John Meeks (he/him)
Actor/Writer
John Meeks
Writer/Actor John Meeks: A graduate of the “Fame” High School for the Performing Arts in New York, who matriculated to Carnegie-Mellon University’s theater program, John moved to Los Angeles, and started out as a day player on network soap operas before acting work dried up for “out” gay men due to the AIDS crisis. John pivoted, taking a job at The Revolver, a gay video bar, quickly advancing to become part of the management team of AXIS Nightclub, the largest gay nightclub in West Hollywood, at a time when there were no other Black managers of any business in West Hollywood. All while staying connected to acting, John workshopped a musical for Helen Slater, playing King of the Wild Side for her “Ugly Duckling” children’s musical. John starred in his writing partner Jeffrey Moline’s play, “In The Flesh”, and the play “Dear Harvey” Jeffrey co-produced at the Lee Strasberg Theater. John’s first screenplays were: “The Road To Freedom”, an epic slavery era tale of Black strength and ingenuity, and “The Emperor’s Nightingale” a musical based on a Hans Christian Anderson story “The Nightingale”. Key projects over the years have included co-writing the Academy Nicholl’s Fellowship quarter-final winning screenplay, “Bessie: The Exploits of An American Empress”; co-writing the screenplay “Sick! The True Tale of How One Woman Cured 20 Million Homosexuals” the story of the woman who confronted oppression fighting to remove homosexuality from the list of mental illnesses; and currently developing “Sylvester” a biopic based on the life of the iconoclastic disco legend Sylvester and, “The Last Will of Lucy Sutton” a tale of one woman’s fight to get her family to freedom, and to protect that freedom in a court of law.
Over the years he has worked in various positions with non-profits most recently PAWS/LA, where he raised over $1,000,000 for the small nonprofit. Between stints there, John created a high school theater program for Woodcraft Rangers After School Program.
Finding creative outlets, such as singing in the Unity Fellowship Choir, or teaching theater for young professionals with Bobby Gene; always coming home, turning on India Arie, burning incense, and working on a story is what drives John Meeks.
