Today we’d like to introduce you to Greg Allan Martin
Hi Greg Allan, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I grew up in Little Rock, Arkansas, the middle of three brothers. Our lives revolved primarily around competitive sports, but fortunately my parents always made sure we understood that there was a reason why the word “student” came first in the phrase “student-athlete.” With the goal of playing Division 1 football in college while getting the best possible education, I was very blessed to be able to attend Vanderbilt University on a football scholarship. (I should mention here what is surely by far be the most important part of this interview — the fact that Vanderbilt recently knocked off Alabama, the #1 team in the country – Go Commodores!) I then went on to graduate from Harvard Law School, which led to a nearly three-decade career as a Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney. All the while, a love for theatre kept me returning to the stage whenever possible, from church plays in junior high, to a student drama group in law school, and to a professional theatre company in Los Angeles, where I performed in over 25 plays during the time while I was working as a prosecutor. Something about the need for left brain/right brain balance, I guess. Or maybe the explanation for why I would do jury trials during the day and feel the need to do plays at night was because an audience of only 12 people at a time was just not enough for my ego. I retired from the D.A.’s office two years ago, and am now enjoying pursuing acting full time, turning my previous avocation into a more of a vocation.
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?
Ha, I would have to wonder about anyone who said that life has been a smooth road! And thank God – literally – that is has not been for me, for we all know that most personal growth and maturity comes from the times of struggle. Let me start by saying, first of all, that I fully recognize how fortunate I was to grow up with loving parents, to have been grounded in a strong faith by going to church every Sunday – a faith that has continued to this day – and to have had some wonderful academic and athletic opportunities along the way. I guess the main struggle that I had as time went on was the battle between, I might say, passion and responsibility. The truth is, as much as I enjoyed my work as a prosecutor, and as much pride as I took in the mission I felt in that job, I would have loved to have spent my life and career as an actor. But early on, I recognized the fickleness and uncertainty of that pursuit, so I opted for the constancy and regular paycheck of the job as a D.A. I will never regret that choice (and what it meant to my family), but I think there has always been a persistent struggle between my head and heart. Or as someone once said, “When are you going to decide what you wanna be when you grow up?” And now that I can finally pursue acting full time, and am trying to become an “overnight sensation” in my 60’s, I find myself competing with actors my age who have 40 or 50 years of credits to their name! So, the struggle continues, ha!
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
After retiring from the District Attorney’s Office, I was finally able to devote myself to finding work as an actor in the kind of projects that speak to my heart. Within three months, I was blessed to be cast as a series regular in the Sony/Affirm Films six-part series called SHADRACH, which is streaming now on Great American Pure Flix. It is a wonderful family show, about parents and their two young kids who are forced to leave the big city when the father loses his company, and have to move to the country to live on their grandparents’ farm. It is a charming and uplifting show in the same vein as shows like “The Waltons” and “Little House on the Prairie.” I am so proud to be a part of a project that can be watched by the whole family, and that embraces the fact that there is a huge part of the viewing public who are eagerly looking for the kind of quality mainstream entertainment that reflects their values. As an actor, I am of course eager to work in various genres, but this show is very special to me.
If we knew you growing up, how would we have described you?
Sports were my passion. Whatever sport, whatever season – football, basketball, baseball, track, tennis, golf, swimming. We did not have a lot of money, and thus did not travel much, so my main memories of vacations as a kid were driving around the South to swim meets. God bless my parents, when I think of how many games and meets and tournaments they took us to and sat through, I am amazed. (But that, of course, motivated me to do the exact same thing for my two boys when they were growing up as young athletes.) I was also involved with church activities – Sunday school, youth groups, church plays, Young Life, the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. I think it’s safe to say I was fairly easy going as a kid. Sheesh, this is all sounding pretty boring and uneventful! Well, I just pray that I can always be grateful and mindful of how God has blessed me, and use the opportunities He gives me to be a part of stories that can impact and inspire audiences.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gregallanmartin/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greg.a.martin.7/
