Raji James (born 24th February 1970 in London) appeared on Coronation Street in two roles: firstly in September 1998 as a Ticket Collector at a London Underground station who Toyah Battersby encountered when she ran away to the city to track down her real father; and he returned to the programme between October 2018 and October 2019 as Mr Merchant, the oncologist involved in the treatment of Sinead Tinker.
Intent on joining the RAF after leaving school, he enrolled at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama and gradated in 1991, he was also Actor in Residence at Portsmouth College's Media Studies and Performing Arts Department.
His other credits include roles in Crocodile Shoes, Chandler & Co, Blind Men, The Bill, Waking the Dead, EastEnders, Doctor Who, Casualty, Waterloo Road, Doctors, Holby City and the films East is East, Command Approved, Provoked: A True Story, Nina's Heavenly Delights, The Unforgettable, Baseline, U.F.O. and Airborne. James is presently appearing in the regular role of Ali Shahzad in Hollyoaks.
On stage he has appeared in productions of A Midsummer Night's Dream, Three Sisters, Twelfth Night, Romeo and Juliet, The Pleasure Man, Jungle Book, The Wasp Factory, Backstroke in a Crowded Pool, MAA, Return and Frankenstein.