Paulo Costanzo

By Erin Gilligan

Hear Paulo talk about his first role! [Click here]
Paulo talks about the trials and tribulations of auditioning [Click here]

It’s 3:57 p.m. on Friday. Stage 24– formerly the set of Friends – is abuzz with energy. The audience waits impatiently, eyes fixed on the sets below. Paulo Costanzo sits in his dressing room, adrenaline pumping; psyched for the rush he’s about to experience.

As he heads for the stage, Paulo can hear the warm-up director shout to the audience: “Are you guys ready to meet the cast of Joey?”

The crowd explodes and, one by one, the cast pours onto the set. Paulo hears his name, then thundering applause. He marvels that this has become his life.


Paulo wakes up every morning in his rented Beverly Hills home, eats breakfast and begins his 40-minute commute to work. He drives into the Warner Brothers Studio lot dressed in his usual attire – jeans, a t-shirt and grey FILA high tops. His 1992 Acura Legend doesn’t quite fit with the Cadillacs, Porsches and Mercedes of his colleagues. Down the lot he can see mountains, a surreal contrast from the studio city he’s standing in. This new world is hard to get used to.

Paulo never imagined he would be playing Michael Tribbiani, the nephew of Matt LeBlanc’s character on the hit show Joey, when he was watching Friends back in his Canadian hometown of Brampton, Ontario.

“There are at least a couple of times per day where I’m talking to LeBlanc and I’m like, ‘How the hell did I make it here?’.”

About 10 years ago his journey began at Mayfield Secondary School located on a country road surrounded by hay fields and rural homes. Paulo started out playing trumpet in the music program even though he wanted more than anything to be in drama.

“I always wanted to act, I was just too chicken.”

He finally gained the courage to switch programs in his second year.


In grade 11, he desperately wanted to try out for the school’s production of Fiddler on the Roof. For weeks he rehearsed but never auditioned.

“I hated myself for that.”

Instead, Paulo worked behind the scenes.

“I became that prop guy who messed up his job because I was too busy looking longingly onto the stage singing along with the leads.”

Vowing never to make that mistake again, he landed the lead in West Side Story the following year. Playing Tony gave him the confidence he needed.

“I knew this would change my entire life if I got this part.”

Years and several parts later, Paulo is finally where he wants to be – where the films are. Paulo knows he has a much better shot of landing the role of his dreams if he lives in Los Angeles. And that’s exactly why he moved there.

“The way I see it, and maybe it’s selfish, I want to be where the best films are being made. I want the best roles. I want to be working with the best people. There are good people working in Canada but the ratio of talented people in Canada to talented people in Los Angeles, it’s not even comparable.”

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