James Lance


James Frederick Grenville Lance is an English actor, best known for his appearances in a number of British comedy series. He also starred in the 2009 ITV drama Boy Meets Girl, alongside Martin Freeman.

Early life

Lance was born in Southampton and grew up in Westbury-sub-Mendip, Somerset, he attended the Sylvia Young Theatre School. He appeared in the ITV mockumentary Moving Wallpaper and in ITV1's Boy Meets Girl, as well as in the ITV2 original comedy No Heroics as Timebomb.

Minor roles

Lance's roles include dealer Sticky in the drug-related series Top Buzzer, Matt in two series of Teachers, Ben in the first series of I'm Alan Partridge, Jamie in Absolute Power and various roles in the sketch show Smack the Pony. He also played Richard, Daisy's boyfriend, in Spaced, and Tom in the BBC series Hotel Babylon.
He played a small part in Series 1, Episode 4 of Absolutely Fabulous in 1992, playing the part of Saffy's classmate
Lance appeared very briefly as a video game reviewer in Series 2 of GamesMaster on Channel 4 talking about games peripherals.
Lance has also had roles in films including Late Night Shopping, The Search for John Gissing, Marie Antoinette, Bronson as art teacher Phil Danielson, and in 2012 in Bel Ami.

Major roles

He has acted in the mini-series The Impressionists and the sitcoms The Book Group, Sensitive Skin and Rescue Me. Smaller roles have included appearances in 2point4 Children, People Like Us, and Saxondale. Additionally he played the character of Mr. Hugo in the pilot episode of Biffovision, as well as featuring alongside Mark Heap and Tim Key in another Paul Rose-penned pilot, "Now The Weather". He also guest-starred in the 2012 fourth series of the BBC Three production Being Human, as the ghost of a murderer named Kirby. He was in a 2015 episode of Midsomer Murders, called "The Dagger Club".
Lance has voiced several UK TV commercials for brands such as Maybelline, Wrigley's Extra and the AA. As of August 2013, Lance appears in adverts for Moneysupermarket.com.
Lance appeared on stage as Miles at the Trafalgar Studios in May 2009 in Marcus Markou's play Ordinary Dreams; Or How to Survive a Meltdown with Flair. He portrayed Eric Idle at the 2009 Edinburgh Festival in a play called Pythonesque by writer Roy Smiles.

Personal life

In 2016, Lance married Kate Quilton. The couple had a son in 2018.