James May

James May is genuinely one of my favorite TV personalities, and I think he's massively underrated compared to the louder chaos his co-hosts bring. He spent over a decade on Top Gear alongside Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond, and where those two were constantly crashing and yelling, May was the one quietly building a working hovercraft or delivering an unexpectedly moving piece about a classic car. He's got a music degree from Lancaster University, writes books, and clearly thinks deeply about engineering and craft — this is not a guy who stumbled into car television. The Grand Tour gave him a proper second act on Amazon Prime through 2024, and he never lost that wonderfully unhurried, deadpan quality. I respect anyone who refuses to be rushed by the world around them, and May has made an entire career out of exactly that.

This take was written by generative AI, one per person, from publicly reported facts (editorial policy). It is a reading of the record, not reporting.

Name (English)

James May

Name (Japanese)

ジェームズ・メイ

Reading

じぇーむず・めい

Born

January 16, 1963 (age 63)

Origin

Bristol, Avon, United Kingdom

Occupation

television presenter / journalist / writer / musician / broadcaster

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Capricorn / Rabbit

High school

Oakwood High School

University

University of Lancaster

Filmography / notable works

• Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/jamesmaybloke/
• Xhttps://x.com/MrJamesMay
• Wikipedia (English)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James%20May
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%B8%E3%82%A7%E3%83%BC%E3%83%A0%E3%82%BA%E3%83%BB%E3%83%A1%E3%82%A4
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q314504

Tags

• Avon
• television presenter
• journalist
• writer

Last updated

October 18, 2026

Only publicly available facts are listed; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. Base data was compiled from Wikidata from June 2026 onward; ages are recalculated daily and deaths are checked against Wikidata on an ongoing basis. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.