Alumni Spotlight: John Paul Green

John Paul Green (B.F.A. ’12) is this week’s featured alum in our new Alumni Spotlight series for the This Week at Meadows e-newsletter. Each week, a different Meadows alum will be highlighted for their accomplishments post-graduation.

Meadows’ Division of Theatre students are encouraged not only to perform, but to create boldly and take artistic risks. Alum John Paul Green has built a career in film and television while also shaping the next generation of performers as a theatre educator in Los Angeles. He credits the freedom and faculty mentorship he found at Meadows with giving him the confidence to navigate both Hollywood sets and public school classrooms.

During his time at SMU Meadows, Green embraced every opportunity to experiment. He performed roles he might never be cast in professionally, adapted reality television scenes for the stage and even staged a play in the fountain outside the Owen Arts Center. That spirit of exploration left a lasting impression.

“I really didn’t appreciate until later how much freedom SMU provided us to become artists,” says Green of his experience in the program. “When I got to Los Angeles and started working in film and television, that freedom that was cultivated at SMU allowed me to solve problems or suggest ideas in professional and independent settings.”

Shortly after arriving in Los Angeles, Green signed with manager Charles Skouras IV, another SMU alum, and quickly began booking commercial work. Within months, he landed his first television role on How I Met Your Mother. Green’s breakout moment came soon after, when he auditioned for a guest role on the Disney Channel’s Austin & Ally. The script called for a cowboy and he leaned into the character fully, arriving at the audition in Wranglers, a fringed cowboy shirt and a bolo tie.

“What I learned at Meadows was to prepare. Read the text. Study the text. Everything you need to know to do your job is right there,” he explains. “Make the producer’s job easier by dressing like the character in the audition room.”


John Paul Green with costars on the set of Disney Channel's "Austin & Ally."


The role, originally intended as a one-episode appearance, evolved into a recurring character arc that spanned three seasons. Green went on to appear in additional television projects, commercials and films before stepping back from the constant audition cycle to focus on family and a new chapter of his career.

When Green and his wife, fellow Meadows alumna Elizabeth Arroyo (B.F.A. ’12), welcomed their first child, he began teaching theatre for the Los Angeles Unified School District. He later joined the Roybal Film and TV Magnet, a groundbreaking program designed to create a more inclusive pipeline into below-the-line film and television careers. There, he helped expand opportunities for historically underrepresented students interested in the entertainment industry.

Today, Green has returned fully to his first love: theatre education. He works with Title I-funded schools across the Los Angeles area, introducing students to an art form many have never experienced. The voice, movement and ensemble training he received at Meadows now informs how he builds safe, collaborative classrooms where students can take creative risks.

“It’s a place to try new ideas, new things, to leave it all on the stage, and to lift each other up, not put each other down,” Green says of theatre. “Without SMU, I would not have had the training or tools to do this, and I’ll be forever grateful to have been a Pony.”

For Green, the lessons of Meadows extend beyond performance techniques. They shape how he approaches every rehearsal, classroom and creative endeavor. He encourages current students to take full advantage of the freedom they have now, whether that means starting projects, asking for opportunities, or just embracing what makes them unique, because the habit of creating boldly is what sustains a life in the arts.

Learn more about the Division of Theatre here.