James Hamilton is a British multi award winning (and multi award losing) comedy & animation writer, currently living the dream* in Los Angeles.
*like all of his dreams, it’s frequently a nightmare and doesn’t make any sense when he stops to think about it
James is a triple award winning screenwriter and sketch comedian from London, currently working in Los Angeles as head writer of upcoming YA supernatural action series Jentry Chau Vs The Underworld for Netflix Animation, starring Ali Wong, Bowen Yang, Lori Tan Chinn, and Lucy Liu.
He’s also developing an original adventure comedy series for DreamWorks Animation, and an additional comedy series based on a beloved children's book for Netflix.
Before this, James co-developed and was head writer of Dogs In Space - a 6-11 sci-fi comedy series described by the New York Times in 2022 as a critic’s pick for one of the Top Three Netflix Cartoons You Should Be Watching:
“Officially sanctioned for viewers 7 and up… but it’s a total blast for adults. Consistently smart and deft - just snarky enough, just silly enough and just sentimental enough”
His other writing credits include more than fifty episodes of the multi-BAFTA winning Cartoon Network show The Amazing World of Gumball, as well as episodes of Unikitty, Bravest Warriors, Space Chickens In Space, Love Monster, Monster Beach, and Incredible Ant.
James’s hallmarks as a writer are high-concept, character-driven stories: densely laden with verbal and visual gags, and led by vivid, flawed heroes who don’t always do the right thing, but will always try and fix their mistakes. James loves blending genres - infusing comedy with horror, or the everyday with the fantastical - while always grounding his stories with a surprisingly heartfelt emotional core.
Ever since someone asked him after his first live comedy show “Is it weird I felt sorry for that character?”, James has made it his mission to find surprising twists of vulnerability, humanity and tragicomic empathy in the cartoony and weird - for kids and adults alike!
Jentry Chau Vs The Underworld is coming to Netflix in 2024. Dogs In Space is available to watch on Netflix now.
The pilot for Dogs In Space - written by James - is available in full on YouTube.
MURDER FOR DUMMIES - an indie horror comedy murder mystery
James created, wrote, and is independently co-producing his own six episode, live action horror-comedy series, Murder for Dummies, for his multi award winning comedy group Casual Violence.
Murder for Dummies is an absurd Agatha Christie style whodunnit, disguised as a true crime documentary.
The victim is Keith Flapp - the man who “made ventriloquism more popular than the Spice Girls - and sexier than the Spice Girls!” back in the nineties, until he was murdered in his dressing room.
Today, documentary filmmaker Esther Farrago attempts to solve the case - but seemingly everyone she’s interviewing - including Keith’s ex-dummy double act partner - appears to have a motive for the murder. And what’s more: the killer seems to have returned, and soon begins bumping off the interviewees! Can Esther figure out who’s killing everyone before it’s too late?
James, the other members of Casual Violence, and series director J.W. Roberts all invested their own money into the show to bring it to life, as well as launching a Kickstarter to raise the remainder of their budget. Murder for Dummies reached its funding goal in just six hours.
The show is currently in post-production. You can watch the first trailer above.
LIVE COMEDY & INDIE FILMMAKING
James cut his teeth as a comedy writer by founding CASUAL VIOLENCE - his critically acclaimed sketch comedy troupe. As the creator and primary writer of the team, James’s live comedy shows were regular Edinburgh Fringe sell-outs between 2010-2015, picked up multiple awards, and were programmed at high profile venues across the UK - most notably the Soho Theatre in London, the Pleasance Courtyard in Edinburgh, and the Lowry Theatre in Manchester.
With Casual Violence, as a solo live act, and as a director/producer, James took twelve different shows to the Edinburgh Fringe between 2010-2015, and created four additional live shows between 2016 and 2019. The group also starred in a BBC Audio Drama Award nominated episode of BBC Radio 4’s Sketchorama.
Along with their live work, James also wrote and co-produced more than thirty Casual Violence short films and sketches, alongside director/co-producer J.W. Roberts. All of these films are available to watch on YouTube.
“★★★★★ Google ‘Casual Violence’, watch their sketches and enjoy. This comedy troupe are dark, twisted and superb”
Praise for James’s work with Casual Violence
“Creative, strange, brilliantly performed stuff”
“★★★★★ This generation’s answer to Monty Python... a fantastic lesson in how to write sketch comedy”
“★★★★★ Ludicrously inventive... explosively original”
“Leading the new wave of sketch comedy... strands of gothic camp and penny dreadful thrills... Best of the Fest”
“★★★★★ Masters of dark, suspenseful and witty comedy”
“★★★★ Exquisitely imaginative... Stepping into a Casual Violence show is a lot like entering Arkham Asylum”
“Warped skits with a dash of Python... If a sketch group can get you laughing before their show even begins, they are clearly doing something right”
“★★★★★ Fantastically well scripted and clever... James Hamilton and Casual Violence deserve massive success”
Writing Samples!
The pilot episode of “Dogs In Space”! Both seasons are available on Netflix.
A very instructional sketch! If you’re squeamish, give this one a miss…
A horror-comedy short film. You’ll never look at Build A Bear the same way again…
A much less horrible sketch, all about keeping your promises…
