Ewan McGregor

McGregor married French production designer Eve Mavrakis in 1995 after meeting her on the set of the television series Kavanagh QC. The couple had four daughters: Clara, Esther, Jamyan (whom McGregor met in Mongolia in 2004 during the filming of Long Way Round and later adopted), and Anouk. McGregor filed for divorce in January 2018 following a separation in May 2017, and the divorce was finalised in August 2020.

In May 2017, McGregor began a relationship with American actress Mary Elizabeth Winstead after working together on the third season of Fargo. They welcomed a son, Laurie, in June 2021 and married in April 2022. McGregor divides his time between Los Angeles and London, and he became a naturalised United States citizen after 2016.

Ewan Gordon McGregor was born on 31 March 1971 in Perth, Perthshire, Scotland, and grew up in nearby Crieff. His parents, Carol Diane and James Charles McGregor, were both schoolteachers who supported his creative ambitions. His uncle is actor Denis Lawson, who portrayed Wedge Antilles in the original Star Wars trilogy and served as a major early inspiration for his career.

McGregor attended Morrison's Academy before leaving at age 16 to work as a stagehand at Perth Theatre. After studying drama at Kirkcaldy College of Technology in Fife, he enrolled at London's Guildhall School of Music and Drama. He left Guildhall shortly before graduating after securing his first major screen role as Private Mick Hopper in Dennis Potter's six-part Channel 4 miniseries Lipstick on Your Collar (1993).

McGregor made his feature film debut in Bill Forsyth's Being Human (1994) before collaborating with director Danny Boyle on the crime thriller Shallow Grave (1994), which earned McGregor an Empire Award. Their partnership reached global prominence with the 1996 film adaptation of Irvine Welsh's novel Trainspotting, in which McGregor starred as heroin addict Mark Renton. The dark comedy became an international hit and established him as a leading figure in British cinema.

McGregor reunited with Boyle for the 1997 romantic comedy A Life Less Ordinary, starring alongside Cameron Diaz. Decades later, he reprised his career-defining role as Renton in the 2017 sequel T2 Trainspotting.

In 1999, McGregor took on the iconic role of the young Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi in George Lucas's Star Wars: Episode I, The Phantom Menace, inheriting the character originally played by Alec Guinness. To prepare, McGregor studied Guinness's early film performances and vocal mannerisms. He continued the role across the prequel trilogy in Star Wars: Episode II, Attack of the Clones (2002) and Star Wars: Episode III, Revenge of the Sith (2005), working alongside Hayden Christensen, Liam Neeson, and Natalie Portman.

McGregor provided vocal cameos as Kenobi in Star Wars: Episode VII. The Force Awakens (2015) and Star Wars: Episode IX. The Rise of Skywalker (2019). In 2022, he returned in live action to star in and executive produce the Disney+ miniseries Obi-Wan Kenobi, set a decade after the events of Revenge of the Sith.

Beyond franchise blockbusters, McGregor explored a wide variety of genres. In 2001, he starred as the romantic poet Christian opposite Nicole Kidman in Baz Luhrmann's musical Moulin Rouge!, performing his own vocals and earning a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor. That same year, he appeared in Ridley Scott's military drama Black Hawk Down.

His notable film credits in subsequent years included Tim Burton's fantasy drama Big Fish (2003), Roman Polanski's political thriller The Ghost Writer (2010), the disaster drama The Impossible (2012), and the family ensemble August: Osage County (2013). In 2016, McGregor made his feature directorial debut with an adaptation of Philip Roth's novel American Pastoral, in which he also starred. Later studio roles included portraying Lumière in Disney's live-action Beauty and the Beast (2017), the adult title character in Christopher Robin (2018), Dan Torrance in Stephen King's horror adaptation Doctor Sleep (2019), and Black Mask in Birds of Prey (2020).

In 2017, McGregor earned critical acclaim for playing the dual roles of rival brothers Emmit and Ray Stussy in the third season of FX's anthology series Fargo. His performance won him the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Miniseries or Television Film.

McGregor achieved further television success in 2021 by portraying the American fashion designer Halston in Ryan Murphy's Netflix miniseries Halston. In addition to executive producing the project, McGregor won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie.

McGregor has maintained a presence in theatre, starring as Sky Masterson in the 2005 West End revival of Guys and Dolls at the Piccadilly Theatre, which earned him a Laurence Olivier Award nomination. He subsequently portrayed Iago opposite Chiwetel Ejiofor in a 2007 production of Othello at the Donmar Warehouse, and made his Broadway debut in 2014 in Tom Stoppard's The Real Thing.

An enthusiastic motorcyclist, McGregor partnered with his longtime friend Charley Boorman on several extended international motorcycle expeditions. Their journeys produced the travel documentary series and books Long Way Round (2004), Long Way Down (2007), Long Way Up (2020), and Long Way Home (2025). As a UNICEF UK ambassador since 2004, McGregor has used these journeys and dedicated documentary missions, including the 2012 BBC project Ewan McGregor: Cold Chain Mission, to highlight global immunisation efforts and children's welfare programmes.