Born November 28. James was raised by his Native American mother, Betty. He has one older brother, Dan, and one younger sister, Amy. As a child, James often lived in a car with his family. After moving from California to Duluth, MN, he reconnected with his Native American tribe (Ojibwe), where he was inspired by their art of story telling. He left high school, moved back to Los Angeles, and began to pursue story telling. He formed Zombot Pictures in 2012 with Adriana Mather and Anya Remizova after they completed their first feature film, Chasing Shakespeare (From Above). They went on to make Eat Spirit Eat, and "Honeyglue".