✦ Celebrity stories, facts and career updates. Explore F4U now →

Home › Biography › John Green

John Green biographyFeatured Biography

Image source: StarsUnfolded

Celebrities

John Green Biography: Age, Career, Family and More

F4U Editorial Desk • Updated October 4, 2026 • 6 min read

Quick Info

Date of birth24 August 1977

Age43 Years

BirthplaceIndianapolis, Indiana, U.S.

ProfessionAuthor; YouTube content creator; Producer

NationalityAmerican

Marital statusMarried

SpouseSarah Urist Green

FamilyChildren: Henry Green (son), Alice Green (daughter)

John Green Biography

John Michael Green is an American author, YouTube creator, and producer best known for his young adult novels—most notably The Fault in Our Stars—and for a

Early life and background

John Michael Green was born on August 24, 1977, in Indianapolis, Indiana. Although his family relocated to Orlando, Florida when he was an infant, Green’s hometown is listed as Indianapolis. He attended Glenridge Middle School and Lake Highland Preparatory School in Orlando, and later completed part of his schooling at Indian Springs School in Alabama. Green went on to study at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio, where he graduated with a double major in English and Religious Studies.

Before turning fully to writing, Green spent time working as a chaplain at a children’s hospital and planned to pursue divinity studies at the University of Chicago, a path he ultimately did not follow. Those early experiences with ill children informed themes that would later appear in his fiction.

Career

Green launched his literary career with the novel Looking for Alaska, published in 2005. The book garnered critical recognition and won the Michael L. Printz Award. He followed with a steady output of young adult fiction, including An Abundance of Katherines (2006), Paper Towns (2008), Will Grayson, Will Grayson with David Levithan (2010), and The Fault in Our Stars (2012). Turtles All the Way Down appeared in 2017, and The Anthropocene Reviewed was published in 2021.

The Fault in Our Stars became a cultural touchstone after its 2012 publication, spending an extended period on bestseller lists and later adapted into a successful 2014 film. Paper Towns and Looking for Alaska have also received adaptations, with Looking for Alaska later being produced as a television miniseries in 2019 in which Green served as an executive producer.

Parallel to his work as a novelist, Green has been a prominent online creator. In 2007 he and his brother Hank started the Vlogbrothers YouTube channel, originally conceived as a video-based letter exchange. That channel evolved into a broader suite of educational and community projects, including Crash Course, an animated series of concise educational lectures, and VidCon, the large annual conference for the online-video community that the brothers launched in 2010.

Green’s roles on his YouTube projects have been extensive: actor, director, writer, producer, editor, cinematographer, and more. He was also involved with Mental Floss as a writer and served as the frontman for the magazine’s YouTube series The List Show from 2013 to 2018.

Public profile

Over the course of his career Green has received multiple literary awards and honors. Looking for Alaska won the Michael L. Printz Award, and Paper Towns earned both an Edgar Allan Poe Award and the Corine Literature Prize. The Fault in Our Stars received recognition including the Children’s Choice Book Award for Teen Book of the Year and helped cement his reputation in the mainstream; in 2014 Time magazine named him among the 100 Most Influential People in the world.

Beyond awards, Green has built a significant community presence. He and his brother founded the Nerdfighter movement and the charity-focused Project for Awesome, which raises funds for nonprofit causes. Project for Awesome has grown into a substantial annual fundraising effort. Green and Hank also developed Crash Course into an educational platform with many contributors and millions of subscribers.

Personal life

John Green is married to Sarah Urist Green, an art museum curator and host of The Art Assignment. They were married on May 21, 2006, and live in Indianapolis with their two children, Henry and Alice, and a West Highland Terrier named Fireball Wilson Roberts, nicknamed Willy. Green identifies as American by nationality and has described his religious background as Episcopalian Christian while noting complexity in his relationship to that label.

Public interests and honors

Green has been publicly recognized by municipal leaders: a day in July 2015 was proclaimed John Green Day in Indianapolis, and a similar honor was announced by an Orange County official. He is a well-known fan of Liverpool Football Club. His public activities also include long-running book reviews and cultural commentary; earlier in his career he worked as a production editor for Booklist and contributed to public radio programs.

Latest updates

In recent years Green has continued publishing fiction and nonfiction, with Turtles All the Way Down (2017) and The Anthropocene Reviewed (2021) among his more recent titles. His involvement in digital media and charity initiatives remains a visible part of his public life, including ongoing contributions to educational content and community-driven fundraising projects.

Editorial Review and Sources

This F4U profile is written from publicly available career and profile information, then reviewed for clarity before publication. If you spot an outdated detail about John Green, send the page URL and a reliable correction source to f4udotin@gmail.com.

Reference context: StarsUnfolded
◈

Recent Work

Turtles All the Way Down

Novel by John Green

2017
The Anthropocene Reviewed

Published collection by John Green

2021
Looking for Alaska

Original debut novel (also adapted as a 2019 TV miniseries in which Green was executive producer)

2005
✦

Career Highlights

  1. Author of The Fault in Our Stars, which was adapted into a 2014 film
  2. Winner of the Michael L. Printz Award for Looking for Alaska
  3. Co-creator of the Vlogbrothers YouTube channel and Crash Course educational series
  4. Co-founder of VidCon and the Nerdfighter community
  5. Named to Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in 2014
?

Frequently Asked Questions

When was John Green born?

24 August 1977

What is John Green known for?

Author; YouTube content creator; Producer

What is John Green’s marital status?

Married

Who is John Green married to?

Sarah Urist Green