Meet Kitt Martin | Podcaster, Actor, and Book Reviewer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Kitt Martin and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Kitt, we’d love to hear about a book that’s had an impact on you.
One of my favorite books of the last decade or so is this book I read called Eliza and Her Monsters. The book is about a girl who created an influential webcomic and has to then deal with the secrecy and isolation that results from her achievements, as well as the constant pressure to produce a satisfying ending to her comic when she’s hit with an intense writers’ block brought on by her near-constant panic. I could really relate to the book because a few years ago I experienced a loss and for almost an entire year I barely talked and I couldn’t write a word. I didn’t listen to music, I stopped watching television, and it was the great resurgence of my interest in reading. I don’t consider reading to be a hobby of mine, or even a thing that I particularly enjoy doing, but it really got me through that time. When Eliza reaches out to her idol in search of advice and hoping for a Hail Mary, the woman likens the thing inside of her that gives her the ability to create to a monster, and instructs her to feed it.

It was absurd, but it was also really good advice. I woke up at 5am. I ran. I started drinking coffee. I went out more. I stopped buying things I didn’t need. I continued buying things I didn’t need. I started watching movies in every language and read so many Harlequin romance novels that I thought I was going to wear my glasses out. Then, I started writing again, and it wasn’t like I had never stopped, it was more like I’d never stop again. As a result of that, I didn’t start to particularly love reading, but I started getting a kick out of recommending books to other people, which led to me being online more, and engaging with people online more, which eventually led to me podcasting, which has lead me to a lot of really great friends and opportunities I wouldn’t have had otherwise.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I am a film and theatre student who attends university in the UK, with a major focus in acting for film and television. As a part of my university course, I’ve both written and starred in several short films, which I’m both quite proud of and also hoping will never see the light of day in equal measure. Getting there as a mature student was difficult, and I’ve experienced a lot of failure. Sometimes, even now, it feels like I won’t ever stop failing. I haven’t overcome every challenge. I have definitely been defeated. And somehow, I always keep going, because I know that the day that you give up might be the day that you win. I don’t think I could stop if I wanted to.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I don’t know what I’d recommend for an entire weeks’ itinerary, but food-wise, I would definitely HAVE to recommend my favorite “hidden gem” place in Fort Worth, a food truck that I have pinned to my maps app, La Cocinita (12039 Camp Bowie W Blvd, Aledo, TX 76008). When they were doing the free Fast & Furious marathon back in 2021, I went there every Friday for nine weeks straight to get a burrito bowl and a coke with my friends before the movies! I once had a torta from La Cocinita that was so good that I fell asleep eating it and woke up and continued to eat it.

Visit-wise, it’s kind of boring, but my very favorite place in the Metroplex is First Flight Park in Downtown Fort Worth – a place that is not exactly the site of the first flight on Fort Worth soil, but very close to it. It’s a nice, minimalistic, and usually peaceful park with the model of a monoplane in the center. I wanted to be an astronaut as a kid, and visits to places like this and the Aviation museum remind me of the wonder that I experienced visiting NASA. However, I am also a woman of many passions, and when my most serious friend and I are not studying or accomplishing our goals, we are avid ghost investigators and fans of local history in general, which is how I actually learned about the park, so I would be remiss in not recommending the Ghost Bus Tour that operates out of Acre Distilling Co. (where I would recommend the Up N’ Smoke, the Texas Manhattan, and the Miss Etta’s Lemonade), which is both a beautiful whistle-stop tour of the Downtown Fort Worth area and a love-letter to local haunts in the city where the west begins.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I would like to dedicate my shoutout to my mom and my family, who have always supported me, and to the other members of the Hall of Pods podcasting network, who helped keep me inspired to create and engage online during a nearly year-long hiatus.

Website: https://linktr.ee/kittmartin

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kittiznkane/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/martinkittmartin/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/kittiznkane

Image Credits
Kendra Newton