James was an actor for twelve years and was appearing in Les Miserables at London's Palace Theatre when he was asked to take over the position of Resident Director in 1996.

Since then he has worked on a variety of productions including a couple of seasons at the West Yorkshire Playhouse as Staff Director, assisting Jude Kelly on a number of projects including the Olivier Award-winning Singin' In The Rain which transferred to the National Theatre. On returning to London he became the Resident Director on Cameron Mackintosh's production of The Witches of Eastwick at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane and directed its first foreign production in Melbourne, Australia.

He returned from Australia to take on the position of Associate Director on Les Misérables and oversaw the show's move from its home of many years, the Palace Theatre to the Queen's Theatre on Shaftesbury Avenue. He recently directed a concert version of Les Miserables in Scandinavia and a full scale production in Berlin.

Whilst maintaining his position as Associate Director on Les Miserables, James also worked on Cameron's new presentation - Mary Poppins - originally in Bristol and then in London's West End and on Broadway. He is currently Associate Director on the London production and will be directing the first UK Tour in 2008.

James was delighted to renew his association with the Jacobsen Entertainment Group on their production of Dirty Dancing in London's West End, a partnership that has now brought him to Toronto and Utrecht and will soon be taking him to direct the production in America.