Greg Joseph

Gregory Nelson "Greg" Joseph has excelled in two highly competitive fields: as writer, Hollywood biographer and former journalist and critic who counts a Pulitzer Prize among his achievements, and as an actor honored with a prestigious Hollywood acting award whose work also has been recognized in Cannes and New York. He stars as a military veteran in a romantic drama named an Official Selection of the Cannes Film Festival Short Film Corner ("The Last Dance"), won Best of Festival character acting honors at the Hollywood Shockfest Film Festival for re-creating an iconic horror favorite ("Ritual"), has the lead as a polygamist cult leader in a film à clef that won Best Ensemble Acting at the New York First Run Film Festival and a National Board of Review Commendation ("When the Dogs Cried Out"), was nominated as Best Lead Actor at the Show Low International Film Festival for his portrayal of a deadly Middle East sentencing judge ("Zarin"), stars as a fanatical collector, the film's sole onscreen character, in a thriller chosen as an Official Selection of the Phoenix Film Festival ("Detector"), and stars as a washed up ventriloquist in a two-character drama that won Best of Fest honors at the Southern Arizona Independent Film Festival and was a top winner at the Broadcast Education Association (BEA) Festival of Media Arts ("The Amazing Mortimer"). Other recent portrayals include The Soulless Gunfighter opposite Danny Trejo and Bill Engvall in the Western satire "Cowboy Dreams," the co-starring role of the veteran astronaut in the science fiction TV series "H.O.P.E.," and the pivotal part of the lead attorney in the environmental feature film "Poison Sky" with Kevin Sorbo ("Hercules"). Greg made his big screen debut in an auspicious way _ co-starring opposite Michael Douglas in the major feature "Adam at Six A.M.," which was produced by screen legend Steve McQueen ("Bullitt") and has since gone on to achieve cult status. He was nominated for the 2015 Governor's Arts Award, an honor described as "the most prestigious, recognizing excellence in artistic expression and outstanding contributions to the arts community," as well as for the 2016 Filmstock Film Festival Barry E. Wallace Citizenship Award, for "those that promote encouragement and positive influences in their film community." He continues to hone his craft, most recently studying improvisation with Oscar-winner Alan Arkin ("Little Miss Sunshine"), a founding member of Second City. In April 2019, he appeared on Turner Classic Movies (TCM) with host Ben Mankiewicz as a guest programmer as part of the cable channel's silver anniversary after winning a national contest as one of the country's top 25 "super classic movie fans," and was in a number of promotional spots marking the occasion. Greg was born and reared in Kansas City, Missouri, the only child of Theodore Joseph, a jeweler who as a young man dreamed of leaving his native Cleveland to go to Hollywood and become an actor himself, and Marcella (Nelson) Joseph, an artist and graduate of the Kansas City Art Institute who studied with the famous muralist Thomas Hart Benton, whose work adorns the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library. He began acting at age 13 and went on to earn an honors degree in Drama from the University of Missouri-Kansas City, where he was nominated for a Woodrow Wilson Teaching Fellowship and was inducted into the Phi Kappa Phi National Honor Society, the nation's oldest all-discipline honor society, which recognizes students both for being ranked scholastically at the top of their class and for their integrity and high ethical standards. There, he studied with artist in residence Robin Humphrey, a former Broadway actress who had been a member of Lee Strasberg's first class of students at the New York Actors Studio with Marlon Brando, and also taught Drama on a graduate assistantship through the university. His first professional acting job came in his senior year, when he performed with The Missouri (now Kansas City) Repertory, appearing in productions of "The Miser" and "Oedipus Rex," the latter directed by Alexis Minotis, a film veteran (Alfred Hitchcock's "Notorious") and co-founder of the Royal Theatre of Athens with his wife, actress Katina Paxinou (Oscar winner for "For Whom the Bell Tolls"). That same year, Greg was invited to audition for John Houseman as the Oscar-winning actor-producer, perhaps best known for his collaboration with Orson Welles, was assembling his first Drama Division class at The Juilliard School. Months after graduation, he landed a principal role in the McQueen-Douglas production "Adam at Six A.M.," which was shooting both in Missouri and in Hollywood. Greg's unusually assured performance in the film as Ed, the straight arrow young pharmacist vying for the hand of leading lady Lee Purcell _ a role that was to have been cast in Hollywood _ drew praise from the film's producers and writers, who invited him to the West Coast. He accepted, and moved into a small apartment across from the iconic Grauman's Chinese Theatre in the heart of Hollywood. Greg, who had worked as a reporter for The Kansas City Star while in college, continued to write upon moving to Hollywood as a means of supplementing his income and complementing his acting. He supplied jokes for Johnny Carson's "Tonight Show," then returned to newspapers, working for several of the largest dailies in the United States, moving freely among hard news, entertainment and arts criticism, with many of his articles appearing in syndication worldwide. He went on to win a number of writing and reporting awards, including sharing the 1979 Pulitzer Prize as a member of The San Diego Tribune staff for its coverage of one of the worst commercial airliner crashes in U.S. history. His other notable assignments included traveling to the Middle East during the infamous hostage crisis in Iran. At one point, he was that paper's main celebrity profile writer, focusing on seminal public figures across the cultural spectrum, ranging from the likes of influential pediatrician Benjamin Spock, children's author Theodor "Dr. Seuss" Geisel, science fiction writer Ray Bradbury and social activist Angela Davis, to legendary show business luminaries, including film directors from Frank Capra, Billy Wilder, Robert Wise and Stanley Kramer to Richard Donner, Wes Craven and Spike Lee, and actors from James Stewart, Cary Grant and Gregory Peck to Jim Carrey and John Goodman. He wound up his long journalism career as a TV critic, first of The San Diego Tribune, then of The Arizona Republic. In June 2019, he was invited by The New York Times to meet with its op-ed editors for the second annual "Evening with Letters" conference after being handpicked as one of the paper's top 30 regular contributors from across the U.S. Greg thus far has written two books, a collection of his profiles and a political thriller, both of which are now seeking publishers. He is also writing several screenplays. His industry activities include service on the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (Emmy) Regional Board of Governors; the Screen Actors Guild Prime-Time TV Nominating Committee, its National Committee for Performers with Disabilities and its State Board of Directors; the Film & Media Coalition Board of Directors, and as a member of the Television Critics Association. He is listed as actor, critic and advocate in Who's Who in America and Who's Who in the World, and is a recipient of the 2017-2018 Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award. He and his wife of more than 40 years, Mary, have three grown children.