Crafty St. James

Birthday: 17 September 1970, Chicago, Illinois, USA

Birth Name: James Crafton

Crafty was born on the westside of Chicago. At age 7 his parents divorced and then he was adopted by his new stepfather whom with his mother, changed his name.Wrote a play for him and his sister at ag ...Show More

Crafty was born on the westside of Chicago. At age 7 his parents divorced and then he was adopted by his new stepfather whom with his mother, changed his name.Wrote a play for him and his sister at age 10, using a basement full of clothing that his Grandmother had collected for the Salvation Army as character wardrobe, the play was performed on a balcony for family.At age 15 he was an expert bicycle freestyler and invented the trick 'The Jump of Doom" and attended high school in Indianapolis IN.After high school he got a job repairing and rebuilding semi trailers.Crafty has been a huge Hip Hop lover since 1982, dancing and eventually writing and producing his own rap music and in 1995 attended the Gavin Music Seminar, where he was pushing his first rap demo in New Orleans.In 1995 after being cast as an extra in the film "Roommates" where he got to meet Peter Faulk, he fell head over heels in love with the filmmaking process. Crafty had written and directed a play at age 8 for he and his sister to perform for family and now with this new film experience, he knew this was what he was meant to do!Giving up his great paying trailer mechanic job, he returned to Chicago, auditioned and enrolled in the Second City Conservatory Program, where he got to study with some of the greats, then Improv Olympic with Charna Halpern and Act One studios.After several years of honing his skills, he wrote, produced and directed a play "Found in a Box, Supposedly Empty." The critics split their decision on Crafty's brand of physical comedy, half called it sophomoric humor, the other hailed him as a comic genius. After the run of the play, Crafty had the bug. Fueled on determination and confidence, he darted off for Hollywood. On his second week in L.A. he was chosen to be an extra in the movie BLOW and got to act in a scene with Johnny Depp.Crafty soon produced another play, "Moe & Me" and was excited to hear from LA critics that his physical comedy was considered classic and compared it to Jerry Lewis or Charles Chaplin.For 8 years Crafty worked in television production in many aspects, learning from some legends everyone he encountered. This meant the long hours on set limited his time to audition and work on his acting craft. He vowed to improvise at every possibility.A natural physical comedian, he once auditioned for 3 short plays at the same theatre company and got cast in all three roles. He also helped co-found the sketch comedy group "Comic Fetus" This led to roles in independent films and started him writing and producing his own. Hide