James David Maslow is an American television actor and singer, best known for playing the
role of James Diamond on Nickelodeon's Big Time Rush and is a member of the boy band
with the same name.
He rose to further television prominence when he became a celebrity contestant and finalist
on the eighteenth season of ABC's Dancing with the Stars in March 2014.
James is currently starring as Kevin Mohr on the SONY Crackle original series Sequestered.
Early life Maslow was born in New York City, New York,
and raised in La Jolla, California.
His father is Jewish and his mother is Catholic; he was raised Jewish, attended Hebrew school
six days a week during his childhood, and had a Bar Mitzvah.
He has described himself as a "religious and spiritual person".
At the age of six, Maslow began training as a singer when his parents placed him in the
San Diego Children's Choir.
He attended La Jolla and Torrey Pines elementary schools, Muirlands Middle School, and San
Diego School of Creative and Performing Arts.
He had a small role in the San Diego Opera's production of La bohème when he was 10 years
old.
He attended acting camp at the La Jolla Playhouse, got his first agent when he was 14, and performed
as Marius in a production of Les Misérables.
Quitting the San Diego School of Creative and Performing Arts mid-way through the 10th
grade, Maslow switched to Coronado School of the Arts.
He graduated from CoSA in 2007 in the musical theater department.
Career Big Time Rush
Big Time Rush is an American pop singing group that formed in 2009.
The other three members are Kendall Schmidt, Carlos Pena, Jr., and Logan Henderson, all
on vocals.
Maslow is one of the lead vocalists of the band.
Nickelodeon cast for the new sitcom in 2007.
Maslow sent in his audition tape and received the role of James Diamond two years later.
An album of original songs from the first season plus some others was released October
11, 2010, entitled B.T.R.
It sold 67,000 copies in its first week and was certified Gold by the RIAA six months
later in April 2011.
On November 21, 2011, the band released their second album called "Elevate" which sold 70,000
copies on its first week.
Maslow and his band mates co-wrote 8 out of the 12 songs.
Maslow wrote "Elevate", co-wrote "Love Me Love Me" and the first single from the album,
"Music Sounds Better With U".
The UK version of the album included a bonus song called "Epic" which he also helped write.
Maslow and Big Time Rush have a third album called 24/Seven which was released in June
11, 2013.
The band promoted the album with the tour shared with Victoria Justice called the Summer
Break Tour. which began on June 21 and ended on August 15.
On late Winter 2014, Maslow and the band went to their latest tour called "Big Time Rush
Live 2014 World Tour", where they performed in Texas and 7 countries in Latin America.
Other projects Maslow made his acting debut in 2008 as Shane
in an episode of the Nickelodeon show iCarly.
He also appeared in urFRENZ in 2009, in which he portrayed a character named Brandon.
In 2012, he filmed an episode of See Dad Run, playing the role of actor Scott Baio's former
TV son, Ricky.
Maslow was featured on the cover of the July 2014 issue of FitnessRx Magazine.
Other music projects During 2013, Maslow went back his YouTube
channel, after a year hiatus, with a surprise for his fans.
He was working on his very-first cover and asked them which song he should cover, stating
it would be posted on his channel later on.
And just as promised, on May 3, he posted his first cover of Zedd's song "Clarity".
As time has passed, Maslow has been collaborating with Cimorelli on their cover of Justin Timberlake's
song "Mirrors" and writing a song called "Never Too Young" with MattyB.
On July 1, he made his second cover of Maroon 5's song "Love Somebody".
As of 2014, he hasn't said anything about uploading new covers or uploading new songs
of his own yet.
Dancing with the Stars
On March 4, 2014, ABC announced that Maslow would take part in the 18th season of Dancing
with the Stars.
He was paired with professional dancer Peta Murgatroyd.
During his time on the show, Maslow earned the first perfect score of the season for
his contemporary dance to "Let It Go" from Frozen on Disney Night.
Ultimately, Maslow made it to the finals, but was eliminated on the first night.
Maslow finished in fourth place, with an average score of 26.9.
In a vote on Twitter, Maslow was nevertheless chosen "in a landslide" to perform an encore
of his freestyle dance during the season finale.
1The Guest judges were Robin Roberts, Julianne Hough, Donny Osmond, Redfoo, Ricky Martin,
Abby Lee Miller and Kenny Ortega.
2For this week only, as part of the "Partner Switch-Up" week, Maslow performed with Cheryl
Burke instead of Murgatroyd.
Murgatroyd danced with Olympic ice dancing gold medalist Charlie White.
Filmography Film
TV References
External links James Maslow at the Internet Movie Database
James Maslow on Myspace James Maslow on Twitter