• He was the only actor to kiss Amanda Bynes in his screen test for his role in What a Girl Wants (2003).
• Played drums for a band when he was in school and had only fiddled with friends' guitars before playing one for real in the movie What a Girl Wants (2003).
• Went to Guildford School of Acting in Surrey to learn the trade.
• Oliver has recently moved to Los Angeles from his native England.
• Main reason to enroll as an acting major was so he could attend the same school as his then-girlfriend.
• His own songs appear on the What a Girl Wants (2003) soundtrack.
• In "What a Girl Wants" and in "Raise YOur Voice" he plays the guitar a lot. Only in "Raise Your Voice" he plays the acoustic guitar.

Oliver James graduated from the Guilford School for Performing Arts in England and had only been working for a year before he snagged his role as Ian Wallace in What a Girl Wants. Oliver James' only real work before that had been in British commercials and stage productions. After What a Girl Wants hit the big screen, everyone wanted to know who the British babe was that played Amanda Bynes' love interest, Ian Wallace. Lucky for Oliver James fans, he is now starring in a new teen flick alongside Hilary Duff. Raise Your Voice hits theaters October 8, 2004 and Oliver James plays the part of Jay, a cute musician that Hilary meets at a summer music camp. Up until the moment Oliver James was cast as Amanda Bynes' love interest in What a Girl Wants, Oliver James was rehearsing with a British boyband. When Oliver James got the part of Ian Wallace, he left the unnamed group.