Meet Julia Damatin of Julia Jean Media (Parent Company of Actors Are Athletes & Dirty Pop NYC)

Today we’d like to introduce you to Julia Damatin.

Hi Julia, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I moved to New York City to become an actor. After graduating with my BFA in Musical Theatre, I created my brand Actors Are Athletes (@actorsareathletes.) I needed something creative and community-driven in my life while navigating the reality of being a young actor: auditioning constantly, working to make ends meet, and spending a lot of time in the in-between. When I moved to the city, I started bartending and quickly realized that, while I was good at it, it wasn’t giving me the financial stability or creative fulfillment I needed, so I kept building Actors Are Athletes and looking for ways to create opportunities for myself rather than waiting for them to happen.

That eventually led me into social media. I started creating content for a bar where I was working, realized I could make real money off of it, and began taking on more clients. What started very organically became Julia Jean Media, which I eventually incorporated as an LLC and grew into a creative business working across hospitality, entertainment, fitness, and social media. I really enjoyed the trial and error of it all and figuring out how to make it work and get out of service.
The beginning of 2026 forced me to really lean into that.

After leaving a company, losing a pretty big client due to budget cuts, and watching the job market become increasingly oversaturated, I had to reassess what I wanted my career to look like and how I could create more stability for myself. I had been coaching CrossFit for five years and am a Level 2 trainer. Actors Are Athletes was continuing to grow through fitness partnerships and community programming, and I started noticing the rise of founder-focused content on TikTok.

I realized I could use my own experience as a proof of concept, so I started documenting what it looked like to build businesses from scratch—and that ultimately led me to create Dirty Pop NYC, a mobile dirty soda business under Julia Jean Media.

We now work directly with major brands to support brand activations, including a 400-person event for Urban Outfitters!

At the same time, I’ve never stopped being an actor-that has been the thread connecting everything I’ve built. I created “The Pre-Show” with Actors Are Athletes to combine my love of storytelling, theatre, and social media, interviewing Broadway actors and creating relationships directly with Broadway PR agencies and entertainment brands. After three years of auditioning, taking classes, paying for self-tapes, photos, submissions, and everything else that comes with building an acting career, I finally signed with an agent through a referral from my acting coach.

I also understand that having an acting career means being willing to build a life around an industry that is rarely linear or financially predictable.

I’m not building businesses because I stopped wanting to be an actor—I’m building them because I am an actor. I want to be on television, I want to continue creating, and I want to have the financial freedom and flexibility to say yes when the right acting opportunity comes along. Even actors booking Broadway shows and major Netflix projects often have to return to serving, teaching, coaching, or other work between jobs, because the career simply doesn’t operate on a traditional timeline. I’ve chosen to embrace the fact that there is no single path anymore. I’m an artist, an actor, a producer, and a founder, and I’ve built my businesses by being willing to take risks, learn new things, and create my own opportunities while continuing to pursue the career I moved to New York for in the first place.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It has been the furthest thing from a smooth road, but every setback has forced me to learn how to pivot, adapt, and recognize that I the only person coming to save me is myself. I have put myself in a position where I have autonomy over my circumstances based off of my choices.When I was burnt out from bartending, I looked at what was actually giving me energy and stability—coaching and social media. I pivoted in service to content creation, eventually building a strong client roster and learning how to monetize my creative skills not just as an influencer, but as a filmmaker, editor, and storyteller for businesses. When that client work started falling apart in early 2026, whether I chose to move on from a client or was let go, it was frustrating to experience so much turnover in such an oversaturated industry. That tough period ultimately pushed me to launch Dirty Pop NYC, which gave me momentum, income, and a new way to get in front of brands while also giving me the time to refocus on Actors Are Athletes. I finally had time to produce “The Pre-Show,” something I had wanted to do for a while, but didn’t have the brain power or energy to try. That pivot has now led to opportunities and relationships that are also moving my acting career forward, which is something I don’t think would have happened if everything had not fallen apart all at once. I’m also proud that I’ve always tried to build myself a safety net—I saved when things were going well, kept coaching, and held onto the community and stability CrossFit gave me. I think all of those experiences have taught me that a non-linear career doesn’t have to mean an unstable life; sometimes the hardest pivot is the thing that puts you exactly where you need to be.

We’ve been impressed with Julia Jean Media (Parent Company of Actors Are Athletes & Dirty Pop NYC), but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Julia Jean Media is the parent company behind two distinct businesses, Actors Are Athletes and Dirty Pop NYC, while also serving as the creative and media arm that ties everything together. At its core, JJM is built around storytelling, content, and creating opportunities in spaces where I have firsthand experience. I work across UGC, influencer marketing, social media strategy, video production, editing, and live experiences, which gives me a unique perspective. I’m both a creator producing the content and someone who understands what brands need on the other side of the table. Rather than approaching social media purely as an influencer, I’m deeply involved in the creative process from concepting and shooting through editing, strategy, and execution, which allows me to create content that actually feels native to the platforms it lives on.

Actors Are Athletes is my passion project I created and has always been rooted in education, community, and helping performers understand that their careers require the same intentionality as an athletes. What started as a platform for sharing information about fitness, recovery, mental resilience, and longevity for performers has grown into a community with fitness partnerships, events, and “The Pre-Show,” and we’re now expanding that mission into an education program for young artists with a curriculum designed to help them navigate the transition from training into the professional industry. The program brings together the practical and personal things I wish I had known earlier—career preparation, physical and mental training, auditioning, rejection, longevity, and understanding how to actually sustain yourself as a working artist.

Dirty Pop NYC is the events side of my creative work: a mobile, customizable dirty soda shop that brings non-alcoholic drinks, candy, color, and an experience-driven approach to brand and private events. I created it as a relatively low-cost proof of concept after years of bartending and working in hospitality, and it has grown from an idea I was documenting online into a real event business producing custom activations for brands, offices and eventually celebrations. Because I come from both hospitality and content creation, Dirty Pop NYC is not just about serving drinks—it’s about creating something visually exciting, highly shareable, and genuinely fun that gives a brand another way to interact with its audience.

What connects all three is that I’m building businesses from the perspective of a creator, an artist, and a founder—not from a traditional corporate model. I’m constantly looking at how storytelling, community, social media, and real-world experiences can work together, and each business gives me another way to learn, experiment, and create opportunities for myself and for the people and brands I work with.

Are there any apps, books, podcasts, blogs or other resources you think our readers should check out?
TikTok is probably my favorite resource because each of my business accounts has become its own learning tool—I’m constantly curating my algorithm to relay to that business.
Whether that’s entrepreneurship, content creation, entertainment, marketing, or building a brand. I genuinely believe some of the greatest resources are other people, so I spend a lot of time paying attention to people who are already doing things I want to do and listening to how they built their careers, what worked for them, and what they would do differently. I love Meghan Markle’s podcast and the perspective she brings to conversations around creativity and building a life and career on your own terms, and I also really enjoy Eli Rallo’s advice around being a creative and figuring out how to move forward in an industry that is constantly changing. I also really look up to Ilona Maher and love hearing about her journey from nursing and athletics into entertainment, because there’s something really inspiring about watching someone build a career across multiple worlds rather than following one traditional path. Ultimately, I think being a good listener and staying curious is one of the most valuable skills you can have—find people who are doing what you want to do, pay attention to how they got there, take the advice that resonates with you, and then figure out how to apply it to your own life.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://juliadamatin.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/actorsareathletes/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/juliadamatin

Image Credits
Headshot by Nile Scott