Trivia
In People's 100 Most Beautiful People issue (2007).
Is boyfriend of Psych (2006) co-star Maggie Lawson.
His favorite gum is Juicy Fruit.
BFA in Drama - New York University, Tisch School of the Arts (1997).
Co-artistic director of the theater company Red Dog Squadron, which he founded in 1999 with friend Brad Raider.
Friend of Dana Ashbrook, whom he directed in his 2004 play "Sustenance." Ashbrook starred in Roday's favorite show Twin Peaks (1990) and guest-starred in the Psych (2006) episode that Roday wrote as an homage to "Twin Peaks." According to Roday, Ashbrook was instrumental in helping some of the pieces fall in place for the episode.
Used to be in a band called Dogberry when he was younger.
Had to choose a stage name since there was already someone named James Rodriguez in the Screen Actors Guild.
Directing a play called "Greedy" in his theater company in LA. [January 2010]
Starring off-Broadway as "Finn" in "Extinction," a play by Gabriel McKinley, directed byWayne Kasserman. With Michael Weston also in the cast. [February 2010]
Personal Quotes
My father is Jaime Rodriguez from San Antonio, Texas, and I've got one whole half of my family that's Mexican through and through.
Kids love watching adults act like children. It's that spirit they can relate to.
I'd describe 'Psych' as 'Real Genius' meets 'Django Unchained.'
I think what we do is fairly unique on 'Psych,' and we just have to keep doing that because that's what got us where we are.
Actors geek out over athletes. Everyone knows that.
And I have to say, for the record, my favorite line from 'Without A Clue' is after Michael Caine pokes a dead body with a stick and announces to everyone, 'It is my opinion that this man is dead.'
I'm a sports fanatic. It's hard for me to commit to the weekly, episodic nature of television, so for me, anytime that I can put a game on, that's what I do.
I usually just pick a genre of movie that I feel like saluting and then go off and come up with something that I can sort of pay homage to. That's the great thing about our show is we've sort of created a landscape for 'Psych' where we're kind of allowed to go off and give shout-outs to movies that we love, genres that we love.
'Twin Peaks' is my favorite show of all time.
They just think I'm a white dude. Every once in a while someone thinks I'm Jewish. I get a lot of stuff, but never Latino.
I get star-struck anytime I meet performers that I grew up watching and appreciating. I mean, it's still incredibly surreal to me that I was a kid in San Antonio watching movies and then now I'm working with some of the people that were in those movies. I don't think it'll ever stop being surreal on some level.
I did nothing but theater until, I guess, '99. I was all the way through college the first time that I had stepped in front of a camera. And it's weird; it's definitely a transition.
I came from Texas, I was studying theater at NYU, and I thought for sure that my lot in life would be to get the best bartending job I could find and do theater in New York. And that was a good life.
I always say David Bowie, that's sort of like my stock answer to every question regarding who I'd like to have come on the show, who I'd like to sing our theme song, who I'd like to meet for coffee in a completely unrelated non-'Psych' atmosphere. He's just the God, he's the man and I think we could probably make really good use of him on our show.
Have I ever pretended to be something? I think back in college I think I might have told a girl that I was a professional tennis player once. And then, of course, she had never heard of me so I had to dig deeper. 'I'm just sort of on the playing satellites. You know, I'm kind of working my way up. I'm not ranked in the top 100 or anything.'
Leonardo Dicaprio didn't change his name, Emilio Estevez didn't change his name. But every case is different. I only have one reference of what my career was and I was very, very blessed and very, very lucky, and it got started very quickly after college. And I only know that by going with Roday.
I would say I've actually done a lot more comedy than I've done drama. It's weird the way that worked out, because when I came out of theater school I took myself way too seriously, so it's kind of ironic that I ended up sort of going down the comedy path.
I would say I'm more fascinated by Big Daddy V than I am necessarily a huge fan of Big Daddy V. He simply threw on the double-strapped unitard... and now he's some sort of fearsome, fighting, wrecking machine.
I was a strange, dark little dude. I fell in love with horror movies, at a very early age. Somehow, as a first grader, I was able to convince my parents to let me go see stuff like 'An American Werewolf in London' in theaters, so I was headed in that direction anyway.
I remember one night, my parents were out at a function of some kind and I had just gotten cable in my room. That was a big deal, and I saw 'Blue Velvet' on HBO. It blew my mind in a way that I don't think children's minds are supposed to be blown, but they probably shouldn't be watching 'Blue Velvet.'
When he came to television, there was no way I wasn't going to watch. Of course, he delivered everything that you would expect David Lynch to deliver, and more, and he was doing it in primetime network television. Even as a 14-year old, I wanted someone in the room with me that I could look over and say, 'Can you believe we're watching this?'
My plan was to go to New York and do some theatre, and then I got the script for 'Psych.' I was like, 'Ahh - just as I thought I was out, you pulled me back in!' I had a great meeting with the show creator and we laid out the parameters to make the show work: what I would do, what he would let me do.
Look at every show on television; it's derivative of another show that came before it. It was only a matter of time. So all you 'Mentalist' fans, it's okay to like the show, but don't be in denial of where it came from. Friday nights, U.S.A., basic cable-style baby.
Salary
Psych (2006) $60.000 /episode (2007)
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