Channing Matthew Tatum (born April 26, 1980)[1][2] is an American actor. Tatum made his film debut in the drama Coach Carter (2005), and had his breakthrough role in the 2006 dance film Step Up. He gained wider attention for his leading roles in the sports comedy She's the Man (2006), the comedy-drama Magic Mike (2012) and its sequels Magic Mike XXL (2015) and Magic Mike's Last Dance (2023), the latter two of which he also produced, and in the action-comedy 21 Jump Street (2012) and its sequel 22 Jump Street (2014).
Tatum was born on April 26, 1980, in Cullman, Alabama, to Kay Tatum (née Faust), an airline worker, and Glenn Tatum, a construction worker.[2][5][6] He has a sister named Paige. He is of Irish, French, and German ancestry.[7]
Tatum has discussed having dealt with attention deficit disorder (ADD) and dyslexia while growing up, which affected his ability to do well in school.[9] Growing up, Tatum played football, soccer, track, and baseball; he has said that "girls were always [his] biggest distraction in school." As a child, he practiced wuzuquankung fu.[10]
Tatum spent most of his teenage years in the Tampa area, and initially attended Gaither High School. His parents wanted more effort and gave him the option of selecting a private high school or attending a military school; he chose Tampa Catholic High School, where he graduated in 1998 and was voted most athletic.[11] He later attended Glenville State College in Glenville, West Virginia on a football scholarship, but dropped out.[12] He returned home and started working odd jobs.
Us Weekly reported that around this time Tatum left his job as a roofer and began working as a stripper at a local nightclub under the name "Chan Crawford".[13][14] In 2010, he told an Australian newspaper that he wanted to make a film about his experiences as a stripper.[15] That idea led to the film Magic Mike.[14] Tatum moved to Miami, where he was discovered by a model talent scout.
Career
Early work
In 2000, Tatum was first cast as a dancer in Ricky Martin's "She Bangs" music video,[2] after an audition in Orlando, Florida; he was paid $400 for the job. His experience in the fashion industry began as a model working for noted clients such as Armani and Abercrombie & Fitch. He soon moved into television commercials, landing national spots for Mountain Dew and Pepsi in 2002. He subsequently signed with Page 305 (Page Parkes Modeling Agency), a modeling agency in Miami. He was cast by Al David for Vogue magazine and soon after appeared in campaigns for Abercrombie & Fitch, Nautica, Dolce & Gabbana, American Eagle Outfitters, and Emporio Armani. He was picked as one of Tear Sheet magazine's "50 Most Beautiful Faces" of October 2001. Tatum signed with Ford Models in New York City.[16]
2006–2012
In 2006, Tatum starred in She's The Man opposite Amanda Bynes, which was named "the greatest Shakespeare adaptation since '10 Things I Hate About You'" by Business Insider.[17] Later that year, Tatum starred opposite his future wife Jenna Dewan in Step Up, which was his breakout role. Although it was widely panned, it has earned $115 million worldwide.[18]
Tatum also starred in Magic Mike, a film based on his eight-month experience as a stripper in Florida. The film was directed by Soderbergh,[26] was co-produced by Tatum and Soderbergh, and starred Tatum as Mike. He is a featured performer at a Tampa, Florida, male strip club who takes a younger dancer (Alex Pettyfer) under his wing to show him how to hustle "on and off stage".[26] The film's cast also included Matt Bomer, Joe Manganiello, and Matthew McConaughey.[26]
He reprised his role as Conrad S. Hauser / Duke in G.I. Joe: Retaliation, the sequel to 2009's G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, in an ensemble cast that included Dwayne Johnson and Bruce Willis. Originally scheduled for release on June 29, 2012, the film was pushed back to March 2013 to convert it to 3D and to add more scenes for his character, who was killed at the beginning of the film.[28] Tatum later said he had not wanted to appear in the sequel and was happy his character had been killed off.[29] Also in 2013, he appeared in another action film, White House Down.[30]
Also in 2014, he co-starred with Steve Carell in Foxcatcher, the story of John du Pont, who had schizophrenia and killed Olympic wrestler Dave Schultz, the brother of the character played by Tatum, who also had won Olympic gold.[32] Tatum was set to star as X-Men character Remy LeBeau / Gambit in a solo film, set within the X-Men film universe, which he would have produced,[33][34][35] but the film was cancelled in May 2019 after languishing in development hell since 2014.[36] In 2022, Tatum made his directing debut on Dog, a road-trip comedy tracking a former Army Ranger and his dog that he starred in and co-helmed with regular collaborator Reid Carolin.[37] The same year, he starred opposite Sandra Bullock in the Paramount Pictures romantic action adventure film The Lost City.[38]
In 2023, Tatum returned as Mike Lane in Magic Mike's Last Dance with Steven Soderbergh as director. The film was set for an exclusive premiere on HBO Max,[39] but was released in theaters on February 10, 2023.[40]
In June 2021, Tatum was set to star in the thriller film Pussy Island, marking the directorial debut of Zoë Kravitz.[42] In November 2021, he was cast in an untitled true story drama film with Tom Hardy, directed by George Nolfi.[43] He will star in the remake of German film System Crasher, which was released in 2019.[44]
Other ventures
Production companies
In an interview with Details magazine, published in early 2012, Tatum said he wants to produce all the films he stars in, "I really don't want to be in any more movies that I don't produce. Unless it's with one of the 10 directors that I really want to work with, I don't have any interest in not being on the ground floor of creating it."[45] He, his then-wife Jenna Dewan, and their production partner Reid Carolin signed a two-year production deal in 2010 with Relativity Media for any films they may develop during that time.[46]
Tatum started two production companies, 33andOut Productions[47] and Iron Horse Entertainment.[48] Their first production was the 2010 documentary Earth Made of Glass. In 2021, another one of his production companies, Free Association, signed a first look deal with MGM.[49]
Books
Tatum has written two picture books inspired by his daughter.[50] The first, The One and Only Sparkella (2021), was a #1 New York Times bestseller for children's picture books the week it published.[51]The One and Only Sparkella Makes a Plan will publish in 2022.[52]
Personal life
In 2006, Tatum met actress Jenna Dewan on the set of their film Step Up, and they married on July 11, 2009, in Malibu, California.[53] They have one daughter, born in 2013.[54] On April 2, 2018, the couple announced they were separating.[55] Six months later, Dewan filed for divorce from Tatum.[56] The divorce was finalized in November 2019.[57] In a 2023 interview with Vanity Fair, Tatum questioned whether he would ever remarry, though said his divorce prompted self-improvement, including a strong relationship with his daughter.[50]
In October 2012, Tatum and a friend opened the Saints and Sinners burlesque-themed restaurant and bar in New Orleans, which remained in business ten years later.[63]
^ abcde"Channing Tatum (visual voices guide)". Behind The Voice Actors. Retrieved December 9, 2023. A green check mark indicates that a role has been confirmed using a screenshot (or collage of screenshots) of a title's list of voice actors and their respective characters found in its opening and/or closing credits and/or other reliable sources of information.