James Morrison

I was born in Bountiful, Utah, and raised in Alaska. I started to make a living as an actor when I ran away to join the circus as a clown and wire walker for Satan’s Wild Animal Circus of Agony and then served my theatrical apprenticeship with the Alaska Repertory Theatre. Since then, I’ve done about a hundred plays at theaters like the McCarter Theatre, the La Jolla Playhouse, the Mark Taper Forum, the LA Stage Company, the Salt Lake Acting Company, The Old Globe and the Pasadena Playhouse, with such wonderful directors as Emily Mann, Des McAnuff, Jack O’Brien, Charles Nelson Reilly, Jose Quintero, Robert Egan and Harry Mastrogeorge.

I picked up a Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Performance (in a play called “El Salvador”; it’s where I met my wife, Riad Galayini) and three Drama-Logue Awards. I was in the London premiere of Emily Mann’s “Still Life” at the West End’s Donmar Warehouse and the Riverside Studios, after we played the Edinburgh Festival at the venerable Traverse Theatre. There, the production received a Fringe First Award. For my television and film credits as an actor, please follow this link to my IMDB page.

My wife, Riad, and I have made several films together, including the feature-length documentary “Showing Up.” My first film as a director, “Parking,” is based on my short play, which has been mounted by numerous theaters over the years. “Parking” has screened at a whole slew of festivals, including Slamdance (Audience Choice Award for Best Short Film); Austin’s South By Southwest Festival; and New York’s New Directors/New Films Festival, presented by Lincoln Center at the Museum of Modern Art. It also aired on Sundance channel.

Our second short film, “Nude Descending,” was directed by Riad. It won the George Melies Award at the Taos Talking Picture Festival. “Nude Descending” was selected for special recognition by American Cinematheque. Riad also directed me in the award-winning short she wrote and I produced, “Crossing.”

As a playwright, my solo play, “Leave Your Fears Here,” in which I explore my family’s journey through my son’s brain cancer, was developed by the Ojai Playwrights Conference and directed by Robert Egan. While I was at Sundance Institute’s Playwright’s Conference as an actor, “Idle Wheels,” my first play, was developed and subsequently produced by the Salt Lake Acting Company. I’m a member of the Ensemble Studio Theatre, the company that first produced “Parking” on the stage. I’ve written plays that have been seen at the Philadelphia Fringe Festival, City Theatre in Miami and The Road Theatre in Los Angeles.

I’m certified to teach yoga by the White Lotus Foundation in Santa Barbara, and I sit on their board of trustees. I taught weekly classes at L.A.’s oldest studio, the Center for Yoga, founded by Ganga White in 1967.