Channing Tatum facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Channing Tatum
Tatum in 2015
Born	Channing Matthew Tatum (1980-04-26) April 26, 1980 (age 44) Cullman, Alabama, U.S.
Occupation	Actor producer
Years active	2000–present
Spouse(s)	Jenna Dewan ​ ​ (m. 2009; div. 2019)​
Children	1
Awards	Full list

Channing Matthew Tatum (born April 26, 1980) 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 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). 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.

Early life

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.

Career

Early work

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 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.

2006–2012

Tatum in 2009

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. 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. He played a soldier in Dear John, a film based on the popular Nicholas Sparks bestseller. He later stated that he accepted the role to learn from director Lasse Hallström because he never studied at an acting school.

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." He, his wife 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. In 2012, Tatum hosted Saturday Night Live and appeared in four films. He co-starred in Steven Soderbergh's action-thriller Haywire, The Vow with Rachel McAdams, and 21 Jump Street (film adaptation of TV series of the same name) with Jonah Hill.

Tatum also starred in Magic Mike. The film was directed by Soderbergh, was co-produced by Tatum and Soderbergh, and starred Tatum as Mike. The film's cast also included Matt Bomer, Joe Manganiello, and Matthew McConaughey.

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.

2013–present

Tatum at the 2017 San Diego Comic-Con International

Tatum appeared in Steven Soderbergh's Side Effects, with Rooney Mara and Jude Law.

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. Tatum later said he had not wanted to appear in the sequel and was happy his character had been killed off. Also in 2013, he appeared in another action film, White House Down.

Tatum reprised his role from 21 Jump Street in its sequel, 22 Jump Street, which was released on June 13, 2014.

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. 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, but the film was cancelled in May 2019 after languishing in development hell since 2014. 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.

Production companies

Tatum started two production companies, 33andOut Productions and Iron Horse Entertainment. Their first production was the 2010 documentary Earth Made of Glass.

Books

Tatum has written two picture books inspired by his daughter. The first, The One and Only Sparkella (2021), was a #1 New York Times bestseller for children's picture books the week it published. The One and Only Sparkella Makes a Plan will publish in 2022.

Personal life

Tatum and Jenna Dewan at the Peabody Awards 2012

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. They have one daughter, born in 2013. On April 2, 2018, the couple announced they were separating. Six months later, Dewan filed for divorce from Tatum. The divorce was finalized in November 2019. 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.

Tatum dated English singer Jessie J from 2018 to 2020. In 2021, Tatum started dating Zoë Kravitz and in 2023 the couple were engaged.

In October 2023, Tatum signed an open letter by artists to President Biden calling for a ceasefire during the Israeli bombardment of Gaza.

Filmography

Key

Denotes works that have not yet been released

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2005	Coach Carter	Jason Lyle
	Havoc	Nick
	Supercross	Rowdy Sparks
	War of the Worlds	Boy in church	Uncredited
2006	She's the Man	Duke Orsino
	Step Up	Tyler Gage
	A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints	Young Antonio
2007	The Trap	Greg	Short film
	Battle in Seattle	Johnson
2008	Step Up 2: The Streets	Tyler Gage	Cameo appearance
	Stop-Loss	Steve Shriver
2009	Fighting	Shawn MacArthur
	Public Enemies	Pretty Boy Floyd
	G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra	Conrad S. Hauser / Duke
2010	Dear John	John Tyree
2011	The Dilemma	Zip
	The Son of No One	Jonathan "Milk" White
	The Eagle	Marcus Flavius Aquila
	10 Years	Jake Bills	Also producer
	Haywire	Aaron
2012	The Vow	Leo Collins
	21 Jump Street	Greg Jenko	Also executive producer
	Magic Mike	Michael "Magic Mike" Lane	Also producer
2013	Side Effects	Martin Taylor
	G.I. Joe: Retaliation	Conrad S. Hauser / Duke
	This Is the End	Himself	Cameo appearance
	White House Down	John Cale	Also executive producer
	Don Jon	Connor Verreaux	Cameo appearance
2014	The Lego Movie	Superman	Voice
	Foxcatcher	Mark Schultz
	22 Jump Street	Greg Jenko	Also producer
	The Book of Life	Joaquin Mondragon Jr.	Voice
2015	Jupiter Ascending	Caine Wise
	Magic Mike XXL	Michael "Magic Mike" Lane	Also producer
	The Hateful Eight	Jody Domergue
2016	Hail, Caesar!	Burt Gurney
2017	The Lego Batman Movie	Superman	Voice
	Dark Hoser		Voice role, short film
	Logan Lucky	Jimmy Logan	Also producer
	Kingsman: The Golden Circle	Tequila
2018	Smallfoot	Migo	Voice
2019	The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part	Superman
2021	America: The Motion Picture	George Washington	Voice; also producer
	Free Guy	Revenjamin Buttons	Cameo
2022	Dog	Army Ranger Jackson Briggs	Also director and producer
	The Lost City	Alan Caprison / Dash McMahon
	Bullet Train	Train Passenger	Uncredited cameo
2023	Magic Mike's Last Dance	Michael "Magic Mike" Lane
TBA	Project Artemis	TBA	Filming

Television

Producer

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2010	Earth Made of Glass	Executive producer	Documentary
2018–2022	Step Up	Executive producer	Television series
2018	6 Balloons	Producer	Feature film
2021–2022	Finding Magic Mike	Executive producer	Television series
2024	Spaceman	Producer	Post-production, feature film
	Untitled Space X/HBO Project	Executive producer	Limited Series

Music videos

Awards and nominations

See also

In Spanish: Channing Tatum para niños