James Roday Rodriguez

Rodriguez started his acting career starring in various theatrical productions, including Three Sisters, A Respectable Wedding, and Severity's Mistress. He took on leading roles in Sexual Perversity in Chicago and Extinction which he produced with his theatre company Red Dog Squadron. For RDS he also directed the play Greedy, and wrote and directed the one-act play Sustenance. His most recent foray onto the stage was in December 2016, when he starred in the New York production of White Rabbit Red Rabbit by Iranian playwright Nassim Soleimanpour.[8]

His big screen debut was in the 1999 film Coming Soon alongside Ryan Reynolds and fellow debutant Ashton Kutcher.

Other early film credits include the 2003 film Rolling Kansas and the 2005 film adaptation of The Dukes of Hazzard. Behind the scenes, he and writing partners Todd Harthan and James DeMonaco wrote the screenplay for the 2006 film Skinwalkers. The team also worked on an unused script for the film adaptation of the video game Driver.

Rodriguez's television credits include starring roles in 2001's First Years and NBC's Miss Match in 2003.

James Roday Rodriguez (middle) at a ComicCon panel in 2013 with Maggie Lawson (left) and Dulé Hill (right)

His big break came on July 7, 2006, with the series premiere of USA Network's original series Psych. Airing following the season premiere of USA's other comedic success, Monk, it was the highest-rated scripted basic cable TV show premiere of 2006.[9] Psych ran for eight seasons until 2014.

In 2017, Rodriguez returned to his most famous role as he starred in and executive produced Psych: The Movie, which he also co-wrote with Psych's series creator Steve Franks. It aired on USA Network in December 2017.

A sequel, Psych 2: Lassie Come Home was officially announced on February 14, 2019. It was filmed in Vancouver in March and April of that year and debuted July 15, 2020 on NBCUniversal's streaming service Peacock.[10][11] Lassie Come Home was the first project that featured his full legal name, James Roday Rodriguez. He once again served as co-writer and executive producer.

Psych 3: This Is Gus was filmed in June 2021 and released on Peacock on November 18, 2021.[12] As of May 2023, a fourth Psych movie is rumored to be in the making.[13]

After Psych the series ended, Rodriguez starred in various pilots and independent films, most notably Pushing Dead by independent filmmaker Tom E. Brown, which accumulated a slew of awards at film festivals all over the country.

At the same time, Rodriguez began focusing on his work behind the camera as a director, writer and producer. He has since directed episodes for Battle Creek, Rush Hour, Rosewood, Blood Drive and The Resident and developed, wrote, and directed the pilots Shoot The Moon for USA and Quest For Truth for E!.

Rodriguez directed his first feature film, Gravy, in 2013, co-written by him and Todd Harthan. He co-wrote (once again with Todd Harthan) and directed his second film Treehouse as part of Hulu's monthly horror movie anthology Into The Dark, which aired in March 2019.

Rodriguez branched out into voice acting in the 2021 animated feature Night of the Animated Dead, an adaptation of George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead.

In 2022, Rodriguez directed two episodes of the LeBron James produced series The Crossover for Disney+, which premiered on April 5, 2023.

In 2023, Rodriguez produced Laurence Davis's world premiere play, Masters of Puppets for the Legacy Theatre in Branford, Connecticut. The play starred Amanda Detmer, Kurt Fuller, Dana Ashbrook, and The Resident's Michael Hogan.[14] He also became a member of the theater's board of trustees.[15]

More recently, Rodriguez starred as Gary Mendez on ABC's dramedy A Million Little Things. He co-wrote the series' final episode, "One Big Thing", with series creator DJ Nash.