James Richard Cunningham was born on September 20,1973 in St Paul, Minnesota. His family moved to Wisconsin at a young age where he spent his time growing up on a small farm in Hammond.   He graduated from Northwestern  University in St Paul, Minnesota with a bachelor of arts in History, a bachelor of arts in Social Science, and a minor in Theatre Arts. While at Northwestern James acted in a dozen plays and musicals, learning a love for stage and film. After graduating from Northwestern, Cunningham worked as a head designer/gardener for ten years at Camrose Hill Flower Studio in the summers and a secondary literature teacher/Theater Coach at Good Shepherd Academy, producing a dozen stage plays. In the summer of 2003 Cunningham was asked  by college roommate and first time director Dallas Jenkins and Producer Chad Gundersen to production design his short film “Cliche”. 

 

In the summer of 2005 James (production designer) hired Matthew Tailford and Harold Cronk to work on the Short Film “Midnight Clear” in Phoenix Arizona, it was there the 10 West team came together. Following “Midnight Clear” the three went on to make two more short films, “Murder of Crows” (2006) and the award winning short “War Prayer” (2006). From there they ended up in Achill Island, Ireland working on the feature film “ The Secret of the Cave” (2006). Cunningham helped Cronk and Tailford establish 10 West Studio in Manistee Michigan, where he production designed “Tug” (2008), “What If” (2009), end times Thriller “Jerusalem Countdown” (2009), WWII epic “Return To the Hiding Place (2010), Silver Bells and most recently the children’s live action film “Mickey Matson I” (2011) and Mickey Matson II (2013) . Establishing a relationship with friend Chad Gundersen, Cunningham also designed the Christmas features “Midnight Clear (2006) and “A Christmas Snow (2010), live action children’s mystery “Ace Wonder” (2010), action adventure drama “Unlimited” (2012) and recently the western drama “Redemption” (2012). Through mutual friends Cunningham recently worked as the U.S. production designer on the “Bollywood” thriller “Vishwaroopam” (2011) directed by the world renowned director Kamal Haasan where the production design team received Best Production Design at the 60th Annual National film award in India.

James Currently resides in St Paul, Minnesota.

 

While not working as a production designer, James works as a designer at the Interior Design firm Pomegranate Designs and floral design studio Camrose Hill. His work has been featured in Better Homes and Gardens, Minnesota Bride, The Knot, Minneapolis Institute of Art, St Paul Pioneer Press, KSTP Twin Cities Live, Rebecca Kohl’s Magazine, Furnishing Magazine, and the Minnesota Governor’s Mansion.