Richard Grieco Biography

Richard Grieco is an American actor who is most recognised as the brooding, handsome police officer in the series ’21 Jump Street’. Though he is mainly known as an actor, he is also a successful former model, painter, musician, writer and director. Grieco was born in New York and is of Irish and Italian descent. His family lived in New York and then in Massachusetts where Grieco grew up with his three siblings. In school, he excelled in sports and acting was nowhere in his mind. At one point he even considered becoming a lawyer. Athletic and blessed with good looks, he won a modelling competition during his high school days. He was soon signed on by a modelling agency and became a model for some of the world’s most prestigious fashion labels. He, however, got tired of modelling and decided to pursue acting. He spent two years in training and landed a role in his very first audition for ‘One Life to Live’. After working for a year he relocated to Los Angeles and soon he got the role that made him the heartthrob of the viewers —as police officer in 21 Jump Street. Grieco has acted in more than fifty movies. He is a gifted singer and apart from doing singing parts he had his own band and has released a music album. Grieco has had a successful run as a painter as well. He has created a unique form of painting which he calls ‘Abstract Emotionalism’.