Manos worked as a co-producer and writer on the
first season of
The Sopranos. In 1999, Manos won the
Primetime Emmy Award for
Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series for his work on the episode "
College" of
The Sopranos. The award was shared with his co-writer,
The Sopranos creator
David Chase. He then completed two seasons as consulting producer on
The Shield. He developed, produced, and wrote the pilot of
Dexter, the
Showtime drama series which lasted 8 seasons. He was nominated for a
Writers Guild of America Award for best dramatic series for his work on the
first season of
Dexter. Manos recently was the Executive Producer for 7 episodes of
Ice for Direct TV and E-One Entertainment and executive produced the 8-episode order of
South of Hell for Sonar Entertainment and WeTv. He wrote and sold the half-hour series "
Staying Brown" about two Puerto Rican ladies from the barrio on the lamb in Europe to Amazon as well as the one-hour comedy "The Slow and Complete Decompensation of Jim Manos" to TNT. He wrote "Chess" for the writer/producers David McFadzean and Matt Williams and "Brand" a series about the world of counterfeiting high end merchandise. He wrote an independent feature film "I Am Lupe," about La Lupe, an incredible Afro-Cuban entertainer. Lauren Velez will star under direction by Manos himself. Arturo Sandoval is slated to score the film. Manos also wrote "The Ladies" for HBO's producer, Joe Pichirallo and a one-hour series "Crossroads" for Graham King. He produced the award-winning movie
The Positively True Adventures of the Alleged Texas Cheerleader-Murdering Mom, starring
Holly Hunter and
Beau Bridges, for
HBO. The movie was nominated for six
Primetime Emmy Awards and won three. Additionally, it won the
CableACE Award for Best Picture of the year. He also produced the critically acclaimed
Apollo 11 and ''The Ditchdigger's Daughters''. A trained theater director, James received a degree from
Colgate University in
Hamilton,
New York in English/Theater and studied as a director at The
Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London, England. James also studied acting and later taught acting classes in New York. He has directed numerous plays regionally and in New York, including Inge's
The Disposal, Mrozek's
Vatzlav, Ionesco's
The Lesson, Molière's
The Doctor in Spite of Himself, and Arthur Miller's
Some Kind of Love Story. He also just completed a one-man Off-Broadway show "In the Pocket" which tells the life of Mark Rivera, a virtuoso musician who has always been a "sideman" but now he wants to stand in the limelight. He also wrote the black comedy,
The Misconception which is being developed with the Cherry Lane Theatre in
New York City for an Off-Broadway run. Manos is also a novelist having written "Little Ellie Claus" published by Simon Schuster and "Marked", a cop franchise as a graphic novel for Graphic India, the Sharad Devarajan, and Gotham Chopra imprint. He is represented by Michael Van Dyke at Inspired Entertainment and Alan Grodin at Weintraub, Tobin, Chediak, Coleman, and Grodin. == Personal life ==