Ewan was born on March 31, 1971, in Perth Royal Hospital, Scotland. He was the second son of teachers Jim and Carol McGregor. His brother Colin, a tornado fighter pilot, is two years older than him. Ewan grew up in the small town of Crieff in Perthshire, and was privately educated at Morrison’s Academy. Music played a big part in young Ewan’s life. He mastered drums, guitar, and the French horn and played in the school’s pipe band, a ceilidh band, and had a rock group called Scarlet Pride, Elvis Presley was his idol.
Ewan McGregor left school at 16 to pursue acting, and by the age of 23 was getting attention from critics and fans for his roles in Shallow Grave (1994) and Trainspotting (1996). Quickly tagged as an up-and-comer, McGregor tackled a range of roles: he appeared in the period piece Emma (1996), the glam-rock drama Velvet Goldmine (1998), the mainstream Hollywood action feature Black Hawk Down (2001, with Josh Hartnett) and the stylish musical Moulin Rouge! (2001, with Nicole Kidman). Perhaps most famously, he played Obi-Wan Kenobi in the prequels of the George Lucas series Star Wars. McGregor appeared in Episode I: The Phantom Menace (1999) and Episode II: Attack of the Clones (2002) and is scheduled to appear in the third episode, to be released in 2005. His other films include Down With Love (2003, co-starring Renee Zellweger) and Tim Burton’s Big Fish (2004). No one could have foreseen when Ewan left Crieff how big a star he’d become. As well as his five-million-pound Star Wars role, his credits include A Life Less Ordinary, Rogue Trader, Velvet Goldmine to name a few.
Although he lives in London with his French set designer wife Eve Mavrakis and their daughter Clara, Ewan’s heart will always be in Crieff. To his family, he’s still a lovable, down-to-earth lad, completely unaffected by fame and fortune, even though he’s starring in one of the biggest movies in cinema history.