Charlie Hunnam Biography

Charles Matthew Hunnam (born 10 April 1980) is an English actor. He is known for his roles as Jackson "Jax" Teller in the FX drama series Sons of Anarchy (2008-14), Nathan Maloney in the Channel 4 drama Queer as Folk (1999-2000), Lloyd Haythe in the Fox comedy series Undeclared (2001-02), the title role in Nicholas Nickleby (2002), Pete Dunham in Green Street (2005), and Raleigh Becket in Pacific Rim (2013).

Early life

Hunnam was born in Newcastle upon Tyne, England, the son of William "Billy" Hunnam (1952-2013), a gangster and scrap metal merchant, and Jane (Bell) Hunnam, a business owner. His maternal grandmother was the premier portrait artist in Newcastle. Hunnam was the second child, born after brother William "Billy". He has two younger half-brothers, Oliver and Christian, on his mother's side. His parents divorced when he was two years old, and he moved to the village of Melmerby, Cumbria when he was twelve, as his mother remarried. He went to Heaton Manor School in Newcastle. After moving, he went to Ullswater Community College then Queen Elizabeth Grammar School in Penrith, Cumbria. He attended Cumbria College of Art and Design, now the University of Cumbria, where he graduated with a degree in the theory and history of film with a side in performing arts.

Career

Early work

At the age of 17, Hunnam was discovered in a shoe shop on Christmas Eve while drunkenly clowning around buying shoes for his brother. A production manager for the Newcastle-based children's show Byker Grove approached him and Hunnam was later cast in his first role as Jason in three episodes of the show. He also had a brief modeling career where he did a shoot for Kangols Caps and then decided modeling was not for him. Aged 18, his first major role came when he was cast by Russell T Davies as fifteen-year-old schoolboy Nathan Maloney in Davies' Channel 4 drama Queer as Folk.

He followed this up with his role as Daz in the film Whatever Happened to Harold Smith? (1999) and then moved to Los Angeles.

His career expanded to include a recurring role as Gregor Ryder in the WB series Young Americans. He then appeared in the short-lived Fox series Undeclared as an English drama student called Lloyd Haythe. Despite critical acclaim, the series was cancelled after one season. Hunnam then appeared on the large screen in Abandon (2002), Nicholas Nickleby (2002), and Cold Mountain (2003). Hunnam has stated that he does not wish to simply take any role that he is offered: "I have 60 years to make the money, but the choices I make in the next five years are really going to define my career." This decision resulted in his return to the UK to take the lead role of Pete Dunham in the film Green Street (2005), however his attempts at delivering a Cockney accent resulted in his inclusion in many critics' "worst accents in movie history" lists.

Hunnam says his role Patric, a member of "The Fishes", in Children of Men (2006), was the final part in his "trilogy of mad men". "I played the psycho in Cold Mountain, my character in Green Street is fairly psychotic and now I've got this role."

2008-2012

From 2008 to 2014, Hunnam starred as Jackson "Jax" Teller in Sons of Anarchy, a show about a prominent motorcycle club in a small fictional California town. Hunnam was cast after Kurt Sutter, the creator of the show, saw him in Green Street. His portrayal as Jax Teller has led Hunnam to receive a Critics' Choice Television Award nomination, three EWwy Award nominations for Best Lead Actor in a Drama series, and a PAAFTJ Award nomination for Best Cast in a Drama Series.

In 2011, Hunnam played the role of Gavin Nichols in the philosophical drama/thriller The Ledge by Matthew Chapman.

In 2012, he starred as the title character in the indie comedy 3,2,1... Frankie Go Boom alongside, among others, his Sons of Anarchy co-star Ron Perlman. Hunnam said that he considered the day that he filmed scenes with Perlman for that film the best and funniest day of filming he's ever had in his whole career. He also appeared as Jay, an ex-boxer, in Stefan Ruzowitzky's crime drama Deadfall (2012).

2013-present

Hunnam starred as Raleigh Becket in Guillermo del Toro's sci-fi film Pacific Rim, that opened in July 2013 and grossed $411 million worldwide. It was announced on 2 September 2013 that Hunnam would play the lead role of Christian Grey in the film adaptation of E. L. James' novel Fifty Shades of Grey. However, on 12 October 2013, Universal Pictures announced that Hunnam had withdrawn from the film due to conflicts with the schedule of his series Sons of Anarchy.

On 2 June 2014, Hunnam was awarded a Huading Award for Best Global Emerging Actor, for his role as Raleigh in Pacific Rim, due to the film performing very well in the Asian markets. Hunnam reunited with del Toro in the horror film Crimson Peak, alongside Mia Wasikowska, Tom Hiddleston, and Jessica Chastain. The film began shooting in February 2014, and was released on 16 October 2015. In an 3 October 2014 interview with Entertainment Weekly, Hunnam confirmed his involvement in both Guy Ritchie's King Arthur and romantic-survival film, The Mountain Between Us.

The filming of King Arthur: Legend of the Sword took place between March 2015 - July 2015 and was originally scheduled to be released on 22 July 2016 but Warner Bros. moved the release date to 12 May 2017. The production of The Lost City of Z took place August - October 2015 and is scheduled for a 2017 release.

Screenplays

Immediately prior to getting cast on Sons of Anarchy, he sold his screenplay Vlad to Summit Entertainment with Brad Pitt's Plan B Studios co-producing. The film is being directed by music video director and photographer Anthony Mandler, and will focus on the real-life story of Vlad the Impaler. Hunnam learned the story from locals in Romania while shooting Cold Mountain. He stated that he had not acted in 18 months and was so broke that if he had not managed to sell the script he would have had to sell his house and move back to Britain to live with his mother. Hunnam is also developing a screenplay based on a 2011 Rolling Stone article that he optioned about Edgar Valdez Villareal, an American drug lord who ran one of the biggest cartels in Mexico. Another project he has in development is a film about gypsy culture in Britain, which he hopes to direct. He stated that it's "a part of English society that's really seldom been explored, but is one of the most colourful and interesting parts of British society."

Personal life

In 1999, Hunnam met actress Katharine Towne when they both auditioned for roles on Dawson's Creek. After dating for four weeks, they married in Las Vegas. They divorced in 2002. Hunnam has been dating artist Morgana McNelis since 2005.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1999	Whatever Happened to Harold Smith?	Daz
2002	Abandon	Embry Larkin
2002	Nicholas Nickleby	Nicholas Nickleby
2003	Cold Mountain	Bosie
2005	Green Street	Pete Dunham
2006	Children of Men	Patric
2011	'	Gavin Nichols
2012	3,2,1... Frankie Go Boom	Frankie
2012	Deadfall	Jay
2013	Pacific Rim	Raleigh Becket
2015	Crimson Peak	Alan McMichael
2017	The Lost City of Z	Percy Fawcett
2017	King Arthur: Legend of the Sword	Arthur Pendragon
2018	Papillon	Henri Charrire	Post-production

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1998	Byker Grove	Jason Chuckle	3 episodes
1999	My Wonderful Life	Wes	Episode: "Moving On"
1999-2000	Queer as Folk	Nathan Maloney	10 episodes
1999	Microsoap	Brad	Episode: "2.6"
2000	Young Americans	Gregor Ryder	3 episodes
2001-02	Undeclared	Lloyd Haythe	17 episodes
2008-14	Sons of Anarchy	Jackson "Jax" Teller	92 episodes

Awards and nominations

Film

Year	Award	Category	Work	Result
2002	National Board of Review	Best Acting by an Ensemble	Nicholas Nickleby
2013	Huading Awards	Huading Award for Best Global Emerging Actor	Pacific Rim
2017	CinemaCon Award	Male Star of the Year	King Arthur: Legend of the Sword

Television

Year	Award	Category	Work	Result
2011	EWwy Award	EWwy Award for Best Actor in a Drama Series	Sons of Anarchy
2012	Critics' Choice Television Award	Best Actor in a Drama Series
	EWwy Award	EWwy Award for Best Actor in a Drama Series
2013	Pan-American Association of Film & Television Journalists	Best Cast in a Drama Series
2014	EWwy Award	EWwy Award for Best Actor in a Drama Series
2015	People's Choice Awards	Favorite Cable TV Actor
	Satellite Awards	Best Actor in a Drama Series
	Critics' Choice Television Award	Best Actor in a Drama Series