JB was born in Paris, France to an English mother and a French father. He moved with his mother to Yorkshire, England at the age of four, where he was raised and attended school, eventually graduating from The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in 1990.

He worked extensively in theater in Britain for over 15 years, including a three-year stint at London's Royal National Theater. His theater work encompassed everything from avant-garde physical theater companies to world tours of Shakespeare plays and classical Greek theater. His film career was essentially launched by his highly acclaimed role as Luigi Vampa in 2002's The Count of Monte Cristo, and following that success, he moved to Los Angeles where he now lives. Film and TV roles soon followed and he has worked on well over 30 TV shows in the US, including Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, Barry, Shameless, NCIS: LA, Burn Notice, The Unit, Prison Break, CSI: NY, Nikita, NYPD Blue and others, and many films, including his recent role as Bashkim in 2017's War Dogs. JB is also a highly accomplished voice actor and director with projects in film, animation, video games, anime, and commercials. His animation work includes All Hail King Julien, Dragons: Race To The Edge, Scooby Doo, Trip Tank, Turbo Fast, Pickle and Peanut, Regular Show, Penn Zero, The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, Guardians of the Galaxy, and Avengers Assemble. He has over 170 video game credits, totaling over 400 characters, including Rost in Horizon Zero Dawn, The Admin in Minecraft Story Mode, Bane in Telltale Batman, Arkham Origins and others, many projects for Blizzard Entertainment and the Uncharted franchise. He has been the voice director on various video games: Fortnite, Middle earth: Shadow of Mordor and Shadow of War, Lego Batman 3, Lego Dimensions, XCOM 2, Mafia III, Overwatch, World of Warcraft, World of Warcraft: Legion, Hearthstone, Diablo III and Heroes of the Storm.