In 1983, after living for a time in
Madrid on his own, he had an encounter with actor
Harvey Keitel and he decided to pursue acting, and moved to
New York City. In New York, he worked as a
visual artist, doing illustrations, cartoons and commercial art for various companies. He landed a job designing characters for Rankin/Bass's original series
Thundercats, then in its first season. He worked with producer
Jules Bass on expanding the story, and contributed to the
ThunderCats "bible." He became on-camera spokesman on television and radio commercials for Skaggs Alfa Beta grocery stores in 1986. He worked as a man-on-the-street interviewer for banks, cars, retail chains and other clients, in spontaneous, off-the-cuff comedic campaigns that won dozens of industry awards. Among these were
Schnucks Markets,
Food Lion, and
Kash & Karry. During those New York years (1983-1993) Jim studied and performed improv with several companies, chiefly INTERPLAY and did hundreds of live shows at the National Improvisational Theatre on Eighth Avenue, Chelsea. On the invitation of producers, he and fellow Interplay member
Christopher Smith guest starred several times on Britain’s
Whose Line Is It, Anyway? His first film role was in Ron Howard's
The Paper, starring
Michael Keaton. In 1993, he moved home to LA with his family to start a career in TV and film, beginning with
Fresh Prince of Bel Air and a role in director Ron Howard’s Oscar-nominated
Apollo 13. Howard cast Jim in no fewer than five feature films, including
The Grinch and
Frost/Nixon. He appeared in an early episode of
The Fresh Prince of Bel Air as professor Jeremy Mansfield, who was loosely modeled after Robin Williams' character in the film
Dead Poets Society. He continued to work with the Spiridellis brothers on their
Emmy and BAFTA award-winning children's series
Ask The Storybots, and other projects. He has appeared on major television programs;
Friends, Fresh Prince of Bel Air, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, This is Us, SWAT, Hunters, NCIS, Parks & Recreation,
Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Young Sheldon, The Big Bang Theory, to name but a few. Meskimen's character voices have been heard on a number of video games and animated shows including
Star Trek: Resurgence,
Marvel Avengers Assemble,
Batman: Arkham Asylum,
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,
Shaggy & Scooby-Doo Get a Clue!,
Pinky and the Brain,
Phineas and Ferb,
The Legend of Korra, and
Avatar: The Last Airbender. He has voiced the
Genie in Disney's
Aladdin franchise since 2008. His viral hit,
Shakespeare in Celebrity Voices, brought him global attention on YouTube and led to many opportunities, including performing on
America’s Got Talent in 2013, where his improvised celebrity impressions at Radio City Music Hall earned him a standing ovation. He has performed his live one-man show,
JIMPRESSIONS, in
Hollywood,
Australia and the
U.K. In 2017, he wrote a screenplay for a short film, which became "Son to Son," and won festival awards. He starred in the short, with actor
Nick Lane, with
Taron Lexton directing. His performance as the troubled, opioid addict father in "Son to Son" garnered praise; the UK Film Review said: "Meskimen delivers a tragically believable character in a short space of time to great effect." As an
audiobook narrator, he has worked on hundreds of titles for all major publishers and received awards for his narration. Directing multi-cast audiobooks for Galaxy Audio was his full-time job from 2005 to 2009, when he worked as senior director to complete hundreds of hours of audio of the fiction work of
L. Ron Hubbard. He appeared on "
America's Got Talent" as a celebrity impressionist in 2013 and as a finalist performed at
Radio City Music Hall, NYC, receiving a standing ovation. Since 2020, he has played roles on television in
Gaslit with
Sean Penn and
Julia Roberts,
Hunters, and as the recurring character of Cary Hubbard in
Apple TV+'s
The Big Door Prize, opposite
Chris O'Dowd. ==Personal life==