About
Born in central Florida, Justin James spent his youth with a video camera glued to his hand directing shorts and music videos. After writing his first script at age twelve, he set his sights on becoming a screenwriter. At 19, he moved to LA where he lived out of his car for two months before spending a decade climbing the production ladder during which he worked as an assistant, camera operator, editor, location scout, and director, until a family emergency forced him back to the east coast sidelining his dreams. With a sobering $132 to his name and two thousand miles between him and the industry, he entered his first screenwriting contest and walked away with Script Pipeline’s Top Prize, earning $25,000 and beating out over 10,000 applicants. Following his win, he landed at the top of The Black List where his pilot, Powerhouse, stayed at number one for an unprecedented seventeen week run. Capitalizing on the momentum, he was staffed on Amazon Prime’s family drama “The Baxters” before exiting to adapt another TV series for MGM and Reese Witherspoon. Later that year, he set up a psychological thriller at Escape Artist, optioned an inspiring survival story, and began developing a soapy dramedy with Amazing Spider Man producer, Pam Williams. After relocating to Nashville, he sold and wrote a dozen movies for Lifetime and Hallmark under his pen name, set up a feel-good medical procedural with Candace Cameron-Bure, and began developing a limited series with Gabrielle Unions’ I’ll Have Another banner. In 2024, he sold a TV show to the Wonder Project, a mother, daughter drama with Cartel Pictures, a Christmas romcom to Candace Cameron-Bure’s CandyRock Productions, began developing a thriller with Netflix, and sold a Christmas romcom to Hallmark. In the the fall of 2024, he sold an action thriller with Kevin Hart producing and Rosario Dawson set to star, began developing an action comedy starring Taylor Lautner, and sold an inspiring true story to Lifetime. In 2025, he sold a romcom to Vortex Media, two romcoms to Crown Media, a family drama to Evoke Entertainment, a teen drama to Fox, a horror spec to Aeth Entertainment, set up a dark comedy with Renee Zellweger and Margot Robbie attached to produce, an action thriller with Halle Berry, wrote a baseball comedy with Blink 182’s Tom DeLonge, and began developing a sci-fi series with the producers of Stranger Things. Up next, he is set to adapt the bestselling book, Night Watcher, and create and executive produce a series alongside Untitled Entertainment based on the incredible true story of Walker Hayes, the Grammy-nominated country singer.