James grew up in a half sport, half theatre household, his father; a passionate sports fan and his mother; a keen theatre lover. This is where James' love of both sport and the arts has come from, which particularly satisfied both parents when he made his professional theatre debut in Barassi - a play about AFL football. Despite his best efforts when younger, he was never going to become a professional soccer player so instead, decided to throw all of his eggs into the arts' basket. 

He was born in London, grew up in Singapore until the age of 10 and has lived in Melbourne ever since. He has professionally trained as an actor, vocalist and dancer since an early age. James has studied many styles of music, including classical, pop, rock, choral and music theatre as well as training in ballet, jazz, tap and ballroom. He was also a student with the Victorian Youth Theatre under the tutelage of Tony Nikolakopoulos and the Young Australian Broadway Chorus under Mathew Frank and Jacqui Green for almost 10 years. 

James attended the Victorian College of the Arts Secondary School majoring in Trumpet and Voice. After graduating from VCASS, James was immediately accepted into the Arts Academy, University of Ballarat. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts In Musical Theatre at the end of 2013. During 2012, James travelled to New York City to study at the prestigious CAP21; one of the City's top musical theatre conservatories. 

Most recently he filmed a music video for The Song Tailors called 'Gliding' and before that was in Doorstep Arts' production of Dogfight, which played at Chapel off Chapel in May. Prior to playing a Marine, he played spelling champion Chip Tolentino in Vic Theatre Company’s production of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, which played at MTC’s Southbank Theatre in April. In February and March toured NSW with the National Theatre for Children in their Financial Literacy show; Showdown at Two Bob Billabong. To finish off 2015 and bring in 2016, he joined the Australian Shakespeare Company’s new production of Tinkerbell and the Dream Fairies during their development and workshop stage in addition to performing in the Royal Botanic Gardens throughout the summer. He is also continuing to perform as the MC/Male Actor understudy in Cultural Infusion’s ANZAC Centenary Roadshow in schools and community centres throughout Victoria .

There are also a couple more exciting projects coming up later in 2016!