Birth Place: Greenville, CA
Birth Name: James Wesley Marsters
Biography: James Wesley Marsters was born August 20th, and 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 vampire 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 FOX
and had a role in the 1999 horror film The House On Haunted Hill. In 1998, he filmed a only single episode of
Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but kept himself busy with a fairly large role in an independent film called Winding
Roads. He is currently a regular on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and spends much of his time off the Buffy set
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. Marsters 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. He typically sings cover songs -- with heavy helpings of Bruce Springsteen, Tom Waits,
Neil Young, and the occasional Nirvana tune thrown into the mix -- as well as a few of his own original
compositions. James has traditionally been a solo act, but recently he's formed a band with Buffy writers
Steve DeKnight and Doug Petrie, as well as Soccer Hooligans guitarist Charlie DeMars. The band is called
Ghost of teh Robot and they have been touring around a bit. I don't really have a lot of information on Ghost of
the Robot Tours or a lot of information.