James Roday Rodriguez
American actor

James Roday Rodriguez

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Quick facts
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American actor
A.K.A.
James David Rodriguez, James Roday
Gender:
Male
Birth:
4 April 1976(San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas, USA)
Star sign:
Education:
New York University
Manhattan, New York City, USA
William Howard Taft High School
Texas, USA
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Biography

Introduction

James Roday Rodriguez (born James David Rodriguez, April 4, 1976) is an American actor, director, and screenwriter. He is best known for portraying Shawn Spencer, a hyper-observant consultant detective and fake psychic, in USA Network series Psych and the subsequent Psych film series, also writing and producing for Psych. He also starred in A Million Little Things which debuted in 2018, playing Javier "Gary" Mendez.

Early life

Rodriguez was born in San Antonio, Texas, as James David Rodriguez. He attended Taft High School in San Antonio. His father, James "Jim" Rodriguez, is of Mexican descent, and his mother, Deborah Collins, is of English, Irish, and Scottish ancestry. Rodriguez's father is a retired Air Force master sergeant.

At New York University's Experimental Theatre Wing, Rodriguez studied theatre and earned a bachelor's degree in fine arts. At the age of 22, he selected the professional name James Roday. In a July 2020 interview, Rodriguez explained the decision was mainly driven by producers and casting directors feeling his appearance clashed with his Latino family name. The characters he read for up until that point were not written with a Latino background in mind. In order to book his first job, he legally changed his middle name, David, to Roday (from an Anton Chekhov play), and omitted Rodriguez from his screen name. In the same interview, he stated regret that he "sold out [his] heritage in about 15 seconds.” In 2020, he announced that going forward he would use his full legal name of James Roday Rodriguez.

Career

Theatre beginnings

Rodriguez started his acting career starring in various theatrical productions, including Three Sisters, A Respectable Wedding, and Severity's Mistress. He took on leading roles in Sexual Perversity in Chicago and Extinction which he produced with his theatre company Red Dog Squadron. For RDS he also directed the play Greedy, and wrote and directed the one-act play Sustenance. His most recent foray onto the stage was in December 2016, when he starred in the New York production of White Rabbit Red Rabbit by Iranian playwright Nassim Soleimanpour.

Big screen and television

His big screen debut was in the 1999 film Coming Soon alongside Ryan Reynolds and Ashton Kutcher.

Other early film credits include the 2003 film Rolling Kansas and the 2005 film adaptation of The Dukes of Hazzard. Behind the scenes, he and writing partners Todd Harthan and James DeMonaco wrote the screenplay for the 2006 film Skinwalkers. The team also worked on an unused script for the film adaptation of the video game Driver.

Rodriguez's television credits include starring roles in 2001's First Years and NBC's Miss Match in 2003.

James Roday Rodriguez
James Roday Rodriguez (middle) at a ComicCon panel in 2013 with Maggie Lawson (left) and Dulé Hill (right)

Psych franchise

His big break came on July 7, 2006, with the series premiere of USA Network's original series Psych. Airing following the season premiere of USA's other comedic success, Monk, it was the highest-rated scripted basic cable TV show premiere of 2006. Psych ran for eight seasons until 2014.

In 2017, Rodriguez returned to his most famous role as he starred in and executive produced Psych: The Movie, which he also co-wrote with Psych's series creator Steve Franks. It aired on USA Network in December 2017.

A sequel, Psych 2: Lassie Come Home was officially announced on February 14, 2019. It was filmed in Vancouver in March and April of that year and debuted July 15, 2020 on NBCUniversal's streaming service Peacock. Lassie Come Home was the first project that featured his full legal name, James Roday Rodriguez. He once again served as co-writer and executive producer.

Psych 3: This Is Gus was filmed in June 2021 and released on Peacock on November 18, 2021. As of May 2023, a fourth Psych movie is rumored to be in the making.

Post Psych

After Psych the series ended, Rodriguez starred in various pilots and independent films, most notably Pushing Dead by independent filmmaker Tom E. Brown, which accumulated a number of awards at film festivals in the US and elsewhere.

At the same time, Rodriguez began focusing on his work behind the camera as a director, writer and producer. He has since directed episodes for Battle Creek, Rush Hour, Rosewood, Blood Drive and The Resident and developed, wrote, and directed the pilots Shoot The Moon for USA and Quest For Truth for E!.

Rodriguez directed his first feature film, Gravy, in 2015, co-written by him and Todd Harthan. He co-wrote (once again with Todd Harthan) and directed his second film Treehouse as part of Hulu's monthly horror movie anthology Into The Dark, which aired in March 2019.

Rodriguez branched out into voice acting in the 2021 animated feature Night of the Animated Dead, an adaptation of George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead.

In 2022, Rodriguez directed two episodes of the LeBron James-produced series The Crossover for Disney+, which premiered on April 5, 2023.

In 2023, Rodriguez produced the world premiere of Laurence Davis's play Masters of Puppets for the Legacy Theatre in Branford, Connecticut. The play starred Amanda Detmer, Kurt Fuller, Dana Ashbrook, and The Resident's Michael Hogan. He also became a member of the theater's board of trustees.

More recently, Rodriguez starred as Gary Mendez on ABC's dramedy A Million Little Things. He co-wrote the series' final episode, "One Big Thing", with series creator DJ Nash.

Personal life

Rodriguez is the co-artistic director of Red Dog Squadron, a non-profit Los Angeles theater company he co-founded with Brad Raider. In 2012, Rodriguez and, at the time, Black Dahlia artistic director Matt Shakman bought the El Centro Theatre and started a long process of renovations with the intent of reopening it under its original name Circle Theatre. In a newsletter from August 2018, Raider and Rodriguez announced that they had to resell the theatre in early 2018.

Rodriguez dated his Psych co-star Maggie Lawson from 2006 to 2014, coinciding with the series run.

Filmography

Actor

Year Title Role Notes
1999 Coming Soon Chad
Ryan Caulfield: Year One Vic Series regular
2000 Believe Bruce Arm / Agent Johnny Short
Get Real Trent Sykes
2001 First Years Edgar Series regular
2002 Repli-Kate Max Lead
Providence Alexander Conrad
Showtime 'Maxis' Cameraman
Rolling Kansas Dick Murphy
2003 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
2006–14 Psych Shawn Spencer Also writer, director, and producer 2009–2014
2008 Fear Itself Carlos Episode: "In Sickness and in Health"
2009 Gamer News Co-Host #1
His Name Was Jason: 30 Years of Friday the 13th Himself Documentary
2011 WWE Tough Enough Himself Episode: "I've Been Bamboozled & Flabbergasted"
Love Bites Jeff Episode: "TMI"
2012 WWE Raw Super Show Himself Special guest ring announcer
2013 Mr. Payback Malikai Short
2015 Gravy Marty Also director and co-writer
Good Session Joel Pilot, lead
Christmas Eve B a.k.a. Stuck
Baby Baby Baby J.B.
The Nerd Herd Kip Mitchell Pilot, lead
2016 Pushing Dead Dan Schauble Lead
2017 Psych: The Movie Shawn Spencer TV film, also co-writer and executive producer
2018–23 A Million Little Things Gary Mendez Series regular
2018 Fortune Rookie Roday Recurring
2019 Buddy Games Zane
Berserk Officer Duane
2020 Psych 2: Lassie Come Home Shawn Spencer TV film, also co-writer and executive producer
2021 Psych 3: This Is Gus
2023 Buddy Games: Spring Awakening Zane

Director

Year Title Notes
2009–14 Psych 8 episodes, also lead actor and occasional writer
2014 Shoot the Moon Unaired pilot, also writer
2015 Gravy Also actor and co-writer
Battle Creek Episode 1x12
Quest for Truth Unaired pilot, also co-writer
2015–16 Rosewood 5 episodes
2016 Rush Hour Episode 1x10
2017 Blood Drive Episodes 1x3 and 1x4
2018–2019 The Resident Episodes 1x2, 1x12 and 1x13
2019 Treehouse Also co-writer
2023 The Crossover Episodes 1x2 and 1x3

Writer

Year Title Notes
2002 The Driver Unused first draft, co-written with James DeMonaco and Todd Harthan
2006 Skinwalkers Co-written with James DeMonaco and Todd Harthan
2006–14 Psych 16 episodes, co-written with various others
2014 Shoot the Moon Unaired pilot
2015 Quest for Truth Unaired pilot
Gravy Co-written with Todd Harthan
2017 Psych: The Movie Co-written with Steve Franks
2019 Treehouse Co-written with Todd Harthan
2020 Psych 2: Lassie Come Home Co-written with Steve Franks and Andy Berman
2021 Psych 3: This Is Gus Co-written with Steve Franks
2023 A Million Little Things Episode 5x13, co-written with DJ Nash

Awards and nominations

Year Award Category Nominated work Result Ref.
2006
Satellite Awards Best Actor in a Series, Comedy or Musical Psych Nominated
2008 NCLR ALMA Awards Outstanding Actor in a Drama Television Series Nominated
Online Film & Television Association Best Actor in a Comedy Series Nominated
2009 EWwy Award Best Actor in a Comedy Series Nominated
NCLR ALMA Awards Outstanding Actor in a Comedy Series Nominated
Imagen Awards Best Actor – Television Nominated
Online Film & Television Association Best Actor in a Comedy Series Nominated
2010
NAACP Image Awards Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series Psych (for episode "High Top Fade Out", shared with Saladin K. Patterson) Nominated
2011 NCLR ALMA Awards Favorite TV Actor – Leading Role Psych Nominated
Imagen Awards Best Actor – Television Nominated
1st Annual Timmys Awards Best Lead Actor in a Drama Series Nominated
StageSceneLA's “Best Of 2010–2011 Scenies” Outstanding Direction of a Comedy-Drama greedy Won
2012 NCLR ALMA Awards Favorite TV Actor – Leading Role Psych Nominated
2nd Annual Timmys Awards Best Lead Actor in a Drama Series Won
Imagen Awards Best Actor – Television Won
2016 POZ Awards Best Actor or Actress in Film or Television Pushing Dead Nominated
2017 FilmOut Festival Award Best Actor Won
2023 HCA TV Awards Best Writing in a Broadcast Network or Cable Drama Series A Million Little Things (for episode 5x13 One Big Thing, shared with DJ Nash) Nominated
2023 Humanitas Prize Drama Teleplay A Million Little Things (for episode 5x13 One Big Thing, shared with DJ Nash) Nominated