Meet our Presenters James McAvoy

James McAvoy

James McAvoy was born in Glasgow, Scotland in 1979.

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.

In 2004 he starred as Steve McBride in the Paul Abbott-written drama series, Shameless on Channel 4, for which he was nominated for the British Comedy Award for Best TV Newcomer.

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.

That same year, McAvoy took the lead role in Starter for 10, winning the new Mary Selway/Orange Rising Star Award at the 2006 BAFTA Awards for his performance.

In 2007 he appeared in two critically acclaimed films: Becoming Jane, a fictional romance inspired by the life of Jane Austen, and Atonement, an adaptation of Ian McEwan's award-winning 2001 novel. The role earned him a nomination for a Golden Globe Award.

Wanted is loosely based on the comic book miniseries by the same name. McAvoy plays Wesley Gibson, a twenty-five year old everyman who is offered the opportunity to avenge the death of his father, who was an assassin. The character is then trained by his father's partner, Sloan (Morgan Freeman), and by Sloan's second-in-command, Fox, played by Angelina Jolie.

James is a celebrity supporter of the British Red Cross with whom he travelled to Uganda to raise awareness of the projects there.