James Roday Biography
Summary
"James David Rodríguez" (born April 4, 1976 in San Antonio, Texas) is an American actor better known by his stage name "James Roday". He is currently starring in the USA Network television series "Psych" as fake psychic Shawn Spencer.
Biography
James Roday attended Taft High School in San Antonio.. He studied theatre at New York University's Experimental Theatre Wing, where he earned a bachelor's degree in fine arts. He is also co-artistic director of RED DOG SQUADRON, a Los Angeles theatre company he co-founded with Brad Raider.
Although of Mexican descent, Roday, son of namesake Jim Rodriguez, uses a more Anglo Saxon stage name because, as he has explained in several interviews, he did not want to be cast in only one type of role or character. When asked if he would do it again, he says 'I probably would have kept my name.' He has been dating his "Psych" co-star Maggie Lawson since 2006.
Roles
Roday has acted in various theatrical productions, including "Three Sisters", "Twelfth Night" as Sebastian, "A Respectable Wedding", "Severity's Mistress", and "Sexual Perversity in Chicago" with his theatre company, RED DOG SQUADRON. He has also starred in the 2003 film "Rolling Kansas" and appeared in the 2005 film adaptation of "The Dukes of Hazzard" as Billy Prickett, and in the 2006 film "Beerfest". Behind the scenes, he and writing partners Todd Harthan and James DeMonaco wrote the screenplay for the film "Skinwalkers" and he will direct the film "Gravy", which as of mid-2006 is in pre-production.
Roday's television credits include starring roles on NBC's "Miss Match" in 2003 as 'Nick Paine' and 2001's "First Years" as 'Edgar 'Egg' Ross'. The July 7, 2006 series premiere of USA Network's original series "Psych" (airing following the season premiere of USA's other comedic success, "Monk") was the highest-rated scripted basic cable TV show premiere of 2006.
Awards and nominations
In 2006, Roday was nominated for the Best Actor in a Series, Comedy or Musical for "Psych" by the Satellite Awards. He was also listed as #62 in People Magazine's '100 Most Beautiful People' issue in 2007.
In 2008, he was nominated for Outstanding Actor In a Drama Television Series for "Psych" by the NCLR ALMA Awards.
External links
(USA Network biography of James Roday)
Credit
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article about James Roday.
