Biography

James Wesley Marsters was born August 20th 1962 in Greenville, California, but grew up in Modesto, California.

His father had been a minister and his mother a social worker, whom apparently almost became a Nun. He has a brother and sister. He has a son named Sullivan.

James discovered his love of acting at an early age, and appeared in a school production of 'Winnie the Poo'.

James graduated from the Davis High School in Modesto where he had continued with his acting career, appearing in many plays.

From there he went onto study at Juilliard, the famous School for the Performing Arts in New York, where he was not particularly happy, and ultimately left after two years; he also studied at the Pacific Conservatory of the Performing Arts, and the American Conservatory Theatre.

While working in regional theatre in Chicago (Goodman Theatre, the Northlight Theatre and the Genesis Theatre), he co-founded the New Mercury Theatre Company, later renamed the Orson Welles' ""Mercury Theatre"". The company eventually moved to Seattle in 1990 and worked everywhere that they could, including restaurants, basements and churches. The company finally found a permanent location near Pioneer Square.

James then made a career decision to move to Hollywood and seek roles within TV and film, as there seemed to be little future within the company from a financial point of view, and he felt the need to expand his skill base.

Having appeared in shows like Northern Exposure, Moloney and having undertaken other supporting roles, in 1997 James finally landed the part of Spike in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Two episode, entitled 'School Hard'. He returned for one more episode named 'Lovers Walk'. Though initially this was only intended as a short-term contract, James became a regular member of the cast by season four, and from season five until the end (season seven) was a permanent cast member and hugely popular with the fans. This was in part no doubt to the rapport between him and his original on screen paramour Drusilla, played by Juliet Landau, and later (controversial) relationship with Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar) herself. James's character Spike evoked a massive fan following in both the US and the UK.

During his tenure on BtVS, James also appeared in two memorable episodes of 'Angel' and later moved to that show for its final season after Buffy ended in 2003.

Since Buffy and Angel, James has guest starred on various shows including The Mountain and as recurring bad guy Milton Fine/Brainiac on Smallville.

For many James is also the voice of the Harry Dresden audio book series and has to date read two stories (Storm Front/Fool Moon), with a third (Summer Knight) due for release in 2007.

James is now looking set to break into the movies with a major role in the upcoming Hilary Swank movie; P.S. I Love You (to be released in 2007) and in the indie horror Shadow Puppets (also to be released 2007).

Not content with just being an actor, James is also a musician who has performed to some acclaim (and to the delight of his fans) at venues in Los Angeles, the United Kingdom and France. This has included several performances at the world famous Cavern Club in Liverpool (UK). For more about James' music, see the Music section of this website.

It is also one James' aims to secure financing to write, produce and direct his own movie version of the Shakespeare play, Macbeth.