Background
Roday was born in San Antonio, Texas, as James David Rodriguez. His father, Jaime "Jim" Rodriguez, is of Mexican descent, and his mother, Irene Rodriguez, is of English, Irish, and Scottish ancestry.
Roday was born in San Antonio, Texas, as James David Rodriguez. His father, Jaime "Jim" Rodriguez, is of Mexican descent, and his mother, Irene Rodriguez, is of English, Irish, and Scottish ancestry.
He attended Taft High School in San Antonio. At New York University"s Experimental Theatre Wing, Roday studied theatre and earned a bachelor"s degree in fine arts
He starred on the United States of America Network series Psychology as hyper-observant consultant detective and fake psychic Shawn Spencer. Roday has acted in various theatrical productions, including Three Sisters, A Respectable Wedding, Severity"s Mistress, and Sexual Perversity in Chicago and Extinction with his theater company, Red Dog Squadron, for which he also directed the play Greedy and wrote and directed the one-act play Sustenance. He starred in the 2003 film Rolling Kansas, and appeared in the 2005 film adaptation of The Dukes Of Hazzard as Billy Prickett and the 2006 film Beerfest.
The team also worked on a script for the film adaptation of the video game Driver.
Roday directed his first feature film, Gravy in 2013, written by him and Todd Harthan. Roday"s television credits include starring roles on National Broadcasting Company"s Mission Match in 2003 as "Nick Paine" and 2001"s First Years as "Edgar "Egg" Ross".
The July 7, 2006 series premiere of United States of America Network"s original series Psychology (airing following the season premiere of United States of America"s other comedic success, Monk) was the highest-rated scripted basic cable television show premiere of 2006. In 2012, Roday served as the special guest ring announcer for the Master in Surgery Punk versus
The Miz match on the 12 March edition of WWE Raw SuperShow.
In 2006, Roday was nominated for the Best Actor in a Series, Comedy or Musical for Psychology by the Satellite Awards. He was listed as #62 in People magazine"s 100 Most Beautiful People issue in 2007. In 2008, he was nominated for Outstanding Actor In a Comedy Television Series for Psychology by the NCLR American Latino Media Arts Awards. His role as Shawn Spencer in Psychology earned him an EWwy Award nomination in 2009 for Best Actor in a Comedy Series. In 2009, he was nominated by the American Latino Media Arts Awards for Outstanding Actor in a Comedy Series for Psychology. In 2011, he was nominated again by the American Latino Media Arts Awards for Favorite television Actor-Leading Role for Psychology. In 2010, he was nominated by the Image Awards for Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series for Psychology for the episode "High Top Fade Out." In 2009 and 2011, he was nominated by the Imagen Foundation Awards for Best Actor-Television for Psychology. Roday also won the award for Best Lead Actor in a Drama Series at the 2nd Annual Timmys Awards in 2012, after being nominated the previous year, but lost to Hugh Laurie. In 2012, Roday won the award for Best Actor in a television series for Psychology at the Imagen Awards.
