Stage actress Nikki M. James

Nikki Michelle James has been on numerous TV shows, but her real love is the theater.

She grew up in New Jersey, and she performed in church and in school performances, where she found she could sing as well as act. So musical theater was a natural fit for her.  Much of her work has been in New York City.

One of her first major roles was as the heroine prostitute Ottilie in a revival production of the Truman Capote musical House of Flowers, and she also appeared in the Broadway cast of All Shook Up, an Elvis Presley jukebox musical set to the story of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night.  Yes - the King and the Bard, together!  (The experience of appearing in a Twelfth Night-based musical would enable Ms. James to play Viola in two different Central Park productions of the real thing.)

Ms. James also played Nabulungi in the musical farce The Book of Mormon and received a Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in 2011 as a result of that role.  She also  played Éponine in a Broadway revival of Les Misérables from 2014 to January 2015.  Nikki M. James is nothing if not versatile.

On television, she has had one-shot parts in "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit," "The Good Wife," and "Bull," among other shows.