Born in Glasgow in 1979, James McAvoy was brought up by his maternal grandparents in Drumchapel after his mother suffered from poor health following her divorce from her husband.
He was educated at St Thomas Aquinas Secondary School in the Jordanhill area of the city and briefly considered becoming a priest, but instead opted to join the Royal Navy.
He changed his mind when he was offered a place at Glasgow’s Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, before moving to London to pursue an acting career.
It didn’t take him long to find success in television, with early roles in the likes of State of Play, Frank Herbert's Children of Dune, and Shameless.
His big screen breakthrough came playing Mr. Tumnus in The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe in 2005.
He has since gone on to star in a string of hit films including Wanted, The Last King of Scotland, Atonement, the X-Men series, Filth, Split, Glass and It Chapter Two.
He’s also had a recent telvision hit in the form of His Dark Materials, and has also had success on the stage, receiving four Olivier nominations for best actor, most recently for playing the title role in Cyrano de Bergerac in 2020.
And this year has seen him win more acclaim, for his perfomance in horror film Speak No Evil.
Here are his 11 best movies - according to online review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes.
9. Split
Why play just one character when you can play 23? That's what James McAvoy does in M. Night Shyamalan's 2016 psychological thriller Split. He stars as a man with dissociative identity disorder (considering himself to be a myriad of different people) who kidnaps and imprisons three teenage girls. It has a rating of 78 per cent. | Contributed
10. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
The film that launched McAvoy's bigscreen career, he plays faun Mr Tumnus in 2005 fantasy film 'The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe'. He's one of the first character the children meet after they travel to the land of Narnia through a magical wardrobe. It has a rating of 75 per cent. | Contributed
11. The Last Station
Completing our list is 2009 historical biography The Last Station. Also starring Christopher Plummer and Helen Mirren, it chronicles the final months in the live of Russian author Leo Tolstoy. McAvoy play's the writer's private secretary. It has a positive rating of 71 per cent. | Contributed