Age, Biography, and Wiki
James McAvoy was born on April 21, 1979, in Glasgow, Scotland, making him 46 years old as of 2025. He is the son of James McAvoy Sr., a builder, and Elizabeth McAvoy, a psychiatric nurse. Following his parents’ separation when he was seven, McAvoy was raised by his maternal grandparents in Glasgow. He considered joining the priesthood and later the Royal Navy before his passion for acting led him to the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, from which he graduated in 2000.
For more detailed biographical information, see his Wikipedia page.
| Occupation | Voice Actors |
|---|---|
| Date of Birth | 21 April 1979 |
| Age | 46 Years |
| Birth Place | Glasgow, Scotland |
| Horoscope | Taurus |
| Country |
Height, Weight & Measurements
James McAvoy stands at approximately 5 feet 7 inches (170 cm) tall. His weight is estimated to be around 160 lbs (73 kg). Exact measurements are not publicly confirmed, but his athletic build is evident in his film roles.
| Height | 5 feet 7 inches |
| Weight | 160 lbs |
| Body Measurements | |
| Eye Color | |
| Hair Color |
Dating & Relationship Status
James McAvoy was married to actress Anne-Marie Duff from 2006 to 2016, and the couple has one child together. As of 2025, McAvoy is known to keep his personal life private, and there have been no widely publicized relationships since his divorce.
and psychiatric nurse Elizabeth (née Johnstone; died 2018). He was brought up as a Roman Catholic. His parents separated when he was seven and divorced when he was eleven. McAvoy's mother suffered from poor health and subsequently sent him to live with his maternal grandparents, Mary and James Johnstone, in the nearby Drumchapel area of Glasgow. His mother lived with them intermittently. McAvoy has a younger sister named Joy and a younger half-brother named Donald. McAvoy confirmed in an interview with The Guardian that both his parents were deceased, but he had not been in contact with his father since childhood. He attended the Catholic St Thomas Aquinas Secondary School in the Jordanhill area of Glasgow and briefly considered joining the priesthood. In a 2006 interview, McAvoy said he considered becoming a priest as a child because it seemed to be a way to explore the world via missionary work. During his education, he worked at a local bakery.
Loosely based on the comic book miniseries of the same name by Mark Millar, it saw a June 2008 release worldwide. It received favourable reviews from the press, who generally liked that it was fast-paced. At the box office, Wanted was a success, grossing $341 million against a $75 million production budget. Next was The Last Station (2009), a biopic that details the final months of celebrated writer Leo Tolstoy and also stars Anne-Marie Duff, McAvoy's wife at the time. It was shown at a limited number of screens in the US. Although most critics' awards paid attention to co-stars Helen Mirren and Christopher Plummer, the Satellite Awards nominated McAvoy for Best Supporting Actor. In 2009, McAvoy voiced Angelina's father, Maurice Mouseling, in the television series, Angelina Ballerina: The Next Steps. He also appeared onstage in 2009 at Apollo Theatre's Three Days of Rain.
In mid-2010, McAvoy was cast as telepathic superhero Professor X, leader and founder of the X-Men, in X-Men: First Class. He joined an ensemble that included Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence and Nicholas Hoult. Based on the Marvel Comics and a prequel to the film series, it focuses on the relationship between Professor X and Magneto and the origin of their groups. McAvoy did not read comics as a child, but was a fan of the X-Men animated cartoon series. Released to the UK on 1 June, First Class topped its box office with ticket sales of around £5 million in its opening weekend. First Class was reviewed favourably and McAvoy's performance was widely praised. In 2011, he began filming the role of Max Lewinsky in the British thriller Welcome to the Punch. That same year, McAvoy voiced the title character in the animated holiday film Arthur Christmas. He also played the lead role in the Danny Boyle film Trance.
In 2012, McAvoy was cast as Bruce Robertson in Filth, an adaptation of the Irvine Welsh novel of the same name. The film's ensemble cast includes McAvoy's former classmate Shauna Macdonald as his wife, as well as Jamie Bell, Jim Broadbent, Eddie Marsan and Imogen Poots. For his role, McAvoy won Best Actor at the British Independent Film Awards in December 2013. It was also announced that he would co-star with Jessica Chastain in a double-feature film project, The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby. He performed the male lead in radio play adaptation of Neverwhere written by Neil Gaiman. In October 2016, McAvoy played the character Richard in the BBC Radio 4 production of Neil Gaiman's short story 'How The Marquis Got His Coat Back'.
While working on Shameless, McAvoy began dating co-star Anne-Marie Duff, who played his character's love interest. McAvoy and Duff announced their decision to divorce in May 2016, and to minimise disruption to their son's life, they initially shared a home in north London when not working elsewhere. McAvoy later began a relationship with Lisa Liberati, whom he had met on the set of Split (2016), where she worked as a personal assistant to director M. Night Shyamalan. In early 2022, he confirmed they had privately married after years of speculation.
After McAvoy won the "Rising Star" award from the BAFTAs, his estranged father spoke to the Sunday Mirror, stating that he would love to get in touch with his son but did not know how to contact him. Although he did not read the piece, McAvoy heard about it and was unmoved.
| Parents | |
| Husband | Anne-Marie Duff (m. 2006-2016) Lisa Liberati (m. 2022) |
| Sibling | |
| Children |
Net Worth and Salary
James McAvoy has an estimated net worth of $20 million as of 2025. His wealth has been built through leading roles in blockbuster films, including the X-Men franchise, Split, Glass, The Last King of Scotland, Atonement, and Wanted. While his exact salary per film is not publicly disclosed, industry estimates suggest that major film roles have earned him multi-million dollar paychecks.
Career, Business, and Investments
Career Highlights:
- Early Career: McAvoy began acting as a teenager with his debut in The Near Room (1995) and appeared mostly on television until the early 2000s.
- Breakthrough: He gained international recognition for his role as Mr. Tumnus in The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005).
- Film Success: Notable performances in The Last King of Scotland (2006), Atonement (2007), Wanted (2008), and his starring role as Professor Charles Xavier in the X-Men prequel series further cemented his status as a leading man.
- Recent Work: His acclaimed performances in Split and Glass showcased his versatility and acting range.
James McAvoy (born 21 April 1979) is a Scottish actor and director. He made his acting debut as a teen in The Near Room (1995) and appeared mostly on television until 2003, when his film career began. His notable television work includes the thriller State of Play (2003), the science fiction miniseries Frank Herbert's Children of Dune (2003), and the drama series Shameless (2004–2005).
Following that, he played Irish attorney Tom Lefroy and love-interest to Jane Austen in Becoming Jane, a 2007 historical film inspired by the author's early life. Next up was Penelope, which premiered at the 2006 Toronto International Film Festival. Also starring Christina Ricci, it generated polarised reviews. The breakthrough role in McAvoy's career came in Atonement, Joe Wright's 2007 adaptation of Ian McEwan's novel of the same title. A romantic war film, it focuses on lovers Cecilia and Robbie's (Keira Knightley and McAvoy) lives being torn apart after her jealous younger sister Briony (Saoirse Ronan) falsely accuses him of rape. Upon reading the script, McAvoy said he thought "If I don't get the part I'm not reading the book because it'll be devastating. It's an amazing role and I really wanted it." McAvoy has called the film "incredibly sad" but considers it an uplifting experience. He also shared that he hoped viewers will be left "absolutely devastated and harrowed". Screenings of Atonement were held at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival, where it was one of the most acclaimed films present, and Venice Film Festival. Atonement was a big awards contender; it was nominated for fourteen BAFTAs and seven Academy Awards. Both McAvoy and Knightley were nominated for their performances at the 65th Golden Globe Awards, respectively. The Hollywood Reporter writer Ray Bennett said the duo gave "compelling and charismatic performances". In December 2022, McAvoy stated that McEwan was not entirely satisfied with his casting as Robbie in Atonement. "He wasn't disparaging. He just gave me… nothing. And I was a bit devastated. Then he said I was a bit small – because my character, Robbie, was meant to be this 6ft tanned Adonis, and I was a 25-year-old pasty Glaswegian who's 5ft-nothing."
McAvoy starred in the Jamie Lloyd Company production of Cyrano de Bergerac which opened in the West End's Harold Pinter Theatre on 3 February 2022, for which he won a What's On Stage award for Best Performer in a Male-Identifying Role. He continued his performance in a limited run at the Harvey Theater at Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), opening the show stateside on 5 April 2022 and running until 22 May 2022.
Social Network
James McAvoy maintains a relatively low profile on social media. He does not have public Instagram or Facebook accounts as of 2025. His presence is mostly felt through interviews, public appearances, and his work.
In 2003, McAvoy appeared in the Sci Fi Channel miniseries Frank Herbert's Children of Dune, adapted from Frank Herbert's novels. He then accepted the role of an unprincipled reporter in 2003's State of Play. The six-part drama serial tells the story of a newspaper's investigation into the death of a young woman and was broadcast on BBC One. Calling the programme a "must-see", the Chicago Tribune recommended State of Play for its cast's performance. In 2002, McAvoy shot scenes for Bollywood Queen, described as West Side Story meets Romeo and Juliet with bindis, it was shown as a special presentation at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival and opened in UK cinemas on 17 October.
Forest Whitaker had suggested McAvoy to director Kevin Macdonald for the role of Nicholas Garrigan in 2006's low-budgeted The Last King of Scotland. McAvoy portrayed a Scottish doctor who becomes the personal physician to dictator Idi Amin (played by Whitaker) while in Uganda. While the film is based on factual events of Amin's rule, the details of the story and the character McAvoy played are fictional and adapted from Giles Foden's 1998 novel. McAvoy assessed his character to be a "completely selfish prick". McAvoy was named Best Actor of the year by Scotland's own BAFTA Awards, where the film swept the major categories, and received a nomination for the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. The film received three awards, including the Outstanding British Film of the Year.
Education
James McAvoy attended St. Thomas Aquinas Secondary School, a Catholic institution in Glasgow. After considering a religious and naval path, he pursued acting and graduated from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (now the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland) in 2000.
McAvoy gained recognition for playing Mr. Tumnus in the fantasy film The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005) and an assassin in the action film Wanted (2008). After winning the inaugural BAFTA Rising Star Award in 2006, his performances in the period dramas The Last King of Scotland (2006) and Atonement (2007) gained him BAFTA Award nominations. In 2011 he voiced the title characters in Arthur Christmas and Gnomeo & Juliet, and portrayed Charles Xavier in the superhero film X-Men: First Class, a role he reprised in future installments of the X-Men series. McAvoy gained praise for starring in the independent crime film Filth (2013) and as a superpowered man with 23 dissociative identities in M. Night Shyamalan's Split (2016) and its successor Glass (2019). He portrayed Lord Asriel in the fantasy series His Dark Materials from 2019 to 2022, and starred as Bill Denbrough in the horror film It Chapter Two (2019).
On stage, McAvoy has performed in several West End productions, such as Three Days of Rain in 2010, Macbeth in 2013, The Ruling Class in 2015, and Cyrano de Bergerac in 2020, for which he received four nominations for the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor.
McAvoy applied to join the Royal Navy and had already been accepted when he was also offered a place to study acting at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (RSAMD, now the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland). After graduating in 2000, he moved to London.
McAvoy's acting debut was at the age of 15 years in The Near Room (1995). He later admitted that he was not very interested in acting when joining the film, but was inspired to study acting after developing feelings for his co-star, Alana Brady. He continued to act while still a member of PACE Youth Theatre. McAvoy graduated from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in 2000. Throughout the early 2000s, he made guest appearances in television shows and began working in film. In 2001, McAvoy's performance as a gay hustler in the play Out in the Open impressed director Joe Wright so much that Wright began offering McAvoy parts in his films. McAvoy kept declining them, however, and it was not until six years later that the two worked together.
In 2005, he appeared in Walt Disney Pictures's The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, made by Andrew Adamson and based on C. S. Lewis's children's novel. He appeared as Tumnus, a faun who befriends Lucy Pevensie (played by Georgie Henley) and joins Aslan (Liam Neeson)'s forces. It was given a UK release of 9 December. At the UK box office, the film opened at number one, earning around £8.7 million at 498 cinemas over the weekend. Worldwide, Narnia grossed £463 million. In 2006 he accepted the role of Brian Jackson, a nerdy university student who wins a place on a University Challenge quiz team in the mid-1980s, in Starter for 10. He was directed by David Nicholls, who adapted the film's screenplay from his own book. The British-American production was given distribution in the UK on 10 November. In spite of the positive buzz, the film flopped at the box office, unable to recover its production costs of £5.7 million.
McAvoy starred in Shakespeare's Macbeth on London's West End in early 2013. Macbeth was the first performance at the Trafalgar Transformed, running from 9 February until 27 April. The production was directed by Jamie Lloyd who also directed McAvoy in his last stint on the stage in 2009's Three Days of Rain. In 2015, McAvoy won the Best Actor award at London's Evening Standard Theater Awards for his portrayal of Jack Gurney in The Ruling Class, a revival of the Peter Barnes play directed by Jamie Lloyd. It ran at Trafalgar Studios from 16 January to 11 April 2015.
McAvoy reprised his role as Professor X in X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014), which grossed $747.9million worldwide, making it the sixth highest-grossing film of the year 2014 and the second highest-grossing film in the X-Men franchise and in 2016's X-Men: Apocalypse. In 2016, he starred in the M. Night Shyamalan thriller Split as Kevin Wendell Crumb, a dissociative identity disorder sufferer with dangerous capabilities. In 2018, McAvoy voiced Hazel in the BBC miniseries Watership Down. In 2019, he reprised his role as Crumb in Glass and then returned as Professor X in the film Dark Phoenix.
In 2015, McAvoy pledged £125,000 to a 10-year scholarship programme at his former drama school, the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. In March 2020, McAvoy donated £275,000 to a crowdfunding campaign to help the NHS mitigate the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom.
