James grew up in Plymouth and started dancing at 14 at Italia Conti.

At 16 he earned a place at the Italia Conti Arts Centre Guildford, where he trained in Performing Arts and ISTD Dance Teaching Qualifications.

During his time there he was asked by Frank Freeman (former Principle of the Royal Ballet) to attend his classes at The Central School of Ballet which he did while teaching at the Associate School in Guildford for a year.

In James’ second year he was asked to perform behind Darius on ITV’s ‘PopStar to OperaStar’ for Michelle Thorne.

In his final year at the Arts Centre as Head Boy he auditioned for Matthew Bournes NewAdventures Company of which he got to the final rounds, and has been auditioning since.

After graduating in 2010 James successfully auditioned for Gerry Zuccarrello to work onboard the cruise ship MV Discovery where he travelled to the Mediterranean, Caribbean and South America. The following year James was then invited back and to extend his contract on board where he travelled to India, China, Japan, Australia and the Baltic.

Recently James has just spent an intensive week with the NewAdventures Company revamping a piece ‘Watch with Mother’ which has never before been presented. In December he will be going onboard the MV Voyager as Assistant Cruise Director and Theatre Company returning to the Caribbean and South America.