Channing Tatum

Channing Tatum (birthname: Channing Matthew Tatum) is an actor-producer who has parlayed his athletic presence into the stuff of comedy and his stardom into the realm of producing. Tatum began his show business career as a male model, but soon shifted into movie acting with roles in Coach Carter (2005) with Samuel L. Jackson; the Barbara Kopple-directed crime drama, Havoc (2005), with Anne Hathaway; 20^th Century Fox’s action movie, Supercross (2005), directed by Steve Boyum; and then rising to a co-starring role with Amanda Bynes, Julie Hagerty, and David Cross in a teen comedy version of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, She’s the Man (2006).

Tatum had his breakthrough starring role in the teen dance drama, Step Up (2006), with Jenna Dewan and Rachel Griffiths under Anne Fletcher’s direction, which grossed $114 million (against $12 million costs) for Touchstone Pictures/Disney. Tatum starred under indie filmmaker Dito Montiel’s direction in three dramas in five years: the autobiographical A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints (2006), with Robert Downey Jr., Shia LaBeouf, and Rosario Dawson; Fighting (2009), with Terrence Howard and Luis Guzman; and The Son of No One (2011), with Tracy Morgan, Katie Holmes, Ray Liotta, Juliette Binoche, and Al Pacino, and which premiered at the Sundance film festival.

Channing Tatum had a supporting role in the little-seen Battle in Seattle (2007), with Andre Benjamin, Woody Harrelson, and Charlize Theron, and then a co-starring role in co-writer/director Kimberly Peirce’s war drama, Stop-Loss (2008), with Ryan Philippe, Abbie Cornish, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ciaran Hinds, and Timothy Olyphant, and premiering at the South by Southwest film festival before a poor release by Paramount Pictures. Tatum was cast by filmmaker Michael Mann for his crime drama about John Dillinger, Public Enemies (2009), co-starring Johnny Depp, Christian Bale, Marion Cotillard, Billy Crudup, Stephen Dorff, and Stephen Lang, and earning a good $214 million for Universal Pictures.

Tatum was cast in a supporting role in the Stephen Sommers-directed military sci-fi movie, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (2009), with Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Christopher Eccleston, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Lee Byung-hun, and Sienna Miller, and grossing $302.5 million for Paramount; Tatum followed up this success with the sequel, G.I. Joe: Retaliation (2013), directed by Jon M. Chu and grossing just under $376 million globally. Tatum then co-starred with Amanda Seyfried in the hit Nicholas Sparks adaptation, Dear John (2010), directed by Lasse Hallström, which returned a healthy $115 million return on $25 million costs.

Channing Tatum had a supporting role in a dud comedy directed and produced by Ron Howard, The Dilemma (2011), co-starring Vince Vaughn, Kevin James, Jennifer Connelly, Winona Ryder, and Queen Latifah. Still, Tatum’s standing took another step with his starring role in his first historical drama, the Roman Britain-set The Eagle (2011), with Jamie Bell, Donald Sutherland, and Mark Strong, and released to good business by Focus Features/Universal Pictures. Tatum’s first feature working with filmmaker Steven Soderbergh was the thriller, Haywire (2011), co-starring Gina Carano, Michael Fassbender, Ewan McGregor, Bill Paxton, Mathieu Kassovitz, Antonio Banderas, and Michael Douglas, earning $34.5 million for Paramount/Relativity Media.

Tatum’s star rose higher as co-star with Rachel McAdams of Screen Gems’ hit, The Vow (2012), with Jessica Lange and Sam Neill, and being the eighth highest-grossing romantic drama since 1980 with a $196 million return. Tatum’s third foray with filmmaker Steven Soderbergh—and immediately after their hit Magic Mike (2012)—was the psychological thriller, Side Effects (2013), co-starring Jude Law, Rooney Mara, and Catherine Zeta-Jones, and cashing in for Open Road Films with a $66.7 million gross.

Channing Tatum technically portrayed his first superhero as the voice of Superman in a string of mostly superb Lego-themed animated movies created by the team of Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, starting with the masterful The Lego Movie (2014), co-starring the voices of Chris Pratt, Will Ferrell, Elizabeth Banks, Will Arnett, Nick Offerman, Alison Brie, Liam Neeson, and Morgan Freeman, and whose $470.7 million triggered a franchise; Tatum continued as Superman in the spinoffs and sequels, The Lego Batman Movie (2017), directed by Chris McKay, and The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part (2019), directed by Mike Mitchell. Tatum co-starred in his most impressive dramatic feature to date, the Annapurna Pictures and Sony Pictures Classics-backed Foxcatcher (2014), directed by Bennett Miller, co-written by E. Max Frye and Dan Futterman, and co-starring Steve Carell, Mark Ruffalo, Vanessa Redgrave, and Sienna Miller, and nominated for five Oscars.

Tatum delivered another voice performance in an animated movie with the Guillermo del Toro-produced 20^th Century Fox Animation movie, The Book of Life (2014), directed by co-writer Jorge R. Gutierrez and with Diego Luna, Zoe Saldana, Ice Cube, Ron Perlman, Kate del Castillo, Christina Applegate, Danny Trejo, Placido Domingo, and Cheech Marin, and grossing $100 million. Tatum starred in one of his rare box-office duds with the sister filmmakers Lana and Lilly Wachowski for the “space opera,” Jupiter Ascending (2015), with Mila Kunis, Sean Bean, and Eddie Redmayne, and returning a poor $184 million (on $210 million costs) for Warner Bros.

Channing Tatum joined filmmaker Quentin Tarantino for a supporting role in his striking Western, The Hateful Eight (2015), starring Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Walton Goggins, Demian Bichir, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, and Bruce Dern, and delivering a robust return of $156.5 million for The Weinstein Company. Tatum joined another colorful ensemble for the Coen Brothers with their $63-million-grossing Hollywood comedy for Universal Pictures, Hail, Caesar! (2016), starring Josh Brolin, George Clooney, Alden Ehrenreich, Ralph Fiennes, Jonah Hill, Scarlett Johansson, Frances McDormand, and Tilda Swinton.

Tatum jumped aboard another ensemble and franchise in a supporting role in the Matthew Vaughn-directed sequel, Kingsman: The Golden Circle (2017), co-starring Colin Firth, Julianne Moore, Taron Egerton, Mark Strong, Halle Berry, Elton John, and Jeff Bridges, and beat back mixed reviews with strong box-office returns of $410 million for 20^th Century Fox. Tatum topped an eclectic voice cast for Warner Animation Group’s hit animated musical, Smallfoot (2018), directed by co-writer Karey Kirkpatrick and with James Corden, Zendaya, Common, LeBron James, Danny DeVito, Gina Rodriguez, and Yara Shahidi, and which grossed $214 million globally.

Channing Tatum’s remarkably consistent and fine box office run continued with the action comedy in which he co-starred with Sandra Bullock, The Lost City (2022), co-directed and co-written by Aaron and Adam Nee (with co-writers Oren Uziel and Dana Fox) helming the cast of Daniel Radcliffe, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, and Brad Pitt, and which premiered at the South by Southwest film festival before a $190-million return for Paramount Pictures. Tatum co-starred with Scarlett Johansson in Columbia Pictures/Sony Releasing’s Apollo 11-set comedy-drama, Fly Me to the Moon (2024), with Jim Rash, Ray Romano, and Woody Harrelson under Greg Berlanti’s direction.

Tatum amassed, more than most of his peers, a considerable roster of movie credits as a star-producer, including some of Tatum’s biggest hits: 10 Years (2011); the Phil Lord-Christopher Miller-directed big-screen version of the 1987-1991 TV series, 21 Jump Street (2012), with Jonah Hill; the breakaway hit directed by Steven Soderbergh, Magic Mike (2012), grossing $167 million; Columbia Pictures/Sony Releasing’s White House Down (2013), co-starring Jamie Foxx and Maggie Gyllenhaal, and directed by Roland Emmerich; the Lord/Miller sequel, 22 Jump Street (2014), with Hill; the hit ($118-million-grossing) sequel, Magic Mike XXL (2015), directed by Gregory Jacobs; the successful Soderbergh-directed heist comedy, Logan Lucky (2017), with Adam Driver, Hilary Swank, Daniel Craig, Seth MacFarlane, Riley Keough, and Katie Holmes; Soderbergh’s sequel, Magic Mike’s Last Dance (2023), co-starring Salma Hayek Pinault.

Channing Tatum co-starred in the NASA Moon race comedy, Fly Me to the Moon (2024), co-starring Scarlett Johansson, directed by Greg Berlanti, and then had a supporting role in Disney/Marvel’s blockbuster hit sequel, Deadpool & Wolverine (2024), co-starring Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman under Shawn Levy’s direction, and earning a spectacular global return exceeding $1 billion. Tatum then co-starred in the Zoe Kravitz-directed thriller for Amazon MGM Studios, Blink Twice (2024), with Naomi Ackie, Christian Slater, Simon Rex, Adria Arjona, and Kyle MacLachlan.

Tatum co-starred with Gemma Chan and Philip Ettinger in director/writer/producer Beth de Araujo’s San Francisco-based thriller, Josephine (date to be announced), and then Tatum starred in writer Jamie Linden’s college drama, Soundtrack of Silence (date to be announced). Tatum reunited with co-star Ryan Reynolds in the Los Angeles crime comedy co-directed and co-written by Aaron and Adam Nee, Calamity Hustle (date to be announced), followed by Tatum joining director/co-writer/star Joseph Gordon-Levitt for his Vegas-set musical comedy, Wingmen (date to be announced).

Channing Tatum starred as an FBI agent pursuing drug cartel bad guys in Bloodlines (date to be announced), written by Melissa Del Bosque and Jonathan Herman.