John Paul Torres is originally from Pontiac, Michigan. He earned a bachelor's degree in political science from Oakland University and a master of public administration in state and local governments from the University of Michigan's Rackham Graduate School. He lives with wife and their two children in Waterford, Michigan.

John Paul previously worked as a juvenile justice reform analyst at the Michigan Supreme Court's State Court Administrative Office. Before that, he served as supervisor of the probation department at a Metro Detroit district court and as a project manager for the Juvenile Drug Treatment Court at Washtenaw County courts. John Paul also worked as a court administrator for the Juvenile and Probate Court in Bay County, as a probation officer at the Detroit Mental Health Court in Wayne County's 3rd Circuit Court, and as a senior judicial clerk in the chambers of the Chief Judge of Oakland County Probate Court. He also worked as an adjunct professor of Political Science at Oakland Community College and served as a Congressional Fellow in the U.S. House of Representatives.

John Paul is currently a member of the Waterford School District Board of Education, At-large. He was first elected in 2014 and is serving his third term. He previously served in the Michigan House of Representatives, having been first elected in 2019 and served one term.