Born in Whittier, California, to a mailman, Harry Evans, and LaVerne Marsh, an office clerk. James ran track and played football in high school and ran track and played football and rugby in college. Graduated from California High School, attended Rio Hondo College and graduated with cum laude honors from Cal Poly Pomona.Evans is known for playing a bailiff on television shows, most notably General Hospital and on Spanish court shows. He has appeared as a cop in all of Omovies video spoofs; Paris in Jail, Harry Potter in the Hood and Lindsay Fully Loaded.At the start of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, photographer Kevyn Major Howard noticed that Evans looked similar to Saddam Hussein. Evans has appeared as Hussein on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Last Call with Carson Daly, Arrested Development, etc.