[citation needed] Papps studied drama and media at Box Hill College of TAFE in Melbourne.

[2] He went on to secure his first major television role in children's series The Henderson Kids II, which aired on Network Ten.

He attended an open audition for the show and after a couple of screen tests, he was cast as Vinnie Cerantino, the leader of the Brown Street Boys gang.

In 1988 he won the Logie Award for Most Popular New Talent, and later graduated from the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts.

[4] In 2018, he returned to Summer Bay, alongside co-star Nicolle Dickson, who played his foster sister and later wife to celebrate the Home and Away 30th-anniversary commemoration.