Bio:

James Wingate born in 1979 to English parents and lives in West Sussex, United Kingdom.

Having worked in professional financial services for most of his working life he caught the acting bug in 2019 when asked to appear in a social media advert for a luxury barbershop due to his signature long hair and well-trimmed salt & pepper beard by cinematographer Mike Seager.

He started acting classes soon after as well as rifle, handgun and sword handling lessons and built his experience with student & indie films until he was cast as the lead in the award-winning Norse mythology short films Voluspa & Valravn.
Working his way into feature films he was cast as Aaron the villain in Ewan Gorman’s Brighton based thriller High water.
His professionalism and acting ability led to him being approached by award winning Director Elliott Hasler to play the lead in his dark pirate film The Isle, and then as the Oarsman in his multi award winning true story 1920’s drama Vindication Swim. This role involved hours of training for the sea rowing scenes of a 1900’s rowboat through choppy waters to get the required daunting shots of being miles out at sea for this inspiring feature film.

In 2023 he was cast as a vigilante southerner on Sean Cronin’s blood curdling American horror Bogieville and then a troubled American Hunter driven by blood lust in the dark and gritty film Poachers Pride which he was nominated for Best Actor.

He is now working alongside Director and writer Allan McTaggart’s 3-part feature film Hegemony.
Set in a dystopian post-apocalyptic world, James not only plays the lead but has taken on more responsibility for this passion indie project with the writing and casting. The film is aiming to be one of the most ambitious ‘green’ indie films ever made with 80% of props sourced from reused and recycled materials with part 1 of filming aiming to be completed by the end 2023.

Fulfilling his typecast role as the bad guy, he got cast in the London based crime comedy feature film My Name’s Tim written and directed by ex MMA champion turned actor/director Alex Montagnani. Playing the role of Sol, the drug fueled low level London gangster starring alongside Eastenders star Ricky Champ. James also came onboard as Producer for the film which is due for release in 2024.

His son Bodhi aged 8 has also started working alongside him on set. First as a child soldier in Hegemony and more recently playing the role of his son in the pre-production feature film Gallowmere.
A fantasy film written and directed by the inspiring indie film maker Oliver Hollingdale, James plays the role of Jared the sly, a twisted and evil antagonist to the heroes of this grim dark fairy tale.

Due to his financial background he also landed several corporate client acting roles for social media, website and voiceover work.
The highlight so far being 10 days spent in Dubai filming for a major middle eastern investment firm acting/modelling as a senior manager for a global marketing and social media campaign.
This included working alongside corporate clients such as Rolls Royce, FVP Trade & Dubai yachts to create a high-class portfolio of marketing material used across the middle east as part of a multimillion-dollar advertising campaign.

With his ability to portray deep raw emotions with his gritty acting style and signature intimidating stare his hard work ethic is building a successful acting career that shows all the signs of bigger and better things to come for him and certainly one to watch out for.

David Camici
Absolute Magazine