Channing Tatum
Cullman County native Channing Tatum (1980- ) is best known for his prominent acting roles in such films as Step Up (2006), Magic Mike (2012), 21 Jump Street (2012), and Foxcatcher (2014). After an early career marked by his roles in teen films, he is now known for his versatility across an array of genres. In addition to his acting career, Tatum owns a film production company and has written several bestselling picture books for children.
Tatum was born in Cullman, Cullman County, to Kay Faust Tatum and Glenn Matthew Tatum on April 26, 1980; he has one older sister. When he was six years old, his family moved to the Pascagoula area of Mississippi, where his parents opened a pizza shop. He notes that he was an energetic child, so his parents signed him up for many sports, including martial arts, in which he became skilled. Tatum spent most of his teenage years in Tampa, Florida. He graduated from Tampa Catholic High School in 1998, and he was awarded a football scholarship at Glenville State University in West Virginia.
After dropping out of college, he returned to Tampa, where he worked in various jobs, including as a construction worker and as a striptease dancer in a nightclub. Deciding to seek more mainstream opportunities, he moved to Miami and began a successful career in modeling. He modeled for various national clothing companies, including Abercrombie & Fitch, Aéropostale, and Gap. In the early 2000s, he performed in several high-profile commercials and danced in the music video for Puerto Rican singer Ricky Martin’s hit “She Bangs.”
In 2004, Tatum landed a small role in an episode of CSI: Miami. Tatum’s acting career gained further traction the following year, when he landed small roles in several feature films, including Coach Carter, a high school basketball drama starring Samuel L. Jackson. In 2006, he gained critical acclaim for his role A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints, a coming-of-age film starring Robert Downey Jr. and Shia LaBeouf. Later that year, he solidified his reputation as a teen heartthrob with roles in She’s the Man, a modern adaptation of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night co-starring Amanda Bynes, and Step Up, a blockbuster dance drama co-starring Jenna Dewan.
In 2009, Tatum married Step Up co-star, actress, and dancer Jenna Dewan; the couple had one daughter. (They divorced in 2019.) Throughout the next several years, Tatum proved his versatility across genres. Alongside his performances in such action films as G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (2009), Fighting (2009), The Eagle (2011), and Haywire (2011), he played the romantic lead in films like Dear John (2010) and The Vow (2012) and leading roles in the comedy 10 Years (2011) and the drama/thriller Son of No One (2011).
Tatum costarred with Jonah Hill in the 2012 hit police comedy movie, 21 Jump Street. Later that year, he rose to superstardom for his role in Magic Mike. Directed by Tatum’s frequent collaborator Steven Soderbergh and co-starring Matthew McConaughey, the film is loosely based on Tatum’s own experiences as a male stripper in a Florida nightclub. The film saw tremendous success at the box office, grossing $170 million worldwide, and has sparked long-running live shows, which Tatum co-directs and produces, in London, Las Vegas, and New York City. Both 21 Jump Street and Magic Mike saw sequels in subsequent years.
Following the success of Magic Mike, Tatum was cast in leading roles in the action movie White House Down (2013) and the teen sci-fi film Jupiter Ascending (2015). Several of Tatum’s films from this period, including Side Effects (2013), Foxcatcher (2014), Hail, Caesar! (2016), and Lucky Logan (2017), were widely acclaimed by critics. As a voice actor, he played the role of Joaquin in The Book of Life (2014) and Superman in The Lego Movie (2014) and The Lego Batman Movie (2017). Tatum and Magic Mike screenwriter Reid Carolin founded the production company Free Association in 2014. The company has since produced many of Tatum’s films, including 22 Jump Street (2014), Magic Mike XXL (2015), Logan Lucky (2017), and Dog (2022).
Citing exhaustion from his busy filming schedule, Tatum retreated from leading roles for several years beginning in 2017. For four years, he accepted only a handful of small roles and appearances, including voice roles in animated films like Smallfoot (2018) and The Lego Movie 2 (2019). He then directed and starred in the 2022 film Dog. In it, an Army Ranger is tasked with escorting Lulu, a Belgian Malinois with behavioral difficulties due to combat trauma, across the county to attend the funeral of a fellow soldier.
Tatum’s most notable recent films include the action comedy The Lost City (2022), costarring Sandra Bullock; the quasi-historical romantic comedy Fly Me to the Moon (2024), costarring Scarlett Johansson; the thriller Blink Twice (2024), costarring Naomi Ackie; and the quirky dark comedy Roofman (2025), costarring Kirsten Dunst.
Tatum was widely praised for his brief but memorable portrayal of the X-Men character Remy LeBeau, who goes by the mutant name Gambit, in Deadpool & Wolverine (2024). As a long-time fan of the Gambit comics, the role was meaningful to him personally, and for many years, he had been attempting to play the character, a Marvel superhuman known for his Cajun accent, ability to manipulate kinetic energy, and aptitude for throwing cards as weapons. He had previously been cast to play Gambit in X-Men: The Last Stand (2006), but the part was cut from the script. When asked to play the role in X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009), he was unavailable for filming. In 2014, Tatum was cast to play the lead role in the upcoming film Gambit, but the project was placed on hold and eventually canceled.
Tatum also achieved success with the publication of his first children’s book, The One and Only Sparkella, in 2021. Inspired by Tatum’s daughter, the book tells the story of a sparkle-loving little girl and the bond she has with her father. The book was a New York Times bestseller and inspired two additional Sparkella books.
