John Smythe has described himself as 'a middle-class boy from suburban Wellington New Zealand who’d worked in insurance for three years, done a year at university, completed three months national service then registered as a conscientious objector, toured schools for the rest of that year with the New Zealand Players Drama Quartet, gone to NIDA to learn his craft properly then spent a year as an actor/playwright-in-residence/tutor etc with the Melbourne Theatre Company' prior to becoming part of the Australian Performing Group at Melbourne's Pram Factory.
Following his time at the Pram Factory, Smythe 'wrote scripts for Crawfords' before living overseas and in Sydney. He later returned to New Zealand where he worked as a freelance 'writer, actor, theatre critic and corporate communications consultant'.
Source: 'Pram Factory Recollections' [n.d.]
