James moved to Chicago in the late 1980's where he was the co-founder of the New Mercury Theatre Company, in 1990 the company packed up and relocated to Seattle in the hopes of finding more opportunity, playing to small crowds in any available space, including the basements of restaurants. Then in 1997 James left the company and moved to Hollywood.

After taking several small guest starring roles in shows such as "Northern Exposure", he earned himself a short term contract on BtVS as the season 2 big bad. After that season ended, Joss Whedon decided to keep him on, so he returned in season 4 and has been a regular ever since.

Since then he has had a number of guest appearances in shows such as "Millenium" and "Andromeda", he's theatre credits include "The Tempest" as Sebastian, "Twelfth Night" as Andrew Aguecheck and took the lead role in "Macbeth". He has also Directed a number of theatre productions.

When he's not on camera, he works on his car, drives in the desert, paints and writes, and is the lead singer of a band called "Ghost of the Robot"

Spike Facts

The scar on his left eyebrow was obtained when he was mugged in Queens.

He is left handed

His father used to be a Methodist minister, and his mother a social worker.

On bleaching your hair, he suggests using sweet'n'low in the solution to take the bite out of it.

He has one brother and one sister