Artists First Signs ‘Project Hail Mary’s James Ortiz

EXCLUSIVE: Artists First has signed James Ortiz, an actor, designer, performer, playwright and director, for management.

Ortiz has made waves recently with his co-lead role of Rocky, the rock alien pal of Ryan Gosling’s Ryland Grace, in Amazon MGM Studios’ hit sci-fi film Project Hail Mary — an adaptation of the Andy Weir novel directed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller. Following a middle school science teacher (Gosling) who finds greatness thrust upon him when he is enlisted to go on an outer space mission for the U.S. government, the film marked a major bright spot at the spring box office, racking up over $683M worldwide, and is now available to stream on Prime Video.

In theatre, Ortiz earned a 2022 Drama Desk Award for his enormous dinosaur puppets from Lincoln Center’s Tony nominated production of The Skin of Our Teeth. Additionally, his interpretation of Milky White in the 2022 Broadway revival of Into the Woods has become a fan favorite. Project Hail Mary aside, though, Ortiz is probably most known for his Off-Broadway creation, The Woodsman, which earned him a 2016 Obie Award for puppet design.

Ortiz was the 2017 Eugene O’Neill residency recipient, a 2015 and 2019 Jim Henson Foundation grant awardee, as well as co-founder and co-artistic director of the devised theatre group, Strangemen & Co.

He continues to develop original and adapted works that incorporate his particular blend of theatricality, movement theatre and puppetry and is also repped by CAA and Viewpoint.