Swapping acting for gaming: James Buckley giving up acting to become full-time gamer

James Buckley is set to give up acting after becoming a full-time gamer.

The 'Inbetweeners' star claims he has lost interest in being in the spotlight and instead wants to focus on growing his Twitch gaming channel 'Completed It Mate' after having talks with sponsors.

He told The Sun newspaper's Bizarre TV column: "I'm not that excited about the industry and I haven't been for a while. I'm really enjoying the stuff I'm doing with my Twitch channel.

"It feels like a little business that I've got control of. I'm running it and talking to sponsors and trying to be taken seriously in that sphere now."

James, 32, rose to fame as raunchy teen Jay on the E4 comedy - which also starred - Simon Bird, Joe Thomas and Blake Harrison - about a group of friends ending up in awkward situations as they navigated sixth form.

The comedy show ended after three series in 2010, spawning two big screen films in 2011 and 2014.

James went on to appear in several television shows - including an appearance in 'Doctor Who' - and other movies including 'The Pyramid' and 'The Comedian's Guide to Survival'.

In 2016, James started his gamer career with a YouTube channel under the same name as his Twitch account, which has 419,000 subscribers.

With his channel, he has collaborated with other gamers and reunited with his 'Inbetweeners' co-stars.

Now he is committed to taking his platform to the next level as he feels much stronger about the "special content" he is able to create, which he can't find in scripts.

He added: "I genuinely am a lifelong gamer and I love video games. I loved what was happening on places like Twitch and YouTube because I really felt that special content was being created there.

"I can't remember the last time something was on television or on traditional media that made me think it was new and fresh."

© BANG Media International