Born Jamie King, this blue-eyed blonde’s hometown is Omaha, Nebraska, where she was born on the 23rd of April, 1979. She was discovered at the age of fourteen while attending a modeling school in Nebraska. After being spotted at her graduation fashion show, James (Jamie’s stage name) was invited to New York to start modeling and thus her career as a model began. It didn’t take long for James to be photographed by the industry’s top photographers and appear on the covers of fashion magazines. By age fifteen, she had already worked for Vogue, Mademoiselle, Allure, and Seventeen while the following year she was able to add Glamour and Harper’s Bazaar to her already full resume.
She has most recently graced the covers of Cosmopolitan and Details. As a model, James has already become a staple in the fashion circuit. Not only has she appeared in almost every woman’s fashion magazine, but she has also walked down the catwalks of big league fashion shows for designer houses such as Chanel, Christian Dior and Marithe & Francois Girbaud. Although a natural on the catwalk, James has been the victim of an embarrassing moment – at the age of fifteen she spilt red nail polish all over a Gucci dress right before strutting down the runway!
As for advertisements, James has appeared in ads for the following companies: Bebe, Benetton, Guess?, Kenneth Cole, Macy’s, Mondi, and Nordstrom. Aside from modeling, James has had her share of experience on the screen. Her television credits include a role in Inferno in 1992, appearances on Catwalk, Unzipped, Naomi Conquers Africa, as well as appearances as herself in Beautopia and Original Copies. James’ film roles include Four Faces of God, The Happy Campers and Bar Hop.
Not only does James sometimes co-host MTV’s House of Style with host Rebecca Romijn-Stamos, but she has also landed the role of a nurse in Jerry Bruckheimer’s big budget film Pearl Harbor, co-starring Ben Affleck. She will also play Johnny Depp’s daughter in the upcoming film, Blow. In the tradition of models being cast in music videos (i.e. Linda Evangelista in two of George Michaels’ videos), James appears in Filter’s video, Take a Picture. Although James’ life seems picture perfect, all has not been rosy in the land of King.
A former heroin addict and alcoholic since the age of sixteen, her fashion photographer boyfriend David Sorrenti died of a heroin overdose in 1997. James is now sober. There have been rumors that James dated Sean Lennon, but she denied the rumors while on the Howard Stern Show. Another rumor has linked her with Kid Rock. She is apparently now dating model and personal trainer Alex Burns.