Oliver James (entertainer)

Oliver James
Born	Oliver James Hudson 1 June 1980 (1980-06-01) (age 31) Ottershaw, Surrey, England
Occupation	Actor/Musician
Years active	2002–present

Oliver James (born Oliver James Hudson;^[1] 1 June 1980) is an English musician, singer, songwriter and actor. He is best known for his roles in the American films What a Girl Wants and Raise Your Voice.

Acting career

Oliver's first screen appearance was a supporting role in the 2002 Made-for-Television short film as Dean. He appeared in the BBC television series The Afternoon Play in the episode Girls' Weekend.

In 2002, he was cast as the role of Ian Wallace in the teen romantic comedy What a Girl Wants. The film starred Amanda Bynes, Kelly Preston and Colin Firth and was directed by Dennie Gordon. The film was released on 4 April 2003 to a mixed critical reception from critics. The film had moderate box office success earning worldwide a total of $50,732,139. He was the only actor to kiss Amanda Bynes in the screen test.

In 2004, Oliver was cast to portray the role of Jay Corgan in New Line Cinema's musical drama film Raise Your Voice. The film which was directed by Sean McNamara starred Hilary Duff and David Keith. The film was released 8 October 2004. The film received negative reviews from critics and was a box office bomb earning worldwide $10,411,980.

In 2006, Oliver signed on for the BBC drama television series The Innocence Project portraying the role of Nick Benitz. The eight episode first season received negative reviews from critics. Ratings were very poor and the BBC chose to pull the series midway through season one. A second season was not renewed.

In 2009, he portrayed the role of Ben in Paramount Home Entertainment's Without a Paddle: Nature's Calling. The film is a sequel to the 2004 film Without a Paddle. The film was released straight-to-DVD on 13 January 2009 to negative reviews.

Music career

Shortly after appearing in The Afternoon Play Oliver joined a boy band produced by Simon Fuller. He quit the band as soon as he was cast in What A Girl Wants. For What A Girl Wants he learned to play the guitar and sang the songs Long Time Coming and Greatest Story Ever Told which both appeared on the films soundtrack. He played the acoustic guitar in Raise Your Voice.

Filmography

• 2011 - Roadkill....Ryan
• 2009 - Without a Paddle: Nature's Calling .... Ben
• 2006/2007 - The Innocence Project .... Nick Benitz
• 2004 - Raise Your Voice .... Jay Corgan
• 2003 - What a Girl Wants .... Ian Wallace
• 2003 - The Afternoon Play .... Dave
• 2002 - School's Out .... Dean

References

1. ^ http://www.teenhollywood.com/printerversion.asp?r=33819

External links

• Oliver James at the Internet Movie Database
• Oliver James on Myspace
• Oliver James.net (unofficial fansite)

Persondata
Name	James, Oliver
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1 June 1980
Place of birth	Ottershaw, Surrey, England
Date of death
Place of death