James "Jim" Underdown (born October 9, 1960) has been the executive director of The Center for Inquiry (CFI) West in Los Angeles since 1999.

The CFIIG maintains field investigators in Washington D.C., Atlanta, Denver, Chicago, Edinburgh, Scotland, London, England, Milan, Italy, Cape Town, South Africa, Lagos, Nigeria, and Alberta, Canada.

[18][19][20] He is also the host and creator of "The Peep Show", a humorous roundtable discussion that ran for 2 dozen episodes on public access TV in the mid-1990s.

[21] Regular guests on the show included Phil Lamar, Joe Manno, Robb Wenner, Colleen Wainwright, Patrick Collins, and Rob Guillory.

In 1988 James declared himself Poet Laureate of Calumet City, Illinois, and began touring Midwest comedy clubs as Jim U-Boat, a moniker from high school.

[30] Underdown is also the co-host, along with Tony Ortega and Jerry Minor, of The Cult Awareness Podcast that discusses Scientology, Jehovah's Witnesses, and other subjects.

"[33][34] On the Oprah Winfrey Network Miracle Detective show Underdown was called in to investigate an angelic apparition that people claim cured a 14-year-old severely disabled child at Presbyterian Hemby Children's Hospital in Charlotte, North Carolina.

[35] Lecturing at skeptical events, Underdown has spoken on the topic "Are there similarities between the paranormal claims people make today and the miracles found in the Bible?"

[36][37] Using only invisible thread, a very long pole and a Mr. Coffee pot lid Jim Underdown shows the audience at JREF, The Amaz!ing Meeting: TAM9 From Outer Space how to fake their own UFO photographs.

The show's website reads: "For the first time in history, Battle" in the jury - an outspoken skeptic, internationally known researcher of paranormal phenomena, American James Underdown.

Joining Underdown as judges on the show are host Paul Kostitsyn, well-known Russian actress Alika Smekhova, and world famous spoonbender and illusionist, Uri Geller.