James Roday Biography

James Roday (born April 4, 1976) is an American actor, director and screenwriter. He stars on the USA Network series Psych as hyper-observant consultant detective and fake psychic Shawn Spencer.

Personal life

Roday was born in San Antonio, Texas, as James David Rodriguez. He attended Taft High School in San Antonio. His father is of Mexican descent and his mother is of English, Irish, and Scottish ancestry. Roday's father, Jaime "Jim" Rodriguez, worked for Boardwalk Auto Group. Rodriguez is now the regional caterer manager of Taco Cabana.

At New York University's Experimental Theatre Wing, Roday studied theater and earned a bachelor's degree in fine arts. At the age of 22 he selected the professional name James Roday as there was already another "James Rodriguez" registered in the Screen Actors Guild.

Roday is the co-artistic director of Red Dog Squadron, a Los Angeles theater company he co-founded with Brad Raider. Roday has been in a relationship with Psych co-star Maggie Lawson since 2006.

Career

Roday has acted in various theatrical productions, including Three Sisters, Twelfth Night as Sebastian, A Respectable Wedding, Severity's Mistress, and Sexual Perversity in Chicago with his theatre company, Red Dog Squadron. He starred in the 2003 film Rolling Kansas, and appeared in the 2005 film adaptation of The Dukes Of Hazzard as Billy Prickett and the 2006 film Beerfest. Behind the scenes, he and writing partners Todd Harthan and James DeMonaco wrote the screenplay for the film Skinwalkers. The team also worked on a script for the film adaptation of the video game Driver. Roday is directing the film Gravy, which he and Harthan wrote, produced with Infinity and Gold Circle Films.

Roday's television credits include starring roles on NBC's Miss Match in 2003 as "Nick Paine" and 2001's First Years as "Edgar 'Egg' Ross". The July 7, 2006 series premiere of USA Network's original series Psych (airing following the season premiere of USA's other comedic success, Monk) was the highest-rated scripted basic cable TV show premiere of 2006.

BuddyTV ranked him #89 on its list of "TV's Sexiest Men of 2011". In 2012, Roday served as the special guest ring announcer for the CM Punk vs. The Miz match on the 12 March edition of WWE Raw SuperShow.

Awards and nominations

In 2006 Roday was nominated for the Best Actor in a Series, Comedy or Musical for Psych by the Satellite Awards. He was listed as #62 in People magazine's 100 Most Beautiful People issue in 2007. In 2008 he was nominated for Outstanding Actor In a Comedy Television Series for Psych by the NCLR ALMA Awards.

His role as Shawn Spencer in Psych earned him an EWwy Award nomination in 2009 for Best Actor in a Comedy Series. In 2009 he was nominated by the ALMA Awards for Outstanding Actor in a Comedy Series for Psych. In 2011 he was nominated by the ALMA Awards for Favorite TV Actor-Leading Role for Psych. In 2010 he was nominated by the Image Awards for Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series for Psych for the episode "High Top Fade Out." In 2009 and 2011 he was nominated by the Imagen Foundation Awards for Best Actor-Television for Psych. Roday also won the award for Best Lead Actor in a Drama Series at the 2nd Annual Timmys Awards in 2012, after being nominated the previous year, but lost to Hugh Laurie. In 2012 Roday won the award for Best Actor in a television series for Psych at the Imagen Awards.

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Other notes
1999	Coming Soon	Chad
	Ryan Caulfield: Year One	Vic
2000	Believe	Bruce Arm/Agent Johnny
	Get Real	Trent Sykes
2001	Thank Heaven	Receptionist
	First Years	Edgar 'Egg' Ross
2002	Repli-Kate	Max
	Providence	Alexander Conrad
	Showtime	'Maxis' Cameraman
2003	Rolling Kansas	Dick Murphy
	Miss Match	Nick Paine	Series Regular
2005	Don't Come Knocking	Mickey, First Assistant Director
	The Dukes of Hazzard	Billy Prickett
2006	Beerfest	German Messenger
	Skinwalkers		Writer
2006-present	Psych	Shawn Spencer	Also writer and director Producer 2009"Present
2008	Fear Itself	Carlos	Episode: "In Sickness and in Health"
2009	Gamer	News Co-Host #1
2011	WWE Tough Enough	Himself	Episode: "I've Been Bamboozled and Flabbergasted"
2011	Love Bites	Jeff	Episode: "TMI"
2012	WWE Raw SuperShow	Himself	Special guest ring announcer