Channing Matthew Tatum (born April 26, 1980) is an American actor, film producer, dancer, and model. Tatum made his film debut in the drama film Coach Carter (2005). His breakthrough role was in the 2006 dance film Step Up, which introduced him to a wider audience. He is known for his portrayal of the character Duke in the 2009 action film G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra and its 2013 sequel G.I. Joe: Retaliation. Although both G.I. Joe films received negative reviews from critics, they were commercially successful, grossing more than $300 million at the box office.
Tatum is also known for his portrayal as Magic Mike in the 2012 comedy film Magic Mike, which he produced and was inspired by his early life, and Greg Jenko in the action-comedy film 21 Jump Street and its 2014 sequel, 22 Jump Street, based on the 1987 television series of the same name. All three films were critically and commercially successful.
Tatum has also appeared in the commercially successful romantic films Dear John (2010) and The Vow (2012). His other films include She’s the Man (2006), The Dilemma (2011), White House Down (2013) and Foxcatcher (2014), for which he received critical praise.
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Early life
Tatum was born in Cullman, Alabama, the son of Kay (née Faust), an airline worker, and Glenn Tatum, who worked in construction. He has a sister named Paige. He is mostly of English ancestry, with small amounts from elsewhere in Europe. Tatum’s family moved to Mississippi when he was six. He grew up in the bayous near the Mississippi River, where he lived in a rural setting.
Tatum was athletic while growing up, playing football, soccer, track, baseball, and performing martial arts; he has said that “girls were always [his] biggest distraction in school.” As a child, he practiced wuzuquan kung fu under the tutelage of 10th dan Grandmaster Chee Kim Thong. 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. Afterward, Tatum 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 2010, he told an Australian newspaper that he wanted to make a movie about his experiences as a stripper. That idea led to the movie Magic Mike. Tatum moved to Miami, where he was discovered by a model talent scout.
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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 such 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 a modeling agency in Miami, Page 305 (Page Parkes Modeling Agency). 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 also signed with Beatrice Model agency in Milan, Italy and Ford Models in New York City.
Tatum has said that his modeling career has helped him with his life, specifying,
- “It’s made my life, and my family’s life, a lot easier, because I never knew what I wanted to do and now they don’t really have to worry about me anymore. I’ve been able to explore life, and through exploring it I’ve found that I love art, I love writing, I love acting, I love all the things that make sense to me. And I’ve been given the chance to go out and see the world, and to see all the things out there. Not everyone gets that chance.”
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2008-2012
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. Tatum starred as Sean McArthur, a young man who scrapes up a living scalping tickets in New York City. Tatum 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 movie would glorify war; however, he overcame his reluctance after reading the script. He played a soldier in Dear John, a Screen Gems film based on a popular Nicholas Sparks bestseller. He later stated that he had accepted the role to learn from director Lasse Hallström because he had 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 Jenna Dewan, and their production partner Reid Carolin signed a two-year production deal in 2010 with Relativity Media for any movies 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 (the film adaptation of TV series of the same name) with Jonah Hill.
He also starred in Magic Mike, a film about his eight-month experience as a male stripper in Florida. The film was directed by Steven Soderbergh, 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.” The film’s cast also included Matt Bomer, Joe Manganiello, and Matthew McConaughey. In November 2012 Tatum was named People magazine’s annual Sexiest Man Alive.
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2013-present
Tatum appeared in Steven Soderbergh’s Side Effects, with Rooney Mara and Jude Law. He reprised his role as 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, in order to convert it to 3D and to add more scenes for his character, who was killed at the beginning of the movie. Tatum later said he did not want to appear in the sequel, and was happy his character was killed off. Also in 2013, he appeared in another action movie, 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 suffered from paranoid schizophrenia and killed Olympic wrestler Dave Schultz, the brother of the character played by Tatum, who also had won Olympic gold. Tatum will be portraying Gambit in a stand-alone solo film which he will be producing. Tatum is set to co-produce the reboot of Ghostbusters, which is produced by Sony’s new founded company, Ghost Corps.
Personal life
In 2006, Tatum met actress Jenna Dewan on the set of their movie Step Up. They began dating shortly after filming had finished. The couple became engaged in September 2008 in Maui, and married on July 11, 2009 at Church Estates Vineyards in Malibu, California. They have a daughter who was born in London in 2013. Tatum has discussed his dealing with attention deficit disorder (ADD) and dyslexia while growing up, which affected his ability to do well in school.
In a May 2014 interview with GQ magazine, Tatum stated that he drinks too much and that he is a high-functioning alcoholic.