Channing Tatum

Channing Tatum is an American actor, producer and director who rose to fame during the 2000s before becoming a major Hollywood leading man, with a career spanning romantic dramas, action movies, comedies and blockbuster franchises. Born Channing Matthew Tatum on April 26, 1980, in Cullman, Alabama, Tatum worked as a model and appeared in commercials and music videos before establishing himself as an actor. His early film appearances included Coach Carter and Havoc in 2005, but his breakthrough arrived the following year. In 2006, Tatum starred opposite Amanda Bynes in She's the Man and played street dancer Tyler Gage in Step Up. The latter became a hit and helped turn Tatum into one of Hollywood's rising young stars. He followed those early successes with films including Stop-Loss, Fighting and Public Enemies before joining one of the biggest action franchises of the period. Tatum played Duke in 2009's G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, returning for G.I. Joe: Retaliation in 2013. Another major success came with the romantic drama Dear John in 2010, in which he starred opposite Amanda Seyfried. But some of Tatum's most popular work would come from comedy. In 2012, he teamed with Jonah Hill for 21 Jump Street. The film's unlikely combination of action, buddy comedy and self-aware humour became a major success, with Tatum demonstrating a comic ability that audiences hadn't necessarily seen in his earlier roles. The pair returned for 22 Jump Street in 2014. At almost exactly the same time, Tatum launched another franchise that couldn't have been much more different. Magic Mike arrived in 2012, with Tatum playing Mike Lane in a story partly inspired by his own experiences working as a stripper before becoming an actor. Directed by Steven Soderbergh, the film became a surprise hit and spawned Magic Mike XXL and Magic Mike's Last Dance. Tatum's other major films have included White House Down, Foxcatcher, Jupiter Ascending, The Hateful Eight, Hail, Caesar!, Logan Lucky and Kingsman: The Golden Circle. His performance as Olympic wrestler Mark Schultz in Foxcatcher showed a considerably darker side of Tatum's acting, while Steven Soderbergh's Logan Lucky allowed him to combine comedy and crime alongside Adam Driver and Daniel Craig. Tatum later expanded his career behind the camera. He made his feature directing debut alongside Reid Carolin with Dog in 2022, in which he also starred as Army Ranger Jackson Briggs. That same year he appeared opposite Sandra Bullock in the adventure comedy The Lost City. Tatum has continued to move between leading roles and memorable supporting appearances, including playing the wonderfully enthusiastic Gambit in Deadpool & Wolverine after spending years attached to an unrealised standalone movie about the Marvel character. From Step Up and She's the Man to 21 Jump Street, Magic Mike and major action franchises, Channing Tatum has built a career considerably more varied than his early Hollywood image might have suggested. He can dance, fight, do comedy and carry a drama. And after finally getting the chance to say those Cajun Gambit lines on the big screen, he can apparently make half the audience wonder whether they need subtitles as well.