Actor Channing Tatum was born on April 26, 1980 in Cullman, Alabama. Growing up in a rural setting in Mississippi, he was exposed to several sports, and also trained in kung fu. His teenage years in Tampa, Florida also saw him explore sports, which led him to a football scholarship in West Virginia; he turned it down, returned home, and found himself in Miami, where he was spotted by a model scout. After working on print and television ads, and grew his reputation as one of the hottest models of the time, he decided to pursue an acting career.

Making his acting debut in an episode of CSI: Miami, he became known in 2005, when he joined the cast of the film Coach Carter. At this time he juggled films and modeling, but later took a break from the latter. In 2006, he was part of the moderately successful She’s the Man, but broke out in the dance movie Step Up the following year. Pursuing his dreams of working in more mature fare, he next signed on for the indie drama A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints, which gave him acclaim at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival, and the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Actor.

Recently, he appeared in the films Fighting, Public Enemies and GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra, a role he was initially reluctant to take because he felt it glorified war—this was after he signed on for the war drama Stop-Loss, in 2008. He is currently married to Jenna Dewan, his co-star on Step Up.