James Anthony Sturgess (born 16 May 1978) is an English actor and singer-songwriter. His first major role was as Jude in the musical romance drama film Across the Universe (2007). In 2008, he played the male lead role of Ben Campbell in 21. In 2009, he played Gavin Kossef in the crime drama Crossing Over, appearing with Harrison Ford, Ray Liotta, and Ashley Judd. In 2010, Sturgess starred in the film The Way Back, directed by Peter Weir. Sturgess co-starred in the 2012 epic science fiction film Cloud Atlas. Personal life Sturgess was born in Wandsworth, London, but grew up in Farnham, Surrey, where he attended Frensham Heights School. He spent most of his youth skateboarding in local car parks and started his first band when he was about 15 years old. The band played gigs in and around his local area. Sturgess's first acting experience came when a local theatre group came to his school looking for children to audition for a play. Sturgess went along to the audition and landed one of the parts in the play. Sturgess moved to Manchester to attend the University of Salford in the hope that it would enable him to continue his music and take part in the Manchester music scene. In Greater Manchester, he fell in with a group of aspiring actors and film makers, and his acting efforts began to become productive. He started to write and perform his own short films and plays. While performing a one-man show 'BUZZIN', based on his performance poetry, Jim was discovered by an acting agent. He graduated from the University of Salford in 1999 with an HND in Media and Performance. On 30 July 2019, Sturgess married theatre producer Dina Mousawi in Italy. Acting career In 2007, he was cast in Julie Taymor's musical Across the Universe, portraying Jude Feeny, a young man who travels to the US amid the raging throes of the late 1960s and falls in love with a sheltered American teenager, Lucy, played by Evan Rachel Wood. In 2008, he appeared in the historical drama The Other Boleyn Girl in the supporting role of George Boleyn opposite Natalie Portman, Scarlett Johansson, and Eric Bana. He also played the male lead role of Ben Campbell in 21, a film about five MIT students who, by counting cards, take Las Vegas casinos for millions. Sturgess's co-stars in 21 include Kevin Spacey