Zachary "Zach" James (born December 7, 1981) is an American actor, singer, recording artist and 2022 Grammy Award winner. He is best known for creating the role of Lurch in ''The Addams Family'' on Broadway, Abraham Lincoln in the world premiere Philip Glass opera, '' The Perfect American'', Amenhotep III in the Olivier and Grammy Award-winning production of ''Akhnaten'' and for appearances on the television shows, '' 30 Rock,'' '' Murphy Brown'', '' Law & Order: Organized Crime'' and ''

The Blacklist ''The Blacklist'' is an American crime thriller television series that premiered on NBC on September 23, 2013. The show follows Raymond "Red" Reddington (James Spader), a former U.S. Navy officer turned high-profile criminal who voluntarily s ...

''. Zachary was named the Most Innovative Opera Singer of 2019 by The Classical Post, Breakout Opera Artist of 2019 by Verismo Magazine and was identified as an industry leader and invited to be an official ambassador for Opera America. He has sung with some of the world's top opera companies and orchestras including

English National Opera English National Opera (ENO) is an opera company based in London, resident at the London Coliseum in St Martin's Lane. It is one of the two principal opera companies in London, along with The Royal Opera. ENO's productions are sung in English ...

, LA Opera,

Teatro Real The Teatro Real (Royal Theatre) is an opera house in Madrid, Spain. Located at the Plaza de Oriente, opposite the Royal Palace, and known colloquially as ''El Real'', it is considered the top institution of the performing and musical arts in the ...

, The New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Opera Philadelphia and NHK Symphony Orchestra Tokyo and made his

Metropolitan Opera The Metropolitan Opera (commonly known as the Met) is an American opera company based in New York City, resident at the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, currently situated on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The company is oper ...

debut in 2019 in '' Akhnaten.'' His debut visual album, ''Call Out'', has played 31 film festivals worldwide and received the highly commended designation from London’s Classical Music Digital Awards. His solo show, ''On Broadway'', won him BroadwayWorld’s Vocalist of the Decade and Performer of the Decade awards for the years 2010-2020. The show was filmed live at Chris’s Jazz Cafe in Philadelphia, produced by Des Moines Metro Opera, and released as an album in 2021. Zachary is the host and creator of the comedy talkshow, ''What Happened Was...'' airing every Friday on TDO Network, produced by

Dallas Opera The Dallas Opera is an American opera company located in Dallas, Texas. The company performs at the Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House, one venue of the AT&T Performing Arts Center. History The company was founded in 1957 as the Dallas Civi ...

Biography

Early life

James was born in

Providence, Rhode Island Providence is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. One of the oldest cities in New England, it was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams, a Reformed Baptist theologian and religious exile from the Massachusetts ...

and grew up in

Spring Hill, Florida Spring Hill is a census-designated place (CDP) in Hernando County, Florida, United States. The population was 113,568 at the 2020 census, up from 98,621 at the 2010 census. Spring Hill belongs to Florida's Nature Coast region and is in the T ...

. The son of a professional jazz guitarist, James played percussion and served as drum major in his high school marching band. Although his first goal was to become a band director, he had a longing for musical theater. James, inspired by actor

Nathan Lane Nathan Lane (born Joseph Lane; February 3, 1956) is an American actor. In a career spanning over 40 years he has been seen on stage and screen in roles both comedic and dramatic. Lane has received numerous awards including three Tony Awards, ...

,Mellini, Michael
"The Addams Family's Zachary James on Serving Up Laughs as Lurch"
broadway.com majored in musical theatre at

Ithaca College Ithaca College is a private college in Ithaca, New York. It was founded by William Egbert in 1892 as a conservatory of music and is set against the backdrop of the city of Ithaca (which is separate from the town), Cayuga Lake, waterfalls, and go ...

and later moved to New York City.

Career

Zachary James created the role of Lurch in the Broadway musical production of ''

The Addams Family ''The Addams Family'' is a fictional family created by American cartoonist Charles Addams. They originally appeared in a series of 150 unrelated single-panel cartoons, about half of which were originally published in ''The New Yorker'' over ...

''. James appeared in the Original Broadway Cast of ''

Coram Boy ''Coram Boy'' is a 2000 children's novel by Jamila Gavin. It won Gavin a Whitbread Children's Book Award. Stage adaptation The book was adapted for the stage by Helen Edmundson, with music by Adrian Sutton, and played for two runs on the Ol ...

'' and also in the original cast of the

Tony Award The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Broadway Theatre, more commonly known as the Tony Award, recognizes excellence in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ce ...

-winning

Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street **Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...

revival of '' South Pacific''. New York credits include the role of

Oberon Oberon () is a king of the fairies in medieval and Renaissance literature. He is best known as a character in William Shakespeare's play ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'', in which he is King of the Fairies and spouse of Titania, Queen of the Fairi ...

in the world premiere of Kristin Hevner's ''Il Sogno''. As an operatic singer, he created the role of

Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation thro ...

in Philip Glass' opera '' The Perfect American'' at the

in Madrid which was broadcast on Medici TV and created the role of Terry in the world premiere of ''

Breaking the Waves ''Breaking the Waves'' is a 1996 psychological drama film directed and co-written by Danish filmmaker Lars von Trier and starring English stage actress Emily Watson as her feature film acting debut. Set in the Scottish Highlands in the early 197 ...

'' by

Missy Mazzoli Missy Mazzoli (born October 27, 1980) is an American composer and pianist who is a member of the composition faculty at the Mannes College of Music. She has received critical acclaim for her chamber, orchestral and operatic work. In 2018 she beca ...

for Opera Philadelphia. He created the speaking role of The Scribe/ Amenhotep III in Phelim McDermott's Laurence Olivier Award winning 2016 production of Philip Glass’s '' Akhnaten'' at

. He reprised the role in the production’s revivals at the Los Angeles Opera, English National Opera in 2019 and the

in November and December 2019. James played the role of John Claggart in '' Billy Budd'' at Des Moines Metro Opera in 2017. The production was broadcast on

Iowa Public Television Iowa PBS, formerly Iowa Public Television (IPTV), is a network of Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) member stations in the U.S. state of Iowa. It is owned by the Iowa Public Broadcasting Board, an agency of the state education department which ...

and won an Emmy Award. He also performed with English National Opera, Los Angeles Opera, The Philadelphia Orchestra, NHK Symphony Orchestra Tokyo, The New York Philharmonic, Des Moines Metro Opera, Cincinnati Opera, Dallas Opera, Opera Omaha, Opera Saratoga, Arizona Opera, Virginia Opera, Nashville Opera, Fort Worth Opera, Ash Lawn Opera, Knoxville Opera, Central City Opera, Anchorage Opera, Opera Roanoke, Union Avenue Opera, Opera Ithaca, Shreveport Opera, American Lyric Theater, New York City Ballet and Australia's Opera Queensland. Zachary James at The Metropolitan Opera

Regional theatre credits include

Miles Gloriosus ''Alazṓn'' ( grc, ἀλαζών) is one of three stock characters in comedy of the theatre of ancient Greece. He is the opponent of the '' eirôn''. The ''alazṓn'' is an impostor that sees himself as greater than he actually is. The ''senex ...

in '' A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum'' and

Sweeney Todd Sweeney Todd is a fictional character who first appeared as the villain of the penny dreadful serial '' The String of Pearls'' (1846–47). The original tale became a feature of 19th-century melodrama and London legend. A barber from Fleet Stre ...

in '' Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street''. James also appeared in his own one man opera, ''Imbecile d' Amour'', that played in New York in 2008, in Chicago in late 2009, and again in New York in 2010 and 2011. In 2010 through the end of 2011 he starred as Lurch in the original cast of the Broadway musical ''

''. In 2008, James made a

cameo appearance A cameo role, also called a cameo appearance and often shortened to just cameo (), is a brief appearance of a well-known person in a work of the performing arts. These roles are generally small, many of them non-speaking ones, and are commonly ei ...

as the character "Carl" in the '' 30 Rock'' episode "

Gavin Volure "Gavin Volure" is the fourth episode of the third season of the American television comedy series '' 30 Rock'', and the 40th overall episode of the series. It was written by co-executive producer John Riggi and directed by Gail Mancuso. The episo ...

"."Zachary James"
''Who's Who'', playbill.com, Retrieved 30 January 2011. In 2018 he appeared on

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

as the Secret Serviceman to Mike Pence on the series finale of Murphy Brown and in 2022 on NBC's Law & Order: Organized Crime as Jacob. His solo show, ''Zachary James on Broadway'', about his time working on Broadway and living in New York has been seen in Alaska, Hawaii, Iowa, Florida, New York and Pennsylvania. James won the 2022

Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording The Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by m ...

for his work on Philip Glass' Akhnaten.

Personal life

James is an out gay artist and has been featured in LGBTQ publications and interviews and was named one of the 30 most influential LGBTQIA+ artists in Opera by OperaWire. James is a life-long advocate for animal rights and volunteers with the anti-fur trade fox sanctuary, Pawsitive Beginnings, in Key Largo, Florida, He narrated their mini documentary, ''Chasing Fur'', in 2020. He is a sexual assault survivor and came forward with his story in 2019 as part of the MeToo Movement. He lives and travels with his rescued miniature pinscher, Sir Arthur "Artie" Seymour Sullivan, named after the British composer of ''

The Pirates of Penzance ''The Pirates of Penzance; or, The Slave of Duty'' is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. Its official premiere was at the Fifth Avenue Theatre in New York City on 31 December 187 ...

''. James has been sober since November, 2011, and credits sobriety as a key factor of his success.

Awards

*2021

Cult Critic Movie Awards Cult Critic Movie Awards is an IMDb Award listing live screening award event that takes place in Kolkata and features art-house cult films from across the world. The Cult Critic Films Magazine started this award event in 2017 in Kolkata. The JEAN L ...

References

External links

Zach James Website
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:James, Zachary 1981 births Male actors from Florida Living people American operatic basses Singers from Florida Actors from Providence, Rhode Island Musicians from Providence, Rhode Island Male actors from Rhode Island Ithaca College alumni American operatic bass-baritones 21st-century American male actors 21st-century American singers People from Spring Hill, Florida 21st-century American male singers