James E. Hurd Jr.

James E. Hurd, Jr. was raised in Wewahitchka, Florida, and began his theatre work at Florida State University and Florida A&M, where he starred in "The Mighty Gents" and "Room Beneath the Blues." His leading role L.A. stage work includes "Sentence of Silence," "No Longer an Alien," "Living on the Edge," "The Split," "Room 1222," (which he also wrote and directed in workshop), "Peeled" and "Speaking of Charlie," which opened at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre in Los Angeles in October 2005. Hurd recently completed the feature films Columbus Day, Jive Chicken, Duplicator, Red Herring, Able Edwards, Compton Cowboy and Consignment. He appeared in episodes of "General Hospital" and "Murder She Wrote," and he starred in the film "Repo Jake." His film debut was in "Something Wild" with Melanie Griffith and Jeff Daniels. Hurd is also a playwright and director, co-authoring civil rights-themed dramas with his co-author, Linda Bannister. He wrote "One Sunday in Mississippi," a one-act play about the murders of civil rights workers in 1964, was featured at the National Black Theater Festival 2003. Their latest full-length drama, Turpentine Jake, which concerns Black laborers enslaved under debt peonage in 1930s Florida, received a staged reading at The Bellarmine Forum at Loyola Marymount University in November 2005. Hurd also directed and played the title role in Turpentine Jake. Hurd and Bannister are completing Cul De Sac, a drama on the experience of Menopause. Hurd spent 13 years working in the art departments of feature films including The Five Heartbeats, Sneakers, Next Friday, Batman, What Lies Beneath, Dog Catcher and Like Mike. Poet of the Swingin' Blade is Hurd's first film behind and in front of the camera; he co-authored, directed and produced.