James Gray is a performer, writer, producer, art director, prop master and hula hoopist who has been active in all types of the entertainment industry for too many years to calculate.

Most notably known as “Mr. Christmas”, each year, James produces, writes and co-stars in an annual Christmas show in Hollywood called “The Fruit Cake Follies” where he hosts an amazingly talented cast made up of friends and guest stars – making him sort of the Merv Griffin of Christmas! “The Fruit Cake Follies” has a loyal and growing audience and this year celebrates its 9^th year of musical merriment, celebrating all things holidays – as only Mr. Christmas and cast can do.

Born and raised in Northern California, James studied acting with the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco where he performed in the original Tennessee Williams play “This Is” (An Entertainment).

The lights of Anaheim called and James headed south on I-5 to the Happiest Place On Earth to work at Disneyland. He played the character Goofy for 10 years, and during the holidays was Santa Claus for 11 years, and The Dancing Christmas Tree for the Disney Christmas musical for 5 years (and starred as himself in a mock-documentary about the role.)  James also worked as the official host of Universal Studios Hollywood for 13 years.

In his spare time, James was a headliner for Holland American Cruise Line in 1993-94, performing with Tony Urbano’s Marionettes). He also found himself cast in a few sit-coms around town – highlighted by the final episode of “Cybil” which featured his skill as a hula hooper, and doing a turn or two on “Golden Girls” and “Married With Children” just for fun.

Switching gears to behind the scenes, James started a new career as Prop Maker for The Muppets, and then found himself doing props for all kinds of commercials such as Pier One, Glad, McDonald’s, Dodge, Mattel, Pine Sol, Clorox, Honda and Fruit Of The Loom to name a few. He then became Prop Master for “The Voice of Disney” with Michael Eisner and “Iron Chief USA” with William Shatner before becoming personal prop man for Martin Short on Comedy Central’s “Prime Time Glick”. Yes, he feed the fat man!

A couple years ago he started Art Directing for television award shows like the “Emmy Awards”, “Grammy Awards”, “CMT (Country Music Television) Awards”, and the “TV Land Awards” as well as some reality shows such as “American Idol”, “Big Brother” and “The Surreal Life”.

But his heart still belongs to Christmas....