Maybe superlative known destined for his do callisthenics as a deadly-clad think over for Gregg Araki, James Duval has built a calling on playing alienated, melancholic lost boys. In the name of of his ability to seizure such alienation comes from the actor's own real-life experiences: of French, Vietnamese, Native American and Irish descent, he was constantly picked on at near schoolmates while growing up. A indigenous of Detroit, Michigan, where he was born on September 10, 1973, Duv... al made his way to Hollywood, where, eighteen and down on his chance after a band to pursue an acting business, he had his fateful encounter with Araki.

The two met in a caf?? that Duval frequented; Araki approached him, asked if he was an actor, and proceeded to cast aside him in Totally F***ed Up, the foremost installment of his so-called "teen-angst trilogy." The 1993 film, which focused on a group of alienated gay teens in Los Angele, was a cult hit, giving its director cult prominence and Duval more craft opportunities. After a disenchant as a biker in Mod Fuck Explosion, Jon Moritsugu's 1994 tale of urban teen dysfunction, Duval again collaborated with Araki, this without surcease on The Destiny Generation (1995). Cast as Jordan White, a lamb-for-the-slaughter role Araki had written specifically as a service to him, the actor again got to demonstrate his capacity for disillusioned brooding and his quickness to act on less than salubrious subjects.

The second installment of Araki's "teen-apocalypse" trilogy, The Doom Institution was also the most controversial, on the whole apt to its liberal grouping of graphic violence--the most nauseous of which centered on Duval's character. No such controversy surrounded Araki and Duval's resulting collaboration, 1997's Nowhere. The form of the trilogy, it starred Duval as in time to come another bored, alienated Los Angeles teen and covered Araki's palsy-walsy aware stomping grounds of sexual experimentation, urban disillusionment, and the search for the sake accurate love in L.A.

's cultural wasteland. It met with a degree of good fortune on the independent circuit, further establishing Duval as unified of Araki's most visible mouthpieces. Aside from his opus with Araki, Duval has also appeared in a count of independent films, including SLC and Doug Liman's Go (both 1999). He has also made the occasional foray into mainstream film, appearing in the 1996 summer blockbuster Independence Light of day.