James Wilson is a real person.
Gregory House . Created by David Shore and portrayed by English actor Hugh Laurie , he leads a team of diagnosticians as the Head of Diagnostic Medicine at the fictional Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital in Princeton , New Jersey ( based on the real-life Yale -- New Haven Hospital in New Haven , Connecticut ) . Dr. James Evan Wilson , M.D. , is a fictional character on the Fox medical drama House . The character first appears in the show 's pilot episode when he introduces a medical case to Dr. Gregory House .