Melvin St. James, a North Hollywood native, grew up a small child with big dreams. And in his own words he “Kind a sort of made them come true.” Founder, owner and artistic director of the Actors Playground Theater, Melvin has been a teacher, actor, director and producer of theatrical productions for over 20 years. He has been seen on stage in reputable regional theaters in Santa Barbara, San Diego, San Antonio and San Francisco. He won a Bammy Award for best supporting actor at the Eugene, Oregon Theater Fest in 1992, for his portrayal of “Big Dumb Jimmy” in the original play, “My Big Dumb Brother the Farm Hand”. Melvin founded the Actors Playground Theater in 1995 as a space where actors could “Come and Play, because the inner actor is very child like.” The space has been a thriving member of the North Hollywood Theater community, and Melvin takes full credit for all the good things the theater has done, and blames all the bad things on the random bad energy that is brought to North Hollywood in the form of homeless vagrants.