James McArdle

Acting

James McArdle

Born 1989-04-03 · Glasgow, Scotland, UK

James McArdle is a Scottish actor from Glasgow. Having worked as a child actor in films, he trained at RADA, graduating in 2010. In his graduation year he appeared in Macbeth at The Globe and starred in the summer smash hit Spur of the Moment by Anya Reiss at the Royal Court Theatre in London. He then played in plays such as A Month in the Country by Ivan Turgenev, Chariots of Fire by Mike Bartlett and Platonov for which he won the Ian Charleson Award. On screens, he is known for movies such as Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015), '71 (2014) and Salting the Battlefield (2014).

Acting credits

Star Wars: The Force Awakens poster
7.2

Thirty years after defeating the Galactic Empire, Han Solo and his allies face a new threat from the evil Kylo Ren and his army of Stormtroopers.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens

2015

Mary Queen of Scots poster
6.5

In 1561, Mary Stuart, widow of the King of France, returns to Scotland, reclaims her rightful throne and menaces the future of Queen Elizabeth I as ruler of England, because she has a legitimate claim to the English throne. Betrayals, rebellions, conspiracies and their own life choices imperil both Queens. They experience the bitter cost of power, until their tragic fate is finally fulfilled.

Mary Queen of Scots

2018

Ammonite poster
6.9

In 1840s England, palaeontologist Mary Anning and a young woman sent by her husband to convalesce by the sea develop an intense relationship. Despite the chasm between their social spheres and personalities, Mary and Charlotte discover they can each offer what the other has been searching for: the realisation that they are not alone. It is the beginning of a passionate and all-consuming love affair that will defy all social bounds and alter the course of both lives irrevocably.

Ammonite

2020

Page Eight poster
6.6

Johnny is a long-serving MI5 officer. His boss dies suddenly, leaving behind an inexplicable file which threatens the stability of the organisation.

Page Eight

2011

Salting the Battlefield poster
6.3

David Hare concludes his trilogy of films about MI5 renegade Johnny Worricker with another fugue on power, secrets and the British establishment. Johnny Worricker goes on the run with Margot Tyrell across Europe, and with the net closing in, the former MI5 man knows his only chance of resolving his problems is to return home and confront prime minister Alec Beasley.

Salting the Battlefield

2014

The Chamber poster
5.3

A special ops unit commandeer a commercial research vessel and its submersible to locate a mysterious item at the bottom of the Yellow Sea. When an explosion causes the sub to overturn and take on water, the crew begins to understand that not all of them will escape and a fight for survival ensues.

The Chamber

2016

Four Mothers poster
6.8

Edward, a gay novelist saddled with caring for his elderly mother, finally finds himself on the brink of literary success. With pressure to go on a US book tour mounting, the last thing Edward needs is his friends jetting off to Spain for an impromptu Pride holiday, leaving their mothers on his doorstep! Over a chaotic weekend, he has to juggle his burgeoning career with the care of four eccentric, combative, and wildly different ladies.

Four Mothers

2025

Private Peaceful poster
6.6

Set in the fields of Devon and the WW1 battlefields of Flanders, two brothers fall for the same girl while contending with the pressures of their feudal family life, the war, and the price of courage and cowardice.

Private Peaceful

2012

The Tragedy of Macbeth poster
8.0

Following one couple's spine-chilling quest for power, this performance was captured during its original run at the Almeida Theatre in 2021, with the production later being nominated for Best Revival at the Olivier Awards. A little later than now, in the ruins of a theatre, three witches make a prophecy. A warrior and his wife enter the darkness. A war begins.

The Tragedy of Macbeth

2021

No artwork available
NR

Based on the Edith Wharton classic of the same name, Undine Spragg, a fiercely ambitious woman from the Midwest, strives for the social heights of turn of the century New York. Armed with beauty, daring/hustle and sheer force of will/unwavering ambition, Undine battles an entrenched elite, fearlessly courting controversy, until love and fortune align.

The Custom of the Country

National Theatre Live: Angels In America — Part One: Millennium Approaches poster
8.1

The National Theatre's live theatrical production of Tony Kushner's two-part play 'Angels In America' about New Yorkers grappling with the AIDS crisis during the mid-1980s.

National Theatre Live: Angels In America — Part One: Millennium Approaches

2017

National Theatre Live: Bacchae poster
NR

Fierce and unstoppable, they are a chorus of wild energy ready to shake Thebes to its core — and liberate its women. But their god Dionysos has his own reckoning. In a showdown with his cousin, King Pentheus, family loyalty, political power and human desire are pushed to breaking point.

National Theatre Live: Bacchae

2025

National Theatre Live: Angels In America — Part Two: Perestroika poster
8.1

America in the mid-1980s. In the midst of the AIDS crisis and a conservative Reagan administration, New Yorkers grapple with life and death, love and sex, heaven and hell. This new staging of Tony Kushner's multi-award winning two-part play, Angels In America: A Gay Fantasia On National Themes, is directed by Olivier and Tony award winning director Marianne Elliott.

National Theatre Live: Angels In America — Part Two: Perestroika

2017

On the Road poster
4.6

North London band Wolf Alice have had a rise to prominence that might have been bends-inducing were it not for their tightness as a group. In summer of 2015, the deliciously dark, hook-and-riff-filled sound of their debut album, My Love Is Cool, inspired the NME to crown it: "the debut of the decade". As a measure of their impact, BAFTA-winning filmmaker Michael Winterbottom joined the band on the road, capturing 16 different gigs and daily life backstage.

On the Road

2016

Best Possible Taste: The Kenny Everett Story poster
4.6

Told with the help of some of his most famous comic characters including Cupid Stunt and Quentin Pose, the story of pioneering radio DJ and television star Kenny Everett's against-the-odds struggle to achieve both personal and professional fulfilment, as seen through the decade-and-a-half prism of his marriage to Lee Middleton.

Best Possible Taste: The Kenny Everett Story

2012

No artwork available
10.0

‘Elizabeth was king, then James was queen.’ – Unknown English author (1623) Gareth Russell, the author of Queen James: The Life and Loves of Britain’s First King, tells James’ story, focusing on a sensational murder trial that threatened to shake the monarchy to its core.

Queen James: Passion, Plots and Power

2026

Scott and Laura poster
NR

Trapped in fear of his life and desperate to escape the criminal connections of his girlfriend’s family, Scott reaches out to Laura, childhood sweetheart and former fiancé, for help. But old wounds begin to reopen as they both weigh up their options.

Scott and Laura

2020

No artwork available
NR

A pair of Scottish children find something strange living in their bin and the situation quickly escalates.

Recycled

2002