He is best known as a co-presenter, alongside Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond, of the motoring programme Top Gear from 2003 until 2015 and the television series The Grand Tour for Amazon Prime Video from 2016 to 2024.

[2] May has presented other programmes on themes including travel, science & technology, toys, wine culture, and the plight of manliness in modern times.

He spent his teenage years in South Yorkshire where he attended Oakwood Comprehensive School in Rotherham and was a choirboy at Whiston Parish Church.

[5][6][7] After graduating, May briefly worked at a hospital in Chelsea as a records officer and had a short stint in the civil service before taking up journalism and broadcasting in his thirties.

He has written the book May on Motors (2006), which is a collection of his published articles, and co-authored Oz and James's Big Wine Adventure (2006), based on the TV series of the same name.

"[12] In a 2019 interview with Carscoops.com, May stated that while the hidden message originally passed through the magazine's pre-printing review processes unnoticed, he was found out when readers began calling in to Autocar's offices, thinking there might be a prize involved.

[13] His past television credits include presenting Driven on Channel 4 in 1998, narrating an eight-part BBC One series called Road Rage School,[14] and co-hosting the ITV1 coverage of the 2006 London Boat Show.

During an interview in 2020, Jeremy Clarkson claimed that the show's original producers had decided to replace him with May in 1999, though they felt dissatisfied with May as he was soon fired in 2000, shortly before the entire program was cancelled the following year.

[24] In an earlier episode he also tested the original version of the Bugatti Veyron against the Pagani Zonda F. May, along with co-presenter Jeremy Clarkson and an Icelandic support crew, travelled by car to the magnetic North Pole in 2007, using a modified Toyota Hilux.

In late 2008, the BBC broadcast James May's Big Ideas, a three-part series in which May travelled around the globe in search of implementations for concepts widely considered science fiction.

[33] This was followed by another documentary on BBC Four called James May at the Edge of Space, where May was flown to the stratosphere (70,000 ft) in a US Air Force Lockheed U-2 spy plane.

[34] Beginning in October 2009, May presented a six-part TV series showing favourite toys of the past era and whether they can be applied in the modern-day.

In this special, James and his team built a huge toy glider that flew 22 miles (35 km) from Devon to the island of Lundy.

May created his own YouTube channel, titled "JM's Unemployment Tube", in 2015 after Top Gear was postponed by the BBC following Jeremy Clarkson's dismissal.

[51] In 2019, May moved on to created videos on a Drivetribe spin-off brand Foodtribe (replacing JM's Unemployment Tube) frequently using a small, bedsit-like kitchen setup called "The Bug-out Bunker".

[57] In August 2014, May was one of 200 public figures who were signatories to a letter to The Guardian expressing their hope that Scotland would vote against independence from the United Kingdom in September's referendum on that issue.

[7] In 2020, May bought half the ownership of a pub in Swallowcliffe, Wiltshire, called The Royal Oak,[60] which dates from the early 18th century and is a Grade II listed building.

[64] May currently owns a 2010 Porsche 911 Carrera S facelift, a 2018 Alpine A110, a Fiat Panda, a Volkswagen Polo, a Tesla Model 3 Highland, a prototype 1989 Rover Mini Cooper RSP,[65] "a couple of Land Rovers", a Triumph Stag, a 2015 Ferrari 458 Speciale which he ordered following his exit from Top Gear and the VW Beach Buggy used in The Grand Tour Special "The Beach Buggy Boys".

He has owned a Luscombe 8A Silvaire, a Cessna A185E Skywagon,[69] and an American Champion 8KCAB Super Decathlon with registration G-OCOK, which serves as a reference to a common phrase attributed to him.