Ewan McGregor

**Ewan Gordon McGregor** (born 31 March 1971) is a Scottish actor who portrays the role of Benjamin Chamberlain. He is known internationally for his various film roles, including independent dramas, science-fiction epics, and musicals.

McGregor's first professional role was in 1993, when he won a leading role in the British Channel 4 series Lipstick on Your Collar. Some of his most well-known roles include heroin addict Mark Renton in the drama films Trainspotting (1996) and T2 Trainspotting (2017), Jedi Obi-Wan Kenobi in the Star Wars prequel trilogy (1999–2005), poet Christian in the musical film Moulin Rouge! (2001), young Edward Bloom in Big Fish (2003), Rodney Copperbottom in Robots (2005), Camerlengo Father Patrick McKenna in Angels and Demons (2009), "the ghost" in Roman Polanski's political thriller The Ghost Writer (2010), Dr. Alfred Jones in the romantic comedy-drama Salmon Fishing in the Yemen (2011), and Lumière in a live-action adaptation of Beauty and the Beast (2017).

McGregor received Golden Globe nominations for Best Actor – Musical or Comedy for both Moulin Rouge! and Salmon Fishing in the Yemen. McGregor has also starred in theatre productions of Guys and Dolls (2005–07) and Othello (2007–08). He was ranked number 36 on Empire magazine's "The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time" list in 1997. In a 2004 poll for the BBC, McGregor was named the fourth most influential person in British culture. He has been involved in charity work and has served as an ambassador for UNICEF UK since 2004. In 2016, he received the BAFTA Britannia Humanitarian Award.

## Early Life

McGregor was born in Perth and raised in Crieff. His mother, Carol Diane (née Lawson), is a retired teacher of Crieff High School and latterly deputy head teacher of Kingspark School in Dundee.His father, James Charles Stewart "Jim" McGregor, is a retired physical education teacher and careers master of Morrison's Academy in Crieff. He has an older brother, Colin (born 1969), a former Tornado GR4 pilot in the Royal Air Force. He is the nephew of actor Denis Lawson. His aunt by marriage was actress Sheila Gish, which also makes him a step-cousin to Gish's actress daughters, Kay Curram and Lou Gish. McGregor attended the independent Morrison's Academy in Crieff. After leaving school at the age of 16, he worked as a stagehand at Perth Theatre and studied a foundation course in drama at Kirkcaldy College of Technology, before moving to London to study drama at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama when he was 18 years old.

## Career

### Film and Television

Six months prior to his graduation from Guildhall, McGregor won a leading role in Dennis Potter's six-part Channel 4 series Lipstick on Your Collar (1993). Not long afterwards, he starred in the BBC adaptation of Scarlet and Black (also 1993) with a young Rachel Weisz, and made his film debut in Bill Forsyth's Being Human (1994). For his role in the thriller Shallow Grave (also 1994), he won an Empire Award. The film was his first collaboration with director Danny Boyle. His international breakthrough followed with the role of heroin addict Mark Renton in Boyle's Trainspotting (1996), an adaptation of Irvine Welsh's novel of the same name.

McGregor played the male romantic lead role in the British film Little Voice (1998). He was cast as the young Obi-Wan Kenobi in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999); the character was originally played by Sir Alec Guinness in the first Star Wars trilogy. While the prequels received criticism from Star Wars fans, McGregor's performance was well received. He reprised the role of Obi-Wan Kenobi for the subsequent prequels Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones (2002) and Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith (2005). His uncle, Denis Lawson, had played Wedge Antilles in the original trilogy.

## Personal Life

McGregor married Eve Mavrakis, a Greek-French production designer whom he met on the set of Kavanagh QC, in 1995. Together they have four daughters, one of them adopted from Mongolia. McGregor has a heart and dagger tattoo of the names of his wife and daughters on his right arm. The family currently lives in Los Angeles County, California, having relocated from London. With his children raised in his wife's Jewish faith, McGregor has said, "My involvement in religion has more to do with the Jewish faith now and not the Christian faith, which I was very vaguely brought up in". As of October 2017, he was estranged from his wife and dating actress Mary Elizabeth Winstead, whom he met on the set of season 3 of Fargo in which they starred together.