Portsmouth born-and-bred, James trained on the Hampshire Specialist Drama Course between 1980 and 1982 under the redoubtable Betty Lavington (Drama) and June Eskdale (Voice) before moving on to The Birmingham School of Speech and Drama (now the Birmingham School of Acting) between 1982 and 1985. He holds both New Era and LAMDA qualifications and is PTLLS certified.
In his time at Birmingham, James was one of the founder members of Take Five Children’s Theatre Company, creating and touring family-orientated performances.
In 1992 James was one of the founder members of HumDrum (www.humdrum.org.uk), one of Portsmouth’s leading theatre companies. Work for HumDrum as an actor include The Baker (Into the Woods), George III (The Madness of George III), Dysart (Equus) and John Proctor (The Crucible); as a director James has had artistic responsibility for shows such as Amadeus, Educating Rita, Habeas Corpus, Our Town and the award-winning Entertaining Mr Sloane and Cleo, Camping, Emmanuelle and Dick.
James has also directed work for Southsea Shakespeare Actors (Richard III), The Arts Theatre (Portsmouth and Southsea) (Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime, The Golden Pathway Annual, Witness for the Prosecution, Dancing at Lughnasa, Translations) and The Portsmouth Players (Hot Mikado).
James has been coaching students for drama school entry since 2000 and still works as a professional actor, mostly doing voice-work for Big Finish Productions.
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