James Urbaniak

Acting

James Urbaniak

Born 1963-09-17 · Bayonne, New Jersey, USA

James Christian Urbaniak (born September 17, 1963) is an American actor. Urbaniak was born in Bayonne, New Jersey. He lives in Santa Monica, California with his wife Julie and their twins, son Severn Jerzy and daughter Esme Maeve. One of his first noteworthy roles was in the avant-garde playwright/director Richard Foreman's The Universe, for which Urbaniak won an Obie. He has also been acclaimed for his acting in the films Henry Fool and American Splendor, in the latter of which he played legendary illustrator R. Crumb. He was nominated for a Drama Desk Award for his role in Thom Pain (based on nothing). He provides the voice for main character Dr. Thaddeus Venture on The Venture Bros. as well as the Doctor's brother Jonas Venture Junior and the super-villain Phantom Limb. In one of his lesser-known roles, Urbaniak played a pizza guy in the famous "Whassup?" television commercials for Budweiser. He also portrayed the moderator in "Human Centipede Anonymous", a Funny or Die short depicting three men who grapple with their past as a human centipede.

Acting credits

Oppenheimer poster
8.0

The story of J. Robert Oppenheimer's role in the development of the atomic bomb during World War II.

Oppenheimer

2023

The Fabelmans poster
7.6

Growing up in post-World War II era Arizona, young Sammy Fabelman aspires to become a filmmaker as he reaches adolescence, but soon discovers a shattering family secret and explores how the power of films can help him see the truth.

The Fabelmans

2022

The Boxtrolls poster
6.7

An orphaned boy raised by underground creatures called Boxtrolls comes up from the sewers and out of his box to save his family and the town from the evil exterminator, Archibald Snatcher.

The Boxtrolls

2014

Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde poster
5.7

Now a rising young lawyer, Elle Woods is about to make partner at her firm, but when she finds out her dog's relatives are being used as cosmetic test subjects, she heads to Washington D.C. to fight for animal rights.

Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde

2003

Confessions of a Dangerous Mind poster
6.7

Television made him famous, but his biggest hits happened off screen. Television producer by day, CIA assassin by night, Chuck Barris was recruited by the CIA at the height of his TV career and trained to become a covert operative. Or so Barris said.

Confessions of a Dangerous Mind

2002

Suicide Squad: Hell to Pay poster
7.1

Amanda Waller's top-secret "Task Force X" — consisting of Deadshot, Bronze Tiger, Killer Frost, Captain Boomerang, Harley Quinn, and Copperhead — is on a mission to retrieve a mystical object so powerful that they're willing to risk their lives to steal it. However, the Suicide Squad isn't the only group of villains seeking to possess the object. It's a race for the golden prize, and second place isn't an option if they want to stay alive.

Suicide Squad: Hell to Pay

2018

Where'd You Go, Bernadette poster
6.6

When architect-turned-recluse Bernadette Fox goes missing prior to a family trip to Antarctica, her 15-year-old daughter, Bee, goes on a quest with Bernadette's husband to find her.

Where'd You Go, Bernadette

2019

Things Heard & Seen poster
5.7

A young woman discovers that both her husband and their new home harbor sinister secrets after they leave Manhattan for small-town life.

Things Heard & Seen

2021

The Nanny Diaries poster
6.4

A college graduate goes to work as a nanny for a rich New York family. Ensconced in their home, she has to juggle their dysfunction, a new romance, and the spoiled brat in her charge.

The Nanny Diaries

2007

American Splendor poster
7.1

An original mix of fiction and reality illuminates the life of comic book hero everyman Harvey Pekar.

American Splendor

2003

Across the Universe poster
7.1

When young dockworker Jude leaves Liverpool to find his estranged father in the United States, he is swept up by the waves of change that are re-shaping the nation. Jude falls in love with Lucy, who joins the growing anti-war movement. As the body count in Vietnam rises, political tensions at home spiral out of control and the star-crossed lovers find themselves in a psychedelic world gone mad.

Across the Universe

2007

Thelma the Unicorn poster
6.9

Thelma dreams of being a glamorous unicorn. Then in a rare pink and glitter-filled moment of fate, Thelma's wish comes true. She rises to instant international stardom, but at an unexpected cost. After a while, Thelma realizes that she was happier as her ordinary, sparkle-free self. So she ditches her horn, scrubs off her sparkles, and returns home, where her best friend is waiting for her with a hug.

Thelma the Unicorn

2024

Dead Media poster
NR

The story of a troubled young woman, her lonely Gen X uncle, a haunted DVD, and a movie night that won’t die.

Dead Media

2025

Invitation to a Murder poster
5.6

A reclusive billionaire invites six seemingly random strangers to his island estate in the south of England. Aspiring detective Miranda Green finds the mysterious invitation too alluring to pass up. When another guest turns up dead, Miranda must get to the bottom of the malicious plot behind the gathering.

Invitation to a Murder

2023

You Don't Know Jack poster
7.0

Controversy and legal problems follow Dr. Jack Kevorkian as he advocates assisted suicide.

You Don't Know Jack

2010

Tesla poster
5.7

The story of the Promethean struggles of Nikola Tesla, as he attempts to transcend entrenched technology—including his own previous work—by pioneering a system of wireless energy that would change the world.

Tesla

2020

The Last Temptation of Becky poster
NR

Working as a CIA field agent, Becky is sent undercover to Poland to infiltrate a family of innkeepers running a tourist venture at The Wolf’s Lair, Hitler’s WWII bunker. After learning that the father, Wilhelm Reuss, is on a mission to bring about the Fourth Reich, Becky takes matters into her own hands.

The Last Temptation of Becky

2026

Sweet and Lowdown poster
6.8

In the 1930s, jazz guitarist Emmet Ray idolizes Django Reinhardt, faces gangsters and falls in love with a mute woman.

Sweet and Lowdown

1999

Fay Grim poster
5.5

Many years after her notorious husband, Henry Fool, fled after killing a neighbor, Fay Grim receives a visit from CIA agent Fulbright, who tells her that Henry is dead, but that some of his journals have been unearthed in France. She sets forth on a globe-trotting odyssey that soon leads to the discovery that he is alive, and his journals are more than they appear to be.

Fay Grim

2007

Dave Made a Maze poster
6.4

Dave, an artist who has yet to complete anything significant in his career, builds a fort in his living room out of pure frustration, only to wind up trapped by the fantastical pitfalls, booby traps, and critters of his own creation. Ignoring his warnings, Dave’s girlfriend Annie leads a band of oddball explorers on a rescue mission. Once inside, they find themselves trapped in an ever-changing supernatural world, threatened by booby traps and pursued by a bloodthirsty Minotaur.

Dave Made a Maze

2017

Wonderstruck poster
6.1

The story of a young boy in the Midwest is told simultaneously with a tale about a young girl in New York from fifty years ago as they both seek the same mysterious connection.

Wonderstruck

2017

Play House poster
NR

While renovating a dilapidated house to win back his ex, a young man discovers VHS tapes of an unaired TV show in the basement. But as the show’s dark history surfaces, it seeps into his life, threatening his last chance at reconciliation.

Play House

2026

Ride with the Devil poster
6.3

Friends Jake and Jack Bull join up with Civil War guerrilla fighters, yet after the realities of war set in, they must decide what honor truly means.

Ride with the Devil

1999

Rebel in the Rye poster
6.6

The life of celebrated but reclusive author J.D. Salinger, who gained worldwide fame with the publication of his novel The Catcher in the Rye.

Rebel in the Rye

2017