him, Her and Them. In 2016, he portrayed Kevin Wendell Crumb, a man with 23 alternate personalities, in M. Night Shyamalan's Split, for which he received critical acclaim, and later reprised the role for the sequel Glass (2019). He has starred in the science fiction horror film Victor Frankenstein with Daniel Radcliffe (2015), action thriller film Atomic Blonde with Charlize Theron (2017), and played Bill Denbrough in the supernatural horror film It Chapter Two, the second installment of the It film series based on Stephen King's 1986 novel.
McAvoy's television work includes a minor role in the HBO war drama miniseries Band of Brothers (2001), the thriller State of Play (2003) and as Leto II Atreides in the science fiction miniseries Frank Herbert's Children of Dune (2003). From 2004 to 2005, he played Steve McBride in the British comedy drama Shameless. Since 2019, he has portrayed Lord Asriel Belacqua in the BBC/HBO fantasy series His Dark Materials.
Film
Year | Title | Role | Notes | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
1995 | The Near Room | Kevin Savage | ||
1997 | An Angel Passes By | Local boy | Short film | |
1997 | Regeneration | Anthony Balfour | ||
2001 | Swimming Pool | Mike | ||
2003 | Bright Young Things | The Earl of Balcairn | ||
2003 | Bollywood Queen | Jay | ||
2004 | Wimbledon | Carl Colt | ||
2004 | Strings | Hal Tara (voice) | ||
2004 | Inside I'm Dancing | Rory O'Shea | ||
2005 | The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe | Mr. Tumnus | ||
2006 | The Last King of Scotland | Nicholas Garrigan | ||
2006 | Starter for 10 | Brian Jackson | ||
2006 | Penelope | Johnny Martin | ||
2007 | Becoming Jane | Thomas Langlois Lefroy | ||
2007 | Atonement | Robbie Turner | ||
2008 | Wanted | Wesley Gibson | ||
2009 | The Last Station | Valentin Bulgakov | ||
2010 | The Conspirator | Frederick Aiken | ||
2011 | Gnomeo & Juliet | Gnomeo (voice) | ||
2011 | X-Men: First Class | Charles Xavier | ||
2011 | Arthur Christmas | Arthur Claus (voice) | ||
2013 | Welcome to the Punch | Max Lewinsky | ||
2013 | Trance | Simon Newton | ||
2013 | Filth | Bruce Robertson | ||
2014 | Muppets Most Wanted | Delivery man | Cameo | |
2014 | X-Men: Days of Future Past | Charles Xavier | Shared role with Patrick Stewart | |
2014 | The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby | Conor Ludlow | ||
2015 | Victor Frankenstein | Victor Frankenstein | ||
2016 | X-Men: Apocalypse | Professor Charles Xavier | ||
2016 | Split | Kevin Wendell Crumb / The Beast | ||
2017 | Atomic Blonde | David Percival | ||
2017 | Submergence | James Moore | ||
2018 | Sherlock Gnomes | Gnomeo (voice) | ||
2018 | Deadpool 2 | Charles Xavier | Uncredited cameo | |
2019 | Glass | Kevin Wendell Crumb / The Beast | ||
2019 | Dark Phoenix | Professor Charles Xavier | ||
2019 | It Chapter Two | Bill Denbrough | Shared role with Jaeden Martell | |
2021 | My Son | Edmond Murray | ||
2022 | The Bubble | Himself | Cameo | |
2023 | The Book of Clarence | Pontius Pilate | ||
2024 | Speak No Evil † | TBA | Post-Production | |
TBA | Turn Up The Sun! † | TBA | Filming | |
TBA | Control † | Dr. Conway | Filming |
† | Denotes films that have not yet been released |
Television
Year | Title | Role | Notes | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
1997 | The Bill | Gavin Donald | Episode: "Rent" | |
2001 | Band of Brothers | James W. Miller | Episode: "Replacements" | |
2001 | Lorna Doone | Sergeant Bloxham | Television film | |
2001 | Murder in Mind | Martin Vosper | Episode: "Teacher" | |
2002 | White Teeth | Josh Malfen | 2 episodes | |
2002 | The Inspector Lynley Mysteries | Gowan Ross | Episode: "Payment in Blood" | |
2002 | Foyle's War | Ray Pritchard | Episode: "The German Woman" | |
2003 | Frank Herbert's Children of Dune | Leto II Atreides | 3 episodes | |
2003 | State of Play | Dan Foster | 6 episodes | |
2003 | Early Doors | Liam | 4 episodes | |
2004–2005 | Shameless | Steve McBride | 13 episodes | |
2005 | ShakespeaRe-Told | Joe Macbeth | Episode: "Macbeth" | |
2018 | Watership Down | Hazel (voice) | 4 episodes | |
2019 | Saturday Night Live | Himself / Host | Episode: "James McAvoy/Meek Mill" | |
2019–2022 | His Dark Materials | Lord Asriel Belacqua | 8 episodes | |
2021 | Together | He | Television film | |
2022 | The Sandman | Golden-Haired Man (voice) | Episode: "Dream of a Thousand Cats" |
Stage
Year | Title | Role | Venue | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
1999 | West Side Story | Riff | Courtyard Centre for the Arts Hereford | |
1999 | Romeo and Juliet | Romeo | Courtyard Centre for the Arts Hereford | |
1999 | Beauty and the Beast | Bobby Buckfast | Adam Smith Theatre | |
2000 | The Tempest | Ferdinand | Brunton Theatre | |
2000 | The Reel of the Hanged Man | Gerald | Traverse Theatre | |
2000 | Lovers | Joe | Royal Lyceum Theatre | |
2001 | Out In The Open | Iggy | Hampstead Theatre | |
2001 | Privates on Parade | Private Steven Flowers | Donmar Warehouse | |
2005 | Breathing Corpses | Ben | Royal Court Theatre | |
2009 | Three Days of Rain | Walker & Ned | Apollo Theatre | |
2013 | Macbeth | Macbeth | Trafalgar Studios | |
2015 | The Ruling Class | Jack Gurney | Trafalgar Studios | |
2019-2022 | Cyrano de Bergerac | Cyrano | Playhouse Theatre Brooklyn Academy of Music |
Video games
Year | Title | Voice role | Notes | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
2021 | Twelve Minutes | Man |
Audiobooks and radio
Year | Title | Role | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|
2013 | Neverwhere | Richard Mayhew | |
2015 | Orson Welles' Heart of Darkness | Marlow | |
2020 | The Sandman | Dream |
References
External links
- James McAvoy at IMDb