The Harrow boy
Born on October 9th, 1968, James Dreyfus was exposed to the world of glamour and showbiz from birth - his mum lived in France and worked as a model for Christian Dior. However, she split from James' wealthy businessman father shortly after he was born, and they moved to Britain with very little money.

James' dad didn't want his boy going to any old school though, so he personally paid the fees for James to attend the exclusive public school Harrow. James hated it there, later dubbing it an "arrogant place", and even more confusing for the youngster was the strange duality of his life. Unlike most of the other pupils, James didn't come from a rich family and he found it odd to go back and forth from the plush universe of Harrow to his very ordinary household.

Onto acting
James studied hard, bagged good A-levels, and then secured a much-coveted place at RADA - the springboard for many a celeb. Meanwhile both his parents re-married, ultimately giving James several half-siblings (one of them being a successful director of hip-hop videos in Paris).

After RADA, James worked on stage in many serious plays. He saw himself as a classical actor, and even had a small role in 1995's Richard III movie, with Ian McKellen. Then fate came calling when he landed the part of a camp hairdresser in Absolutely Fabulous.

That was it - he was now officially a comic actor. Ab Fab led to him getting the similarly flamboyant role of PC Goody in The Thin Blue Line. And then came the part of Kathy Burke's gay housemate in Gimme Gimme Gimme - a show which James proudly describes as "an assault on the senses".

The call from America
With the turn of the millennium came an amazing opportunity for James. Having seen him in the movie Notting Hill, the legendary American singer and actress Bette Midler personally flew him over to New York to see if he'd be suitable for her new sitcom, Bette.

"She summoned me, it was tremendously scary," James remembers. He was basically handed a script and told to improvise around certain comic scenes with Midler - an experience which had him "wiping my head with napkins in fear!"

James passed the test, and was offered a juicy role in the US sitcom. This was his biggest breakthrough yet, and James was overjoyed. But things wouldn't go as smoothly as expected...

Back to Blighty
Moving to Los Angeles, James rented an amazing house in the Hollywood Hills (complete with vast pool, indoor gym and panoramic view of LA). Working on the sitcom also proved enjoyable, and the critics praised the first few episodes of Bette.

Then the audience had their say - and it wasn't good. Ratings for the show nosedived during the series, and Bette Midler, in James' words, "panicked and started firing people". It soured the atmosphere on set, and James began getting a bad feeling about it all.

He was eventually told that the show was going to be axed. It was all over very quickly, with Bette Midler leaving town and James basically left aimless and alone. It was time to return to Britain.

Branching Out
The US sitcom wasn't quite the gateway to global fame that James imagined it would be, but he's still managed to get roles in a number of big-budget flicks, appearing with Christian Slater in Churchill: The Hollywood Years and the sequel to Agent Cody Banks (although the less said about Fat Slags the better).

And, in 2006, he became a sitcom star once again - replacing Ardal O'Hanlon as Thermoman in My Hero. Nice tights, James!

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