James grew up in Inglewood, Hawthorne and El Segundo, California. He became interested in filmmaking watching productions shot on location at El Segundo High School.He took drawing classes at Art Center College of Design and won awards for Commercial Art and 8mm Film Cel Animation.He earned an AA from El Camino College, a BA from San Francisco State University in Filmmaking, and another BA in Fine Arts, Drawing and Painting from SFSU. He later taught graphic design and image editing at various colleges around Denver, Colorado.James wrote and directed Nuuurrrse!!! which won Best Prod I at the Fall 2015 student show. He was also nominated for Best Art Direction for the student film The Disappeared in 2016. His production Ladders was nominated Best Prod II at the Colorado Film School's 2016 Fall show. He has worked on various commercials, and in the Art Departments of assorted independent shorts and features.James acts in shorts, feature films and commercials, and works in various aspects of film production. He is married and has four kids.