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.
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.
5. X-Men: First Class
X-Men: First Class saw McAvoy appear as Charles Xavier for the first time. The origin story is set during the Cuban Missle Crisis and tells the story of the relationship between Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr/Magneto (played by Michael Fassbender) and the setting up of their competing mutant groups, the X-Men and the Brotherhood of Mutants. It has an approval rating of 86 per cent, completing the top 5. | Contributed
6. Atonement
Based on the Ian McEwan novel of the same name, Atonement is a 2007 romantic war drama that tells the story of what happens when a young couple's relationship is torn apart due to lie by a jealous sibling. McAvoy plays Robbie Turner, the housekeeper's son who was the subject of the lie, and the film follows the repercussions over the coming six decades. The film garnered seven Oscar nominations (winning one) and has a rating of 83 per cent. | Contributed
7. Speak No Evil
James McAvoy's most recent film features one of his most eye-catching performances, as a man who invites an American couple he meets on holiday to stay with him and his family at a remote English farm cottage. Horror ensues. To date, it also has a positive rating of 83 per cent. | Contributed
8. Atomic Blonde
2017 action thriller Atomic Blonde sees McAvoy co-star with Charlize Theron as a pair of spies who become embroiled in a mission to find a list of double agents that is being smuggled into the West on the eve of the collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1989. It has a rating of 79 per cent. | Contributed