Luke James Boyd (born June 13, 1984) is an American singer, songwriter and actor. He began his musical career singing background for R&B artist Tyrese, where he met and was soon mentored for several years by Super producers The Underdogs with an acquaintance, Quentin, under Luke & Q. He was signed directly to J Records by Clive Davis himself and later wrote songs for musicians such as Chris Brown, Britney Spears, and Justin Bieber. In 2011, James released his first mixtape, #Luke. The mixtape's critically acclaimed single "I Want You" earned him a Best R&B Performance nomination at the 56th Annual Grammy Awards. Like the first project, he released his second mixtape, Whispers in the Dark, as a free music download in 2012. His self-titled debut studio album was released on September 23, 2014.
In August 2017, James released "Drip," which he tapped A$AP Ferg for the remix 3 months later. On Jan 31, 2020, James released his second album "to feel love/d" which marks his return to music following a two-year hiatus to focus on acting. The album was released in partnership with his manager Jonathan Azu's record label and management company Culture Collective and featured guest performances by BJ The Chicago Kid, Ro James, Big K.R.I.T, Kirk Franklin, and Samoht. On November 24, 2020 "to feel love/d" was nominated in the category of Best R&B Album for the 63rd Grammy Awards.
In his acting career, he starred as R&B singer Johnny Gill in the 2017 TV biopic of R&B sextet New Edition in BET's The New Edition Story. Since then he's been seen in the Regina Hall and Will Packer film Little, As Noah Brooks in FOX's Star, HBO's Insecure, USA's Unsolved: The Murders of Tupac and the Notorious B.I.G., and BET's The Bobby Brown Story. He will also be featured in the third season of The Chi starting June 21, 2020.