Billoah Greene: a street-fighting kid channels his passion into acting and comes out swinging

Interview, April, 2003 by Juan Morales

Actor Billoah (Buh-LOY) Greene is so easygoing, it's hard to imagine he'd swat a fly. But years ago, he was such a troublemaker that he was nearly expelled from school. The 23-year-old explains that in his "rough" Newark, New Jersey, neighborhood, "If you didn't defend yourself, the other kids would eat you alive."

When Greene was 13, his mother moved him and his sister--his father has been incarcerated since Greene was 10--to Florida. There, a high school drama teacher encouraged the teen to channel his aggressions into acting, laying the foundation for the taut, raging energy evident in Greene's current onscreen work, of which there's a bunch. Since graduating from college in 2001, Greene has already scored parts in four movies, including Chris Rock's just-opened Head of State and the somber new drama Levity, with Billy Bob Thornton and Kirsten Dunst.

Reflecting on his past, Greene, who now lives in Los Angeles, says, "I can't be mad. What went through in childhood, and the situation with my dad, has shaped my life and informed my choices as an actor. I feel blessed." Clearly, this actor's outlook is as bright as his future.

Juan Morales is a Los Angeles-based writer and editor.