Nathan James is a proud native of Pittsburgh, PA, where he began his career with Kuntu Repertory Theatre. In the spring of 2014, he won first place at Amateur Night at the Apollo with an original poem, "Death of Swag." He has most recently been seen as Case in Maid's Door at The Billie Holiday Theater, in which he received an A.U.D.E.L.C.O award nomination for Best Supporting Actor 2014. On December 5th-7th, Nathan will reappear at the Billie Holiday Theater in his one man show, GROWING PAINS.  In 2013, he appeared as Ellis in August Strindberg’s EASTER (in which The New York Times considered him a “Standout actor”), and in the Off-Broadway production Playing with Fire with The Negro Ensemble Company and The August Strindberg Repertory Theatre. Nathan is a recent recipient of the August Wilson Writing fellowship from The August Wilson Cultural Center, and his play Contrary to Popular Belief was featured in the Reader’s Theater at the National Black Theater Festival, The Blackboard Reading Series, The Standardized reading series at Center Stage NY, and in the Cultural Conversations Festival at Penn State University. In 2005, Nathan was ranked as one of the top fifteen slam poets in the Nation by Poetry Slam Incorporated, and he performed his Langston Hughes inspired poem, I too Sing America 2, on the 2006 Emmy Award nominated documentary soundtrack Torch Bearers. He has been a featured Poet at the South Africa International Theater Festival, as well as many Universities and Poetry venues in the United States. He has also been commissioned to write and perform poems for some of America’s premiere black pioneers, most notably Mae Jemison, Roy Ayers, and Angela Davis.