Hello!

James is a Chicago-based actor, singer, photographer, and fight choreographer with a strong passion for new work and physical theatre.

He holds a BA in Film, Television, and Theatre and a minor in Musical Theatre from the University of Notre Dame and is a two-time graduate of The Performing Arts Project summer intensive. 

In his undergraduate education, he trained with professors Matt Hawkins, Siiri Scott, and Carys Kresny, and workshopped with industry professionals such as Gavin Creel, Nick Blaemire, Stacy Stoltz, and Mary Beth Fisher. He also received personal vocal training from Deborah Mayer.

During this time, he studied various performance techniques, including Commedia dell'arte, Viewpoints, Laban Movement, Shakespeare, Voice Acting, Improv, Dialect-work, and Musical Theatre performance. Through his focus on new work, he was able to help develop, workshop, and perform in multiple original plays and musicals, including assistant directing a fully-produced film. 

Off-stage, James has a zeal for Fight Choreography and Directing. He has served as an artistic collaborator for multiple of the above projects, as well as a producer and designer for his own production company. He has always been interested in the staging and rhythm of fights, and first began training under Matt Hawkins in 2021. Since then, he has served as an assistant fight choreographer in multiple university productions, as well as a fight captain and understudy professionally. 

Furthermore, James is a co-founder and Director of Design at Platform (a production company). Platform is a performing arts company that pushes the boundaries of original platform-specific performance art by exploring non-traditional spaces. Past projects have included a full-length hybrid play and a live-streamed performance that utilized live chat as an influence on the story. He works hard to realize the artistic visions of all the wonderful creators Platform collaborates with. 

In his spare time, James almost always has his eyes looking down the barrel of a camera lens or staring at his editing monitor. Photography is beauty and pain and expression and he adores it.

James recently finished a run with the Notre Dame Shakespeare Festival, where he performed in and served as fight captain for a touring musical production of All’s Well That Ends Well and a mainstage run of Romeo and Juliet.