Justin Lawrence Green

Justin was born on July 30, 1989, in Los Angeles, California, to Julia Green, a homemaker, and Larry Green, a basketball scout.

 

He grew up in the suburbs alongside his younger brother, Cody, where his childhood was filled with skateboarding, television marathons and an increasingly intense fascination with acting.

At the age of eight, Justin discovered 3rd Rock from the Sun. Watching John Lithgow's performance changed everything.

 

Lithgow became Justin's acting idol, and from that moment onwards, Justin knew exactly what he wanted to do with his life: become an actor. His father hoped Justin might eventually follow a career in basketball, but Justin had other plans. Throughout his teenage years, he pursued acting with relentless enthusiasm, auditioning for roles across Los Angeles.

 

Unfortunately, the auditions rarely led anywhere. Eventually, Justin found his way into the local theatre scene, taking whatever opportunities he could find and surviving largely through passion, determination and a refusal to give up. His twenties, however, proved considerably more difficult.

 

A divorce tore through his family, relationships came and went, and Justin increasingly found himself relying on menial jobs to keep himself afloat. Hollywood had failed to deliver the career he'd imagined, and by the time he was twenty-four, Justin was becoming increasingly disillusioned with Los Angeles.

 

Then he made a drastic decision. He moved to Stratford-upon-Avon. The birthplace of William Shakespeare and a town where his idol John Lithgow had once performed, Stratford represented something almost mythical to Justin. He decided that if Hollywood wasn't going to give him his big break, he would find another route to the stage.

 

His ultimate goal became performing at the Royal Shakespeare Company's stage. Justin slowly established himself within the UK's theatre community, taking small roles for modest pay while working various jobs to survive. One of those jobs was at the RSC gift shop — an experience that was simultaneously exciting and frustrating for someone whose greatest ambition was to perform inside the building rather than work beside it.

 

In 2019, Justin moved into a shared house with Patrick, a local waiter, and Stefan, a German film enthusiast. For the first time in years, Justin found himself surrounded by people who made Stratford feel like home. In 2022, he joined Red's Coffee & Diner.

 

Hired by the restaurant's then-manager, Mike Barnes, Justin quickly bonded with longtime employee Phil Cooper. His enthusiasm, confidence and seemingly endless energy soon made him one of the more memorable members of the Reds team. A year later, Justin was promoted to Supervisor.

 

He was enormously proud of the promotion — perhaps a little too proud. Justin threw himself into the role with the same theatrical energy he brings to almost everything else in his life. But beneath the jokes, confidence and charisma is a man who is beginning to wonder whether his dream is slipping away.

 

Now a British citizen who has spent more than a decade living in Stratford, Justin has achieved a stable life at Reds. He continues auditioning whenever he can, still hoping that one day he will make it onto the RSC stage. But rent needs paying. Shifts need covering.

 

Auditions clash with work. And years of rejection have begun to take their toll. His family is also thousands of miles away. His mother has remarried in Los Angeles, his father has retired to Canada, and his younger brother Cody is raising two children in Texas. Justin is approaching his mid-thirties and finds himself at a crossroads. The dream he has spent most of his life chasing feels further away than ever. His job provides stability but increasingly feels stagnant. And behind the wit, confidence and charm, something is beginning to crack.