James Marsters

Biography: James Wesley Marsters was born August 20, 1962. He is originally from Greenville, California, but grew up in Modesto. His father used to be a minister, and his mother, a social worker, almost became a nun. He has one brother and one sister and graduated from Davis High School in Modesto. He studied at Juilliard, the Pacific Conservatory of the Performing Arts, and the American Conservatory Theatre. While doing regional theatre in Chicago, he co-founded the New Mercury Theatre company (named after Orson Welles' Mercury Theatre). In 1990, New Mercury's founders packed the operation up and relocated to Seattle in the hopes of finding more opportunity. They played there for a number of years, using any available space, including the basements of restaurants and churches, but eventually found themselves a more permanent space near Pioneer Square. Acting on advice from fellow actors and seeing only meager future earnings on the stage, Marsters eventually departed to seek a more solid salary in Hollywood. After taking several small guest starring roles on shows like Northern Exposure and Moloney, he landed the role of a vampire named Spike on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. That short-term guest role turned into a long-term contract and James became a regular on the series in its fourth season. He also guest starred on Millennium on the FOX network and had a role in the 1999 horror film House on Haunted Hill. In 1998, he filmed only a single episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but kept himself busy with a fairly large role in an independent film called Winding Roads. James has appeared as a guest star on a number of series including Smallville and Torchwood. James also spends much of his time doing convention appearances around the world and filming guest-starring roles for other series. When he's not on camera, he works on his car, drives in the desert, paints, and writes. He also plays guitar and sings on stage at the Santa Monica nightclub 14 Below. James lives in the greater Los Angeles area and is currently single. In addition to his acting talents, James is also a musician and performs regularly at California nightclubs. Typically, he sings his original compositions with a few cover songs thrown into the mix. Some of the artists he covers include Bruce Springsteen, Tom Waits, Neil Young, and Nirvana. James has traditionally been a solo act, but recently he's formed a band with Buffy the Vampire Slayer writers Steve DeKnight and Doug Petrie, as well as Soccer Hooligans guitarist Charlie DeMars. The band is called Ghost of the Robot and they have been touring around a bit.… Expand