James P. Axiotis is an international television and film producer with over 40 years of experience developing and producing content across the East and West Coast markets of the United States and abroad. Born in Athens, Greece and adopted from a local orphanage as an infant, he has spent much of his life exploring stories of immigration, displaced children, and social justice, often through the lens of women’s experiences. That personal history continues to shape both his creative choices and his partnerships with humanitarian organizations.
Raised in Southern California by his adoptive family, Axiotis first stepped onto a set at the age of 13 for the ABC Afterschool Special "Mighty Moose and the Quarterback Kid" and knew instantly that film and television were the path he wanted to follow. He began his career as a production assistant on television shows, worked his way into post-production, and became a post-production supervisor at NBC. By the age of 24, he was one of the network’s youngest producers. In the years that followed, he expanded his work across broadcast, cable, streaming, and digital platforms, including projects for Facebook and Instagram that deepened his understanding of how social media can be used to build audiences and amplify a project’s impact.
From 2014 onward, Axiotis released his projects under his banner JPA Productions, building a slate that reflected both his industry experience and his interest in human-centered stories. In recent years, he has transitioned to a new company, Legitimate Son, which he founded to focus on narrative and documentary work with a humanitarian and NGO-driven focus. The first film under the Legitimate Son banner is "Georgia," a narrative short based on the true story of his young single mother in 1960s Greece, who was pressured by the State to surrender her "illegitimate" child. "Georgia" is currently in pre-production and is scheduled to shoot on location in Athens in February 2026.
Outside of his day-to-day producing work, Axiotis has been deeply involved in the professional guild and festival communities. He has served two terms on the National Board of the Producers Guild of America and participates in the PGA’s International and AAPI Committees. He is also a member of the Producers Guild of Europe, the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, the British Film Institute (BFI), and the Greek America Foundation. In 2021, he expanded his activities to the United Kingdom through a partnership in London, and in 2022 he became an Academy Circle member at BAFTA. As part of that membership, he dedicated a chair in the new BAFTA Princess Anne Theatre in honor of his mother’s memory, symbolically linking his career to his origins in Greece.
Axiotis is equally committed to philanthropic and humanitarian work. He has supported Los Angeles-based nonprofits such as Project Angel Food and Fix’n Fidos, and served as an officer for Children of War Foundation (COWF). In that role he traveled to Ukraine after the recent outbreak of war to hand-deliver medical supplies valued at over half a million dollars to two hospitals, and to the Jordanian-Syrian border to support a COWF-run school for refugee children. On these trips he used his skills in film and storytelling to document the work and help share the foundation’s mission with wider audiences.
Alongside "Georgia," Axiotis serves as an executive producer on "Another Place," a feature documentary directed by Jhizet Panosian that follows refugees resettled across Europe. The film has been selected by six international film festivals and has secured digital distribution with Uncork’d Entertainment. He is also an executive producer on the relaunch of the beloved PBS series "Reading Rainbow," bringing a new chapter of children’s literacy programming to a contemporary audience. Through Legitimate Son and his ongoing collaborations with NGOs, guilds, and international partners, James P. Axiotis continues to champion impact-driven stories that cross borders, confront injustice, and honor the complex journeys of those who, like him, began life in another place.
