James was born on Coronado Island in California and raised in Oakland, CA. At 17 he hopped a freight train to Seattle where he was invited to attend the Cornish College of the Arts BFA Acting conservatory on scholarship. He pushed himself through the four year program in two and a half years and quickly developed a burgeoning career in the Pacific Northwest's most prestigious equity theatre companies (Intiman, ACT, Oregon Shakespeare Festival). While a company member at the renowned Oregon Shakespeare Festival he was offered a recurring role on NBC's Frasier and relocated to Los Angeles. He quickly hooked up with his first agent Ilene Feldman (IFA), legendary for signing Johnny Depp, Benecio Del Toro, Tim Roth and Ryan Gosling among many others. While on Feldman's coveted roster James landed several film and TV roles (24, Rescue Dawn, Our Fathers) but having worked as an actor non stop since he hopped the train at 17, James grew hungry to experience life from somewhere other than a film set. In 2008 he took the risk of leaving his career to snag a rare opportunity to travel the world as a 'diplomatic liaison' for an international aviation company and spent five years working in some of the most dangerous and beautiful parts of the world experiencing a myriad of cultures first hand. After traveling most of the African continent in over fifteen separate trips and extensively throughout the Middle East, Europe and the Caribbean, James returned to LA to dive back into film with a deeper understanding of the complexity of the human condition than he could have ever found in Hollywood alone. He has since carried several international films, directed a documentary, executive produced and developed multiple projects with artists from around the world. His passion has always been and remains to fearlessly explore the human psyche through the craft of acting while collaborating with fellow filmmakers to further the art form. He is grateful his career has afforded him the continued opportunity to push himself to greater depths as an actor and as a human being.

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James Aaron Oliver

Actor

Producer

Self