Birthday Boy: James McAvoy

James McAvoy, one of my favorite actors, celebrates his 35th birthday today. Even at a relatively young age, he's done countless of stuff including award-winning TV series, Oscar-nominated films, and blockbuster movies. He's been nominated for a Golden Globe and BAFTA and recently won Best Actor at the British Independent Film Awards and British Actor of the Year at the London Critics Circle Film Awards. And yet, I still think he should be more popular and bigger than what he is now. Certainly he should've already been nominated for at least two Academy Awards for his performances in The Last King of Scotland and Atonement. His "snub" for the latter still gives me nightmares sometimes.

Maybe this year, he'll finally reach that next level of fame and success. First, he's back as Charles Xavier in X-Men: Days of Future Past and rumor has it he's the main lead. Then his award-winning film Filth will finally be shown for US audiences and I'm hoping the reception will be similar to what it got last year in Britain. Later in the year, he'll join Jessica Chastain in The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby which was screened at the Toronto Film Festival last year to positive reviews. All three of these films would make my Most Anticipated Films of 2014 if I actually created such a list.

But really I just want all the best for him. I mean I've seen a good chunk of his filmography and will continue to do so. Out of his 19 post-2000 non-animated films that have been released in the US, I've seen 15 including his small, almost forgettable role in one of my guilty pleasure films Wimbledon (hello, huge tennis nerd here), which hilariously is the very first time I saw him in anything! I also thought he was quite excellent in the original, British versions of State of Play and Shameless and if you haven't seen them, you really should.

Happy Birthday James McAvoy!