James Duval

Duval has starred in numerous independent films, including the 2009 psychological thriller The Black Waters of Echo's Pond and the mystery crime-thriller film Noirland.

Born in Detroit in 1972 to a Franco-Vietnamese mother from Saigon and a father with Irish and Native American ancestry, Duval's family moved to Los Angeles when he was 2 years old. He grew up around the Greater Los Angeles area, going to elementary school in Redondo Beach before graduating from Gladstone High School in Covina in 1989. During his early career, while he was acting in Gregg Araki's Teenage Apocalypse films, he identified with their themes of nihilism, social alienation and not fitting in. He said, "I was 18 and living that, searching for myself who I was, where I belonged. I was really confused. Working with Gregg gave me something to move towards.... there were things I was feeling—that I wasn’t liked, that there were things I couldn’t do to fit in. I was attracted to alternative music and feeling what they were singing about, even though I hadn’t really lived. I was so distraught. I was only 18–19. Everything weighed on that on a daily basis. It was so intense, and almost overwhelming." In a 1997 interview promoting Araki's Nowhere, Duval discussed the racism he experienced in his youth and his frustration with being asked about his sexuality as a result of playing queer roles. He also mentioned that he was dating his Nowhere co-star Sarah Lassez.