James Hale set up Lazerbeam in 2015. He is a BAFTA Cymru award-winning series producer and director with a successful track record in devising and producing factual documentaries for broadcasters such as BBC, Discovery and S4C.

His credits include BBC television documentaries such as the BAFTA Cymru nominated Public Enemy: Prophets of Rage, David Bowie & the Story of Ziggy Stardust, Born to Be Wild: The Golden Age of American Rock, One Nation Under a Groove: The Story of Funk, Hits Hype & Hustle, and BAFTA Cymru winning Music For Misfits: The Story of Indie.

He has also directed and produced for other broadcasters, projects such as Discovery’s Brink of Disaster and S4C’s Super Furry Animals: The Furry Years. He has been twice nominated for BAFTA Cymru’s Best Director award.

In radio he has made many features and documentaries for Radio 1, 2 and 4, winning a Sony Award for the Radio 4 series Who Sold the Soul?

With Lazerbeam Productions he has developed, produced and directed Roots Reggae Rebellion, Hidden Cardiff, Black Music Wales and Horizons: the Sessions. He has also produced and directed two series and two specials of Hidden Wales with Will Millard for both network BBC and BBC Wales. 

Hidden Cardiff was nominated for two BAFTA Cymru awards in October 2018. Hidden Wales series one was nominated for three BAFTA Cymru awards in 2019, and series two was nominated for Best Photography in 2021.  

Recently, James series-directed BBC Two’s A Killing in Tiger Bay, the story of the Cardiff Five, one of Britain’s most notorious and astonishing miscarriages of justice. In 2023 he series directed Firebombers - a two part BBC documentary series exploring a controversial period in Welsh history when English-owned second homes were targeted by arsonists.

He is currently producing a BBC Sounds true-crime podcast series and a TV documentary series for BBC and S4C.