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Channing Tatum (born Channing Matthew Tatum on April 26, 1980 in Cullman, Alabama) is an American actor and former model. After beginning his career as a fashion model, he has branched out into acting roles, appearing in the films Havoc (2005), Coach Carter (2005), Supercross (2005), She's the Man, then Step Up, and A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints, all of which were released in 2006.

Early life

Born in Cullman, a small city in Alabama, Tatum has at least one sister. He has French, Irish and Native American ancestry. His family moved to Mississippi when he was six, although he visits Alabama, where his mother's family still lives, every summer. Tatum grew up in the bayous near the Mississippi River, where he enjoyed a rural existence, including "All the rattlesnakes and alligators a boy could possibly chase, fishing every day, Pop Warner football league, stuff like that".

Tatum was athletic while growing up, playing football, soccer, track, baseball, and performing martial arts, although he says that "girls were always biggest distraction in school." During the ninth grade, he "had an option either a military school or a private school". Tatum won a football scholarship to Glenville State College in West Virginia, although he soon lost interest in the sport and turned down the scholarship, citing his dislike of the demands of playing football.

Career

Channing Tatum's first experience was in the fashion industry as a model. He was then 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. He subsequently signed with a modelling agency in Miami, Page 305 (Page Parkes Modeling Agency), and appeared in Vogue magazine. He soon appeared in campaigns for Abercrombie & Fitch, Nautica, Dolce & Gabbana, American Eagle Outfitters, and Emporio Armani. Tatum has also starred in a few television commercials for American Eagle Outfitters, Pepsi and Mountain Dew, and was picked as one of Tear Sheet magazine's "50 Most Beautiful Faces" of October 2001.

Tatum has said that his modeling career has helped him with his life, specifying that "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".

Tatum began his acting career in 2004, appearing in an episode of the television series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. His first feature film role was in 2005's high school drama, Coach Carter, playing Jason Lyle, a street smart basketball player opposite Samuel L. Jackson; Tatum also appeared in Twista's "Hope" music video, which accompanied the film. In the same year, Tatum had an uncredited bit role in War of the Worlds when posing as a boy in a church, a factory endorsed top motocross racer in Supercross, and part of the supporting cast in Havoc. Although Tatum has said that he loves modeling, he has taken a break from the profession to concentrate on his acting career, saying that he prefers making more mature movies.

Tatum was originally scheduled to play Gengis Khan in the film Mongol, but was replaced by actor Tadanobu Asano. He also auditioned for the role of Gambit in X-Men: The Last Stand, but was not cast as the character was eventually removed from the film. The film's producer, Lauren Shuler Donner, noticed Tatum and cast him in the film She's the Man, where he plays the love interest of Amanda Bynes's character. The film opened on March 17, 2006.

Tatum's most recent roles are in Step Up, a dance-themed romance which opened on August 11, 2006 and the 1980s-set drama A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints, in which he plays Antonio, a street youth in Astoria, Queens. Tatum has described the latter film as his "first dramatic role"; his performance received positive notices at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival, where the film premiered. The acclaim continued when he received an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Supporting Male.

Tatum's next film roles will be in director Kimberly Peirce's highly-anticipated movie Stop-Loss, about a soldier returning home from the Iraq War and director Stuart Townsend's movie Battle in Seattle, about the huge 1999 protest of the World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle.

Channing Tatum is slated to play a renegade New York City cop who must infiltrate the underground world of free running, known as le parkour, to bust a seemingly unstoppable gang of bank robbers in an untitled movie for New Line Cinema. Le parkour is an extraordinarily athletic discipline where a person utilizes their environment as a sort of jungle gym, traversing the landscape - urban or otherwise - in the most efficient method possible.

Channing Tatum will also be playing a soldier in another New Line Cinema film which is based on a popular Nicholas Sparks bestseller called Dear John. He will be starring in Christopher McQuarrie's upcoming feature project The Stanford Prison Experiment and will also star as a rogue psychic in David Bourla's movie Push.

Personal life

In August of 2006, columnist Janet Charlton reported that Tatum has been dating his Step Up co-star, Jenna Dewan, since 2005; the two met on the film's set. Tatum and Dewan both reported that they didn't start dating until the filming of the movie was finished. Although he is featured in an interactive section of People's Hottest Bachelors 2007, Channing is still dating Jenna Dewan.

Awards

Filmography

Footnotes

1. "ChanningTatumUnwrapped.com". NEWS FLASH: Channing Tatum's Real Name...We Were All Wrong!!!. Retrieved June 22. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
2. ^ "ModelLaunch.com". Channing Tatum: Relentless (Interview). Retrieved March 13. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
3. "The X-Verse". Lauren Shuler Donner Q&A. Retrieved June 19. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
4. "TeenPeople". Channing Tatum Takes a Dramatic Turn. Retrieved September 30. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
5. "FilmIndependent.org". Spirit Award Nomination. Retrieved February 1. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
6. "Hollywood.com". Tatum and Dewan 'Step Up' Real-Life Romance. Retrieved September 30. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)

External links

• Channing Tatum at IMDb

• 1980 births
• American film actors
• American male models
• Living people
• People from Alabama
• People from Mississippi
• Mississippi actors