Jay was born in California, but his family left the United States for Europe when he was a child.  As a legacy of his itinerant childhood, he is English/French bilingual, and no slouch in Spanish or German, either.  If you want to aggravate him, tell him  he doesn’t SOUND like an American -  neither would you if you’d lived in Europe for 50-odd years (some of them very odd indeed).  This doesn’t, however, prevent casting agents from insisting that he play Americans.

He’s probably best known today for his role as John Kieffer – the US Army officer and friend of Christopher Foyle -  in Foyle’s War, but in his varied career he has danced with the legendary Zizi Jeanmaire at Le Casino de Paris, played almost every male role in The Rocky Horror Show in the early 1970s (given half a chance, he’d probably have had a crack at the female ones, too …) and has appeared frequently on stage in both straight drama and musical theatre.  In June 2009 he played opposite Sharon Gless at a ‘table read’ of A Round Heeled Woman at the the Richmond Theatre.

He’s also been seen (and heard) regularly on film and TV.  He provided the voice for Shiro Hagen in the cult Saturday morning science fiction show Star Fleet X-Bomber; played escapologist Alan Kalanak in the Jonathan Creek Christmas Special Satan’s Chimney; was Frank Crowe, Superintending Engineer on the Hoover Dam, in the BBC’s award-winning documentary series Seven Wonders of the Industrial World and most notably was third lead in Vicente Aranda’s beautiful 2003 adaptation of Prosper Mérimée’s novella Carmen.  Most recently, he played Lord Melbourne  in Channel 4’s Queen Victoria’s Men.

When not in front of the camera, he and his partner run ‘Sync or Swim’, providing post-production ADR (Automated Dialogue Replacement) services to the film and television industry.  Recent projects have included The Tudors, The Golden Compass and Armando Iannucci’s first feature film, In the Loop.  In addition, his voice can be heard on video games, documentaries and TV and radio adverts, as well as in innumerable lifts, theatre foyers and other public spaces.  The irritatingly soothing voice requesting that you take your seat and switch off your mobile phone is quite probably him:  so now you know who to blame.

In what little spare time he has, Jay reviews books for the literary website Vulpes Libris and feels he’s failed dismally if his review doesn’t elicit at least ONE outraged response.