Jackson Champion (born November 17, 2004) is an American actor. He is best known for his role as Miles (Spider) Socorro in James Cameron's Avatar: The Way of Water (2022) and Avatar: Fire and Ash (2025). He also played Ethan Landry in the slasher film Scream VI (2023).
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Early life and career
Jack Champion was born on November 17, 2004 and is a native of Blacksburg, Virginia. He was raised by his mother, a microbiologist, and his father, a lawyer. He has credited his mother for encouraging his interest in acting. He began acting at age eight, starting in school theatre and eventually working in short films. In 2015, he had a small role in the documentary series American Genius.
In 2017, Champion booked a screen test to join the cast of James Cameron's science fiction film Avatar: The Way of Water. Before he was cast in the role, he filmed a small part in the superhero film Avengers: Endgame (2019) as a kid on a bicycle. He also had a leading role in the horror film The Night Sitter (2018). Champion booked his part in Avatar at age 12, after four months of extensive auditions. He was cast as Miles Socorro, a human teenager living amongst Na'vis on Pandora.
To prepare for the physically demanding role, Champion underwent two years of high-protein body transformation, gaining nearly 20 pounds of muscle, and trained extensively in free-diving, eventually reaching a personal breath-hold record of over four minutes underwater. The nature of Champion's role meant that he had to film all his scenes twice: once as a reference for his co-stars (including Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldaña, and Sigourney Weaver) and another to film in live-action. His work involved two years of performance capture on a soundstage, followed by two and a half years of live-action filming in New Zealand. After five years of production, the film was released in 2022, after Champion turned 18. It earned over $2 billion worldwide, becoming the third highest-grossing film of all time. Champion concurrently shot scenes for the sequel, Avatar: Fire and Ash, and portions of Avatar 4, primarily so that he would not age out of the role.
In 2023, Champion appeared alongside an ensemble cast in the slasher film Scream VI. In contrast to his experience on Avatar, he described filming Scream VI as a "really fun summer vacation". He then played the son of Liam Neeson's character in the action thriller Retribution, a remake of the 2015 Spanish film. Champion next appeared in Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck's 1980s-set action drama Freaky Tales, which premiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival.
In addition to future Avatar installments, Champion starred in the drama Everything's Going to Be Great and the action thriller Trap House.