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 comedy-drama Magic Mike (2012) and its sequel Magic Mike XXL (2015), the latter 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 She's the Man (2006), 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 mostly English 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.
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.
