James Wesley Marsters was born on August 20, 1962 in Greenville, California, but grew up in Modesto, California, where he attended Davis High School. James' father was a minister and his mother a social worker. He has an older brother and a younger sister.

James is 5'10" with curly brown hair and blue eyes. His hair was bleached for every episode of Buffy and Angel (every 9 to 10 days) and he recommends the use of Sweet-N-Low in the bleach to cut down on the stinging. When asked recently if he would bleach his hair again he responded that he would only do that if "they decide to make a Spike movie."

The scar in James' left eyebrow is real (although it was emphasized for the role of Spike) and is the result of an attempted mugging in Queens, New York. He also suffered a serious injury to his left leg in an accident in the fifth grade which kept him bedridden for almost a year.

He made his acting debut at the age of 9 playing Eeyore in Winnie the Pooh. According to James, he wanted the role of Pooh (which he later played), but he was denied the title role at that time. In his own words: "I think that I brought the existential angst to the character. I think that I did justice to the myth and legend. * * * My Eeyore was brilliant."

After graduating from high school, James attended the Pacific Conservatory of the Performing Arts in Santa Maria, California before being accepted into the drama program at The Julliard School in New York. He left Julliard after two years due to disagreements with instructors and their teaching methods. To pay the bills, James has waited tables, tended bar, managed a restaurant (into the ground, according to him), pushed a juice cart in the hospital and was a telemarketer for Philip Morris (which he admits was the worst job he ever had).

While he was living in New York, he adopted his cat, Zachary, from the ASPCA in the Bronx. "He was the one cat who refused to go back into the cage. * * * He drew my blood on the first meeting." Zachary died in 2000 at the age of 14.

James then moved to Chicago where he remained for several years. It was here that he co-founded the Genesis Theatre Company. In 1990, the Company moved to Seattle in the hopes of finding more opportunity and formed the New Mercury Theatre Company (named after Orson Welles' Mercury Theatre). For a number of years, they used any available space, including the basements of restaurants and churches until they found more permanent space near Pioneer Square.

James admits that the only reason he decided to move to Hollywood in 1996 was "for the money." He originally auditioned for the role of Spike with a southern accent, but it was decided that the British accent was more "dangerous." The character was to have been staked after a few episodes, but he was so popular with the audience that he remained on the show through the end of the second season. After one guest appearance in the third season, James was brought back as a regular in the fourth season. The first episode where he was listed in the opening credits was "The Initiative". When Buffy was cancelled in 2003 (after 7 seasons), James was added member of the cast of Angel, which was cancelled in 2004 (after 5 seasons).

In addition to playing Spike on Buffy and Angel, James has appeared twice on Northern Exposure (while living in Seattle), Maloney, Medicine Ball, Millennium, Strange Frequency and Andromeda. He has also been a guest on numerous talk shows and game shows. His movie credits include House on Haunted Hill, Winding Roads and Chance, an independent film written, directed and produced by Buffy co-star Amber Benson.

In his spare time (which he admits he has very little of) he likes sleeping ("waking up without the alarm is heaven"), playing his guitar, singing, driving in the desert, watching football, going to the beach with friends, being a father and writing and painting, though he has said himself he would never allow has paintings to be shown.