James Corden
James Corden is an actor, born 1978.
James Corden came up through British ensembles, and the two things he is genuinely good at both come from that period. The History Boys gave him a schoolboy part written for exactly his physical comedy, and Gavin and Stacey, which he co-wrote and starred in, remains the strongest argument anybody can make for him. It is warm, precisely observed, and built around characters he clearly understood from the inside.
America hired the persona instead. He hosted The Late Late Show from 2015 to 2023, where the packaged formats travelled much further than the show itself, and his Primetime Emmy is in the short-form category rather than for anything feature length. The chat-show version of him, relentlessly enthusiastic and always slightly overplaying the room, is the one most viewers now have in mind, and it has followed him into films that cannot support it.
Film has cast him almost exclusively as the loud friend, and the results run from decent to catastrophic. Into the Woods in 2014 is the one that treats him as an actor rather than a comic turn, and it is comfortably his best screen work. Begin Again and The Lady in the Van use him well in small doses. The voice roles, Trolls, Peter Rabbit, Smallfoot and The Emoji Movie, sold enormously and asked nothing of him. Cats is a film nobody escaped, and he is not the reason it failed, but he is a fair emblem of the miscalculation.
Movies (39)
- The Emoji Movie (2017)
- Smurfs (2025)
- Ocean's Eight (2018)
- Trolls (2016)
- Trolls World Tour (2020)
- The Three Musketeers (2011)
- The Prom (2020)
- Cinderella (2021)
- Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway (2021)
- Peter Rabbit (2018)
- Cats (2019)
- The Christophers (2025)
- Yesterday (2019)
- Smallfoot (2018)
- Begin Again (2014)
- Planet 51 (2009)
- Into the Woods (2014)
- Gulliver's Travels (2010)
- The Gruffalo (2009)
- Friends: The Reunion (2021)
- Superintelligence (2020)
- Trolls Holiday (2017)
- Starter for 10 (2006)
- How to Lose Friends & Alienate People (2008)
- The Lady in the Van (2015)
- One Chance (2013)
- The Gruffalo's Child (2011)
- Lesbian Vampire Killers (2009)
- All or Nothing (2002)
- The History Boys (2006)
TV (23)
- The Late Late Show with James Corden (2015)
- 60 Minutes (1968)
- The Kardashians (2022)
- A League of Their Own (2010)
- Little Britain (2003)
- Carpool Karaoke: The Series (2017)
- Drop the Mic (2017)
- Drop the Mic (2017)
- Big Fat Quiz (2004)
- Gavin & Stacey (2007)
- Gavin & Stacey (2007)
- The BRIT Awards (1977)
- Teachers (2001)
- OK! TV (2011)
- Stella (2012)
- Happy Together (2018)
- Fat Friends (2000)
- Chris Moyles' Quiz Night (2009)
- Jack and the Beanstalk: The Real Story (2001)
- Talking with Chris Hardwick (2017)
- Big Brother's Big Mouth (2004)
- Mammals (2022)
- John Bishop: In Conversation with... (2016)
Where to start with James Corden
Nothing else on this list is close to Gavin & Stacey, so start there. Corden co-wrote it, and Smithy, the part he wrote for himself, is the only character he has played that is properly three-dimensional: funny, loyal, defensive and often wrong.
The History Boys is the other early one worth your time, a good film of a better play, with him doing precise ensemble work rather than mugging. Into the Woods is the best case for him in a studio film, a lead role in a musical where the singing is real and the sentiment is earned.
After that, judge for yourself: Begin Again and The Lady in the Van are the well-judged supporting turns, Ocean's Eight is a fun cameo, Trolls is the family standard, and Cats is the curiosity that people will still be arguing about in fifty years.