Born in a Frankfurt US military hospital, James R. Kulick was brought babe-in-arms by his German mother to reunite with their GI husband and father in Detroit. The young family sold everything and moved to southern California not much later after an exceptionally hard, snow-driven winter.

Finishing high school early, Jim began attending Long Beach City College and right away auditioned for its production of The Oldest Living Graduate, landing a role. His work towards a theater major continued with performances in various main stage productions. He also performed the leads in two FM broadcast radio theater shows---Norman Corwin's "The Plot to Overthrow Christmas" as Santa, and the title role in the traditional morality play "Everyman." Although just shy of the major prior to taking a break for work, returning to college discovered that graduation criteria for the major had altered. He avoided redundant semesters by migrating into English course work before transferring to UCLA. Along the way, Jim picked up inclusion in Who's Who Among Students in American Junior Colleges and an AA degree in Liberal Arts. He then graduated from UCLA with a BA in English through their then-current certificate program in creative writing, his emphasis in poetry.

In the last decade, a good deal of time on major film and television sets found him working in a professional capacity on background. Steven Soderbergh saw well enough of Jim to give him his first real credit while working on the acclaimed film, Behind the Candelabra (2013). Jim continues his acting and writing, which includes songwriting (as Noumena Freight). Throughout, he's taken opportunities to travel in Germany and Austria, India via a stop in Hong Kong, and much of the US. Now in Hollywood, he has lived on the Colorado front range and in northern Arizona.