Early work When McAvoy was 15, his English teacher's next door neighbour
David Hayman visited his school to give a talk about
Macbeth. Recognizing Hayman from his film roles, McAvoy expressed interest in getting a job on Hayman's next project for work experience purposes. Six months later, Hayman summoned McAvoy and asked him to read the script and audition for
The Near Room (1995) in which he made his acting debut. 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. He appeared in
Privates on Parade in the
Donmar Warehouse, where he was noticed by
Sam Mendes. He gained the attention of critics in 2002's
White Teeth, a four-part television drama miniseries adaption based on
the novel of the same name by Zadie Smith. In 2022, McAvoy commented that Smith "didn't say [he] was bad at playing the part". She told him he "was the wrong casting, because [he] was too little – the character should have been more overweight." 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. In 2004, he acted in the
romantic comedy Wimbledon. His next project was voicing a character named Hal in the 2004 English version of
Strings, a mythic
fantasy film. Another 2004 release for him was ''
Inside I'm Dancing'', an Irish production directed by
Damien O'Donnell starring alongside
Steven Robertson. In it, he was cast as one of the two principal characters: a maverick with
duchenne muscular dystrophy. McAvoy ended 2004 by appearing in the first two series of
Shameless as
Steve McBride.
2000s 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.
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. 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." While shooting action scenes for
Wanted, he suffered several injuries, including a twisted ankle and an injured knee. Nonetheless, the actor said he had a "good time" whilst making the film. McAvoy had not previously done this type of genre, and thought of
Wanted as a chance to be more versatile. 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.
2010s |200x200px He voiced the male titular character in the film
Gnomeo & Juliet (2011), an
animated movie based on
William Shakespeare's play
Romeo and Juliet. In
Robert Redford's historical American drama
The Conspirator, McAvoy played the role of an idealistic war hero who reluctantly defends co-conspirator
Mary Surratt (
Robin Wright) charged in the
Abraham Lincoln assassination. It premiered at the
2010 Toronto International Film Festival. While this movie garnered mixed reception, critics lauded the actor for his work. In
Owen Gleiberman's assessment of
The Conspirator, he found it "stiff-jointed" and tedious, but regarded McAvoy as "an avid presence". 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'. 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. McAvoy played the adult
Bill Denbrough in the horror film
It Chapter Two, the sequel to
It (2017), which premiered on 6 September 2019 and grossed $473million at the box office. Also in 2019, McAvoy starred as
Lord Asriel in the television adaptation of
His Dark Materials.
2020s McAvoy voiced
Dream in
Audible's audio drama adaptation of
The Sandman by
Neil Gaiman in July 2020. 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 2020, 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. He began principal photography on his directorial debut, California Schemin''', in Scotland in November 2024. ==Personal life==