Biography
James Stewart has built his career around empathy. He is an inclusive, collaborative, award-winning director known for his work in drama, comedy, and documentaries.
James's historical drama series CHATEAU LAURIER earned a 2023 CSA for Best Writing in a Digital Series and in 2019 was nominated for both a CSA (Best Short-form Digital Series) and a WGC award (Best Writing in a Digital Series). Chateau Laurier was recently awarded Best Drama Feature and the Audience Award at the 2023 CAFF and won the 2023 Web Series World Cup, making it the most awarded digital series in history. James was also honored as the Best TV Comedy Director at the Austin Comedy Film Festival. In 2019, he was awarded the Telefilm Canada New Voices Award and is well known for his award-winning short film FOXED!, which has amassed over 30 million views and debuted at #1 on Apple TV.
As a writer, James's first feature-length screenplay FOXED! garnered recognition, winning five major competitions, including the 2019 Vail Film Festival $10,000 Grand Prize, and was shortlisted for the 2020 Sundance Screenwriting Lab. FOXED! is a fantasy adventure exploring themes of coexistence, inclusivity, and oppression. His debut film Teen, addressing the theme of childhood sexual abuse, received the Audience Award at the Belfast Children's Film Festival.
James's list of collaborations runs deep, including working with Oprah Winfrey and Elliot Page on The Oprah Conversation for Apple TV+. The show - Elliot Page's first- ever TV interview speaking as Elliot - won a 2022 GLAAD Award. James recently produced, wrote, and directed Bet on Yourself, a 12 x 60 series/podcast hosted by Fred VanVleet and Derek Folk, focused on elevating BIPOC entrepreneurs - named to the Amazon List of Best Podcasts of the Year. James is a champion of underserved communities and has worked extensively with Indigenous communities, including most recently with the Office of the Commissioner of Indigenous Languages (OCIL).
As a producer, James premiered his first dramatic feature, SWAY, at the 2024 Toronto Black Film Festival and earning four awards including Best Picture and Best Actor (Emmanuel Kabongo) at the inaugural 2024 Canadian Black Screen Awards. Continuing his collaborations with Werner Herzog, James's 3D work on Cave of Forgotten Dreams received a Lumière Award and was praised by The Guardian UK as "the reinvention of the cinema medium." It was also recently ranked as the #2 Best 3D film of the last decade. A TED speaker and advocate for East Timor, James has been recognized twice for his directing work supporting PTSD awareness among first responders, including Tema featuring Yannick Bisson, Jasmine Richards and Amy Jo Johnson. As a testament to his craft, upon watching the Tema PSA, one viewer immediately reached for his checkbook and wrote a $10,000 donation to the charity.
In addition to his scripted projects, James has conducted over 1000 documentary interviews - including Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Justin Timberlake, Morgan Freeman, LL Cool J, Justine Trudeau, Nobel Laureate José Ramos-Horta, and East Timor President Xanana Gusmão - spanning entertainment, politics, and the arts. He has also directed over 100 commercials, 3D, and VR projects for the world's top brands including Toyota, IBM, CIBC, Lexus, CIBC, TD Bank, Converse.
James is fluent in both English and French.
