James Roday Rodriguez (born James David Rodriguez, April 4, 1976) is an American actor, director and screenwriter. He is best known for starring on the

USA Network USA Network (simply USA) is an American basic cable television channel owned by the NBCUniversal Television and Streaming division of Comcast's NBCUniversal through NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment. It was originally launched in 1977 as Madi ...

series ''

Psych ''Psych'' is an American detective comedy-drama television series created by Steve Franks for USA Network. The series stars James Roday as Shawn Spencer, a young crime consultant for the Santa Barbara Police Department whose "heightened obser ...

'' as hyper-observant consultant detective and fake psychic Shawn Spencer. He currently stars in '' A Million Little Things,'' which debuted in 2018.

Early life

Rodriguez was born in

San Antonio, Texas ("Cradle of Freedom") , image_map = , mapsize = 220px , map_caption = Interactive map of San Antonio , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = United States , subdivision_type1= State , subdivision_name1 = Texas , subdivision_ ...

, as James David Rodriguez. He attended Taft High School in San Antonio. His father, Jaime "Jim" Rodriguez, is of Mexican descent, and his mother, Deborah Collins, is of English, Irish, and Scottish ancestry. Rodriguez's father is a retired Air Force Master Sergeant and used to be the regional catering manager of

Taco Cabana A taco (, , ) is a traditional Mexican food consisting of a small hand-sized corn- or wheat-based tortilla topped with a filling. The tortilla is then folded around the filling and eaten by hand. A taco can be made with a variety of filling ...

. At

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, th ...

's Experimental Theatre Wing, Rodriguez studied

theatre Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perfor ...

and earned a bachelor's degree in fine arts. At the age of 22, he selected the professional name James Roday. In a July 2020 interview, Rodriguez explained the decision was mainly driven by producers and casting directors feeling his Caucasian appearance clashed with his Spanish-Latino family name. The characters he read for up until that point either were not written with a Latino background or required a non-white "Mexican" appearance. In order to book his first job, he legally changed his middle name, David, to Roday (from an

Anton Chekhov Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (; 29 January 1860 Old Style date 17 January. – 15 July 1904 Old Style date 2 July.) was a Russian playwright and short-story writer who is considered to be one of the greatest writers of all time. His career ...

play), and omitted Rodriguez from his screen name. In the same interview, he stated regret that he "sold out my heritage in about 15 seconds" and announced that going forward he was going to use his full legal name of James Roday Rodriguez.

Career

Rodriguez started his acting career starring in various theatrical productions, including '' Three Sisters'', '' A Respectable Wedding'' and ''Severity's Mistress''. He took on leading roles in ''

Sexual Perversity in Chicago ''Sexual Perversity in Chicago'' is a play written by David Mamet that examines the sex lives of two men and two women in the 1970s. The play is filled with profanity and regional jargon that reflects the working-class language of Chicago. Th ...

'' and ''Extinction'' which he produced with his theatre company Red Dog Squadron, for which he also directed the play ''Greedy'' and wrote and directed the one-act play ''Sustenance.'' His most recent foray onto the stage was in December 2016, when he starred in the New York production of ''White Rabbit Red Rabbit'' by Iranian playwright

Nassim Soleimanpour Nassim Soleimanpour (born 10 December 1981 (19 Azar 1360 SH), is an Iranian playwright. He is best known for his 2010 play ''White Rabbit Red Rabbit''. Early life and education Soleimanpour was born in Tehran, Iran.Coming Soon'' alongside

Ryan Reynolds Ryan Rodney Reynolds (born October 23, 1976) is a Canadian-American actor. He is one of the highest-grossing film actors of all time, with a worldwide box-office gross of over billion. He began his career starring in the Canadian teen ...

and fellow debutant

Ashton Kutcher Christopher Ashton Kutcher (; born February 7, 1978) is an American actor, producer, entrepreneur, and former model. He is the recipient of various accolades, including a People's Choice Award, and nominations for two Young Artist Awards, a ...

. Other early film credits include the 2003 film '' Rolling Kansas'' and the

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; " Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discover ...

film adaptation of ''

The Dukes Of Hazzard ''The Dukes of Hazzard'' is an American action comedy TV series that was aired on CBS from January 26, 1979 to February 8, 1985. The show aired for 147 episodes spanning seven seasons. It was consistently among the top-rated television serie ...

''. Behind the scenes, he and writing partners Todd Harthan and James DeMonaco wrote the screenplay for the 2006 film '' Skinwalkers''. The team also worked on a script for the film adaptation of the video game '' Driver.'' Maggie Lawson, James Roday & Dulé Hill

Rodriguez's television credits include starring roles in

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a multi-national coalition in an invasion of Afghanist ...

's ''First Years'' and

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

's ''

Miss Match ''Miss Match'' is an American comedy-drama television series created by Jeff Rake and Darren Star and produced by 20th Century Fox Television, Darren Star Productions, and Imagine Television. It aired in the United States on NBC from Septemb ...

'' in

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A ...

. His big break came on July 7, 2006, with the series premiere of

's original series ''

''. Airing following the season premiere of USA's other comedic success, ''

Monk A monk (, from el, μοναχός, ''monachos'', "single, solitary" via Latin ) is a person who practices religious asceticism by monastic living, either alone or with any number of other monks. A monk may be a person who decides to dedic ...

'', it was the highest-rated scripted basic cable TV show premiere of 2006. ''Psych'' ran for eight seasons until 2014. After ''Psych'' ended, Rodriguez starred in various pilots and independent films, most notably ''

Pushing Dead ''Pushing Dead'' is a 2016 American dramatic-comedy film written and directed by Tom E. Brown and starring James Roday Rodriguez, Danny Glover, Robin Weigert and Khandi Alexander. The film follows a struggling writer, HIV positive for 20+ years ...

'' by independent filmmaker Tom E. Brown which accumulated a slew of awards at film festivals all over the country. At the same time, he began focusing on his work behind the camera as a director, writer and producer. Rodriguez has since directed episodes for ''

Battle Creek Battle Creek is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan, in northwest Calhoun County, at the confluence of the Kalamazoo and Battle Creek rivers. It is the principal city of the Battle Creek, Michigan Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), which e ...

'', ''

Rush Hour A rush hour (American English, British English) or peak hour (Australian English) is a part of the day during which traffic congestion on roads and crowding on public transport is at its highest. Normally, this happens twice every weekday: o ...

'', ''

Rosewood Rosewood refers to any of a number of richly hued timbers, often brownish with darker veining, but found in many different hues. True rosewoods All genuine rosewoods belong to the genus ''Dalbergia''. The pre-eminent rosewood appreciated ...

'', '' Blood Drive'' and '' The Resident'' and developed, wrote, and directed the pilots ''Shoot The Moon'' for USA and ''Quest For Truth'' for E!. Rodriguez directed his first feature film, ''

Gravy Gravy is a sauce often made from the juices of meats that run naturally during cooking and often thickened with wheat flour or corn starch for added texture. The gravy may be further coloured and flavoured with gravy salt (a simple mix of sa ...

,'' in 2013, written by him and Todd Harthan. He co-wrote (once again with Todd Harthan) and directed his second film '' Treehouse'' as part of

Hulu Hulu () is an American subscription streaming service majority-owned by The Walt Disney Company, with Comcast's NBCUniversal holding a minority stake. It was launched on October 29, 2007 and it offers a library of films and television series ...

's monthly horror movie anthology '' Into The Dark,'' which aired in March 2019. In 2017, Rodriguez returned to his most famous role as he starred in and served as executive producer on '' Psych: The Movie'', which he also co-wrote with ''Psych''s series creator

Steve Franks Steve Franks is an American screenwriter, director and musician based in Orange County, California. He is best known as the creator of the USA Network original series ''Psych''. Education Franks graduated from the University of California, Irv ...

, aired in December 2017. A sequel, '' Psych 2: Lassie Come Home'' was officially announced on February 14, 2019. It was filmed in Vancouver in March and April of that year and debuted July 15, 2020 on

NBCUniversal NBCUniversal Media, LLC is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate corporation owned by Comcast and headquartered at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, United States. NBCUniversal is primar ...

's streaming service

Peacock Peafowl is a common name for three bird species in the genera '' Pavo'' and '' Afropavo'' within the tribe Pavonini of the family Phasianidae, the pheasants and their allies. Male peafowl are referred to as peacocks, and female peafowl are r ...

. ''Lassie Come Home'' was the first project that featured his full legal name, James Roday Rodriguez. Rodriguez is currently starring as Gary Mendez on ABC's dramedy '' A Million Little Things.'' The fourth season premiered on September 22, 2021. Rodriguez reprised his role as Shawn Spencer once again in '' Psych 3: This Is Gus'', which was filmed in June 2021. He is also the co-writer and co-executive producer. It was released on Peacock on November 18, 2021. Rodriguez will also be lending his voice in the upcoming animated feature ''Night of the Animated Dead,'' an adaptation of

George A. Romero George Andrew Romero (; February 4, 1940 – July 16, 2017) was an American-Canadian filmmaker, writer, editor and actor. His ''Night of the Living Dead'' series of films about an imagined zombie apocalypse began with the 1968 film of the ...

's ''

Night of the Living Dead ''Night of the Living Dead'' is a 1968 American independent horror film directed, photographed, and edited by George A. Romero, with a screenplay by John Russo and Romero, and starring Duane Jones and Judith O'Dea. The story follows seven pe ...

''.

Personal life

Rodriguez is the co-artistic director of the Red Dog Squadron, a

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world ...

theater company he co-founded with Brad Raider. In 2012, Rodriguez and Black Dahlia artistic director Matt Shakman bought the El Centro Theatre and started a long process of renovations with the intent of reopening it under its original name ''Circle Theatre.'' In a newsletter from August 2018, Raider and Rodriguez announced that they had to resell the theatre in early 2018. Rodriguez dated his ''Psych'' co-star

Maggie Lawson Margaret Cassidy Lawson (born August 12, 1980) is an American actress who is best known for her role as Detective Juliet "Jules" O'Hara in the TV show ''Psych''. From 2018 to 2019, she held the recurring role of Nathalie Flynn on Fox's ''Lethal ...

from 2006 to 2014, coinciding with the series run.

Filmography

Actor

Director

Writer

Awards and nominations

References

External links

*
USA Network biography of James Roday Rodriguez

ABC Network biography of James Roday Rodriguez
{{DEFAULTSORT:Roday Rodriguez, James 1976 births American male film actors American male screenwriters American male stage actors American male television actors American television directors Television producers from Texas American television writers Living people New York University alumni Male actors from San Antonio Male actors from Texas Hispanic and Latino American male actors 20th-century American male actors 21st-century American male actors American male actors of Mexican descent American male television writers Screenwriters from Texas People from San Antonio