James Patrick Buckley was born in Croydon, England. It was while taking part in school plays, that Buckley found out how much he enjoyed performing and, from the age of seven, started going to a stage school at weekends. The family later moved to Dagenham and by the age of eleven, Buckley began his first professional jobs in the West End shows Whistle Down the Wind and Les Misérables. The same year, he also began attending The Chafford School. Buckley stated that school interested him so little, that he did not collect his GCSE results.
Career
Buckley's first role was in 2001 as Johnny Vaughan's twelve-year-old godson in the BBC sitcom 'Orrible. He then appeared in a Hellmann's advertisement in 2004 and in a 2005 music video for the Gravenhurst track 'I Turn My Face To The Forest Floor' directed by Ralitza Petrova. His stage credits include the West End musicalLes Misérables as Gavroche and Whistle Down the Wind as Clarence. As well as The Inbetweeners and Rock & Chips, Buckley's other credits include an episode of Skins and episodes of The Bill, Holby City and Teachers. He also played the character of Fred in Off the Hook. For Red Nose Day 2011, Buckley and his Inbetweeners co-stars went on a "rude road trip" and visited the rudest street names in the United Kingdom in 50 hours. In April 2011, Buckley received a BAFTA nomination for his role in The Inbetweeners. Buckley played the main character in the short film Veronique. Buckley appears in the 2011 film Everywhere and Nowhere. That same year, Buckley reprised his role as Jay Cartwright in the film, The Inbetweeners Movie, and its sequel, The Inbetweeners 2 in 2014. Buckley also does voice-overs using his distinctive voice. He worked with AllAboutCareers.com to produce an explanatory animation for the website. Buckley is also the narrator on E4's show Little Box of Horrors. He starred in the music video for States of Emotion's track "The Unsung", and also features on backing vocals and guitar on Steve Cradock's album Peace City West. In 2012, Buckley made his directorial debut, where he directed and starred in a music video for the Essex band The Milk. Buckley has appeared in several commercials. These include adverts for Orange, with the cast of The Expendables 2, Game, and bookmaker Ladbrokes, as well as providing voice-over for Envirofone, Trunki and Hastings Direct. In 2014, Buckley starred in an American horror film called The Pyramid. In April 2016, Buckley started a YouTube gaming channel called Completed It Mate - a reference to The Inbetweeners episode "Will's Dilemma" - which has over 411,000 subscribers as of January 2019. Since beginning his channel, Buckley has collaborated with other YouTubers, most notably with the Rooster Teeth group Achievement Hunter, when he appeared on their Off Topic Podcast and multiple episodes of their Let's Play series. He has also appeared on Alternative Lifestyle, a YouTube series created by Sugar Pine 7, another Rooster Teeth subsidiary. In 2017, Buckley began starring in the sitcom White Gold, along with his The Inbetweeners co-star, Joe Thomas. It has now been commissioned for a second series. In 2020, he starred in the Doctor Who episode "Orphan 55", in which he played Nevi.
