Growing up in New Mexico, Graves is familiar with Southwestern life, including horseback riding, hunting, fishing, camping, western dancing, etc. His nearly 40-year history in the theatre in New York and California includes Shakespeare, Broadway, Off Broadway, Regional, Daytime Drama (All My Children) and experimental plays, as well as recent short films (Binding Silence, Letting Go, The Tom Doyle Players, Vendetta, The Seer--filmed in Sardinia, and The Infidel--filmed in Utah). . He is married to Jennifer Lee Graves, and has a son, Phillip Coquet and a daughter, Rebecca Graves, as well as a grandson, Jimmy Buster Schoenkopf.