James Estes

Actor. Writer. Director. Sometimes Singer.
       

      I hail from a small town, which you probably never
heard of, in central Massachusetts. (Leominster, am I
right?) Not a lot to do in a small town, but I managed to
entertain myself, and by middle school entertain other
people. At first, not keeping them rapt by my acting –
that would come later (I say modestly) – but by being
part of the tech crew for Little Shop of Horrors, which
the local high school was putting on. 

       By the time I was in high school, I pivoted away from
tech crew to actor. It was a smooth transition – little did
I know of the rejection that would befall me (!). I
became the first freshman in over a decade to snag the
lead in the school’s play Monday Always Leads to Murder. 
Soon after, I claimed the best actor award in my high
school’s tournament of plays, and received glowing
reviews in a statewide tournament of plays, hosted
once a year.

      My passion for becoming someone else – someone I
would never encounter in my small orbit (an over eccentric, over the top brother, a ladies man which had all of the ladies swooning, a writer who has an inner and outer battle with his split personality, and so many more), and doing so in front of people I knew and strangers I didn’t,
affording them the chance to escape their lives for a
few hours - grew stronger in college. There, I flexed my
theater muscles, some of them newly acquired (James
Estes, the comedian), and learned to tuck away some

of those muscles when for the first time, I got to
perform in front of a camera.

      In graduate school, in addition to performing in over a
dozen narrative short films (from laugh-out-loud
comedy to bring-on-the-tears drama), I got bitten by the
directing and screenwriting bug.

      A one-man show in the works, a horror film in
development, auditioning for film and theater roles, is
the DNA of my life these days. Take a peek at my work
by clicking on the projects tab or the reel tab.