Biography

James Ferrera has over 20 years experience in domestic and international major motion picture and independent film publicity.

Ferrera began his career as a publicist at the venerable powerhouse PR firm of Dennis Davidson Associates, where he worked on theatrical release, Sundance and Cannes film festival and awards campaigns for films such as Neil LaBute's NURSE BETTY, Anand Tucker's HILARY & JACKIE, Adrian & Roko Belic's GENGHIS BLUES, Paul Schrader's AFFLICTION, Kirby Dick's SICK: THE LIFE AND DEATH OF BOB FLANAGAN and Vincent Gallo's BUFFALO 66.

Ferrera then went on to direct East Coast Publicity for Lionsgate Films before becoming their Vice President of National Publicity, spearheading the New York theatrical, festival and awards campaigns for such titles as Marc Forster's MONSTER'S BALL (which landed Halle Berry a Best Actress Academy Award), Alejandro González Iñárritu's AMORES PERROS, E. Elisa Merhige's SHADOW OF THE VAMPIRE, Wayne Kramer's THE COOLER, Peter Bogdanovich's CAT'S MEOW, Roger Avary's THE RULES OF ATTRACTION, Peter Webber's GIRL WITH THE PEARL EARRING, Lars von Trier's DOGVILLE, Gaspar Noé's IRREVERSIBLE, Steven Shainberg's SECRETARY, Bill Paxton's FRAILTY, Rob Zombie's HOUSE OF 1000 CORPSES, Eli Roth's CABIN FEVER and James Wan's SAW.

In 2005, Ferrera left Lionsgate to pursue a career as an independent Unit Publicist, working directly on the production publicity for movies such as the Pang Brothers' THE MESSENGERS, James Wan's DEATH SENTENCE, both sequels in the popular HAROLD & KUMAR franchise, Tim Hill's ALVIN & THE CHIPMUNKS, three of Gus Van Sant's films, MILK, RESTLESS & PROMISED LAND, Ang Lee's TAKING WOODSTOCK, Steve Carr's PAUL BLART: MALL COP, Robert Redford's THE CONSPIRATOR, Brad Peyton's JOURNEY 2: THE MYSTERIOUS ISLAND, Wes Anderson's MOONRISE KINGDOM, Jules Stewart's K-11, Michael Cuesta's KILL THE MESSENGER and Lasse Hallström's THE HUNDRED-FOOT JOURNEY.

In recent years, Ferrera has been engaged in a bevy of horror initiatives including John R. Leonetti's ANNABELLE and WOLVES AT THE DOOR, Phil Claydon's WITHIN, Ciarán Foy's SINISTER 2, Leigh Whannell's third installment of the wildly popular Blumhouse INSIDIOUS franchise, INSIDIOUS: CHAPTER 3, James Wan's lauded sequel THE CONJURING 2, David F. Sandberg's LIGHTS OUT and ANNABELLE: CREATION as well as Corin Hardy's entry into The Conjuring Universe with THE NUN, Michael Chaves' THE CURSE OF LA LLORONA and THE CONJURING: THE DEVIL MADE ME DO IT. In 2019, Ferrera had the privilege of working on Emerald Fennell's feature directorial debut, PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN. Ferrera recently reunited with director James Wan on his much anticipated original horror thriller MALIGNANT.

Ferrera has also worked on critically acclaimed new media film and television projects including Ritesh Batra's OUR SOULS AT NIGHT for Netflix, which reunited Robert Redford and Jane Fonda on screen after nearly 40 years, Jill Soloway and Sarah Gubbins' I LOVE DICK and Soloway's TRANSPARENT (Season 4) for Amazon, and Duwayne Dunham's THE HAPPY WORKER, executive produced by David Lynch, for SingularDTV.

In addition to his work as a Unit Publicist, Ferrera consults on film festival and awards campaigns, including the Sundance & awards campaigns for the Academy Award nominated documentaries HOW TO SURVIVE A PLAGUE, DIRTY WARS, PARADISE LOST 3: PURGATORY, THE INVISIBLE WAR and the Academy Award winner TWENTY FEET FROM STARDOM.

Ferrera served as in-house digital publicity consultant at Focus Features on the Oscar-winning THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING before returning to set on the STX & Blumhouse production of Joel Edgerton's directorial debut, THE GIFT.

Ferrera is a graduate of the USC Master of Professional Writing Program and is founding President of the USC MPW Alumni Association. He received his Bachelor of Arts in English from Loyola Marymount University, and is an Adjunct Professor of Entertainment Public Relations at Emerson College Los Angeles.
- IMDb mini biography by: James Ferrera