Channing Tatum

Channing Matthew Tatum (born April 26, 1980) is an American actor.

Tatum was born on April 26, 1980, in Cullman, Alabama, to Kay Tatum (née Faust), an airline worker, and Glenn Tatum, a construction worker.

He has a sister named Paige.

He is of Irish, French, and German ancestry.

His family moved to the Pascagoula, Mississippi area when he was six.

He grew up in the bayous near the Pascagoula River, where he lived in a rural setting.

Tatum has discussed having dealt with attention deficit disorder (ADD) and dyslexia while growing up, which affected his ability to do well in school.

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 wuzuquan kung fu.

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.

He later attended Glenville State College in Glenville, West Virginia on a football scholarship, but dropped out.

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".

In 2000, Tatum was first cast as a dancer in Ricky Martin's "She Bangs" music video, 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 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.

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.

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).

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.

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.

In 2008, Tatum co-starred in director Kimberly Peirce's film Stop-Loss, about soldiers returning home from the Iraq War, and in director Stuart Townsend's film Battle in Seattle, about the 1999 protest of the World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle.

Tatum played in the short film The Trap, directed by Rita Wilson.

Tatum and Dito Montiel, who worked together on A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints, reteamed on the action drama Fighting for Rogue Pictures.

He starred as Sean McArthur, a young man who scrapes up a living scalping tickets in New York City.

Tatum has also appeared as Duke in the action film G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (2009) and its sequel G.I. Joe: Retaliation (2013).

He next appeared in writer/director/producer Michael Mann's 2009 crime drama Public Enemies, playing the 1930s American gangster Pretty Boy Floyd.

The same year, Tatum starred as Duke in G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, Paramount Pictures' live-action film based on the popular Hasbro action figures.

He was initially reluctant to take the role as he feared the film would glorify war, but overcame his reluctance after reading the script.

In 2010, he told an Australian newspaper that he wanted to make a film about his experiences as a stripper.

That idea led to the film Magic Mike.

Tatum moved to Miami, where he was discovered by a model talent scout.

His other films include White House Down (2013), Foxcatcher (2014), The Hateful Eight (2015), Hail, Caesar! (2016), Logan Lucky (2017), and The Lost City (2022).

Tatum has also starred in, produced and co-directed the road film Dog (2022).

Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2022.