An alluring, lithe blonde who got her start modeling as a teen, James King went from cover girl to hot Hollywood property, appearing in a whopping five releases set to open in 2001 and another ready to lens in the summer of that same year. Born Jamie King in Omaha, Nebraska, the young girl sought to broaden her horizons and asked that she be allowed to attend the local modeling school. At age fourteen, at the school's final presentation, King was discovered by New York model agent Michael Flutie, who offered the teen beauty a shot at stardom. King was soon on the fast track, appearing in all the major magazines, including Vogue, Cosmopolitan, Elle and Allure.
Displaying a more playful personality and down-to-earth appeal than the average stone-faced model, King had something special that would elevate her quickly to supermodel ranks, but along with her great successes came big problems. Young and free with money to spend, the model was on the party circuit, and drug use soon became more of a lifestyle than a recreation. When the life of her then-boyfriend, an up and coming photographer was cut short reportedly due to a drug overdose, King determinedly worked to straighten up her life. By 1998, she was back in business, co-hosting MTV's fashion series "House of Style" with Rebecca Romijn-Stamos. With her likeness in countless magazines and her name on the lips of those in the know, King had made a name for herself in the fashion industry, but her teenage party girl past threatened to shadow her accomplishments.
In 1999, King began lensing her first feature, "Happy Campers" (screened at Sundance Film Festival in 2001), co-starring as counselor Pixel in this teen comedy written and directed by "Heathers" screenwriter Daniel Waters. Next up for the actress was a supporting turn as the grown up daughter of Johnny Depp's enterprising drug dealer George Jung in the drama "Blow" (2001), directed by Ted Demme. A co-starring turn as the object of a nerdy young man (Jason Schwartzman)'s affections in the college comedy "Slackers" was set to hit screens in April of 2001, but the folding of Destination Films kept the film shelved until 2002. King fans looking forward to catching the actress in a substantial role would be sated with the May 2001 unspooling of Michael Bay's World War II romantic epic "Pearl Harbor". Here she played Betty, a bright and bubbly seventeen-year-old nurse who sneaks into the navy for adventure. Later that year she would star with teen heartthrob Joshua Jackson in "Lone Star State of Mind", playing a girl looking to pursue dreams of fame and fortune by leaving her little Texas hometown behind.
King next landed a leading role as the seductive Russian mob princess Bad Girl in the comic book action film "Bulletproof Monk" (2002) opposite Chow Yun-Fat and Seann William Scott, and ventured into broad comedy with a turn in the Wayans brothers' "White Chicks" (2004) as one of the bitchy Vandergeld sisters, arch-rivals to the blonde, white heiresses the Wayans are masquerading as. The beautiful actress was one of the few characters to appear in color in director Robert Rodriguez and writer-artist Frank Miller's visually arresting (and otherwise black-and-white) adaptation of Miller's crime noir comic book series "Sin City" (2005), playing the angelic murdered hooker Goldie as well as her vengeful twin Wendy opposite Mickey Rourke's hulking Marv in the sequence "The Hard Goodbye.” After a supporting part in the indie black comedy “Pretty Persuasion” (2005) and a regular role on the sitcom “Kitchen Confidential” (Fox, 2005- ), King joined the original cast for the sequel “Cheaper By the Dozen 2” (2005), starring Steve Martin and Bonnie Hunt as the overburdened parents of a family of twelve. Meanwhile, King was cast to appear in the sequel “Sin City 2,” set for release in summer 2006.