James Bellanca(I)

James was born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, born to Jimmy Mickey and Eloise Bellanca. He developed his love of acting in elementary school at St. Catherine Catholic Elementary School, along with a long-time friend, Kelli Dawn Hancock. However, he gave up pursuing acting once he entered high school, from which he joined the United States Marine Corps Reserves for 8 years in 1987, then later joining the Cleveland Police Department in 1993. In 2017, his love for acting reignited when he had the opportunity to be an extra on the movie, Undercover: une histoire vraie (2018), while it was filming in Cleveland. He also met Derrick Gilliam. He then began to educate himself on becoming an actor, after which he began auditioning for several local projects, several to which he was added as a cast member. Although he worked on several projects in 2019, his first big break came on a commercial for Douglas and London Law Firm, which was filmed in Columbus, Ohio. Although he had a small part as a thug in Raymelle A. Adams' Squad (2019), his first major break came on Adams' Jimmy Mack (2019). He is also working on projects with Ryan C. Bogdewic and David Manocchio. He also played a police officer extra in the movie Cherry (2021)