Jonathan James

Jonathan was born in 1996, in Wellington, New Zealand. With a ballerina as a mother, and a theatre technician as a father, he was in a rehearsal room from birth. He learned to dance and sing from a young age, starring in high school productions and in the local semi-professional musical theatre shows. After starring in Grease for Wellington Musical Theatre at 16, Jonathan decided to become an actor. Jonathan attended Te Auaha: NZ Institute of Applied Creativity, studying Musical Theatre. During this time he starred in underground theatre shows, co-starred in NZ movies Pork Pie, Catching the Black Widow, and The Great Maiden's Blush, and took a leading role in independent short DayZ: End of the Road. His first major role came in 2016, where he played Ben Smart in the TV ONE film 'Doubt: The Scott Watson Case'. He graduated in 2016, and moved to Auckland to study at NZ's premier drama school - The Actors Program, taught by NZ acting greats Michael Hurst, Jennifer Ward Leland, Michele Hine, Sara Wiseman, Cameron Rhodes. While studying, Jonathan co-starred in hit TV2 show Wilde Ride as Caleb Saunders, a dirt bike riding bad boy from West Auckland. This show broke multiple records on TVNZ's OnDemand platform. He graduated in 2017, and went on to star as Sky in the professional season of Mamma Mia in 2018 at the Bruce Mason Centre. Jonathan was cast in the touring production of The Changeling, directed by internationally acclaimed actor Michael Hurst. Following this, he co-starred as Connor Stuart in NZ's hit soap opera Shortland Street, and played the leading role of Danny Zuko in the professional season of Grease: The Arena Spectacular in Invercargill. In 2019, Jonathan starred in independent short Old Boys, playing twin brothers. He launched comedy skit platform Something Else Media, NZ's first online skit comedy platform.