James David Maslow (born July 16, 1990) is an American actor and singer. He is best known for playing the role of James Diamond on Nickelodeon's Big Time Rush, and is a member of the boy band with the same name.
Maslow was born in New York, and raised in LaJolla, California. Maslow began training as a singer at the age of 6 when his parents made him sing in the San Diego Children's Choir. He attended La Jolla and Torrey Pines elementary schools, Muirlands Middle School, and San Diego School of Creative and Performing Arts
[3] He had a small role in the
San Diego Opera's production of
La bohème when he was 10 years old.
[3][4][5] He attended acting camp at the
La Jolla Playhouse, got his first agent when he was 14, and in high school starred as Danny Zuko in
Grease and as Maurius in
Les Misérables.
[3] He quit the School of Creative and Performing Arts mid-way through the 10th grade and switched to Coronado School of the Arts.
[3]He made his television debut as Shane in the
iCarly episode "
iSaw Him First".
[4] He has a scar on his elbow, which he received while performing a
hockey-related stunt for the first episode of Big Time Rush.
[6]Maslow is Jewish.
[7] In an interview with Clevver TV, when asked his favorite holiday, he replied
Hanukkah.
[8]James will also be starring in an upcoming 2011 film titled Master Tree in which he plays main character Zach, a teenager who lives with his 4 younger siblings in a foster home in Massachusetts. His siblings have no rememberance of their father who abandoned them for a higher class life. Curious of why his father did this, Maslow's character sets out alone with no expenses on a journey across the United States to Los Angeles where he tries to convince his dad to come back and live in the house by the tree that his ancestors planted centuries ago, the tree that he remembered his father would always tell him about before he tucked him in at night as a child