One of Jack Martin’s (OM 2013) first reviews was in the 2013 Melburnian, where he was commended for his “spectacular poise and comic timing” playing Malvolio in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night.
“I did every play I could at Melbourne Grammar,” says Jack, who goes by J.D. Martin on screen. (His friends still call him Jack.) “My first role was as Myra the Maid in a Wadhurst production, wearing a straggly black wig and a bonnet. That was when I found out that no matter how my day was going, I could always find joy on stage.”
How early support made the difference
“Our Drama teacher, Mark Brady, was incredibly supportive and got us all thinking outside the box,” says Jack. “He saw that there were a few of us who were hungry for it, pushed for Drama to be included as a VCE subject, and gave us great real-world advice. To have a resource like that at that time was priceless. I can’t sing his praises enough.”
Having been part of the first Melbourne Grammar cohort to study Drama as a VCE subject, Jack was encouraged by his friend Kahlia Davis (OM 2013) to try out for the American Musical and Dramatic Academy. Almost 10 years, countless theatre productions and a growing number of screen roles later, Jack is still based in New York and making a good living through his craft.
Looking back to appreciate the journey
“I was having coffee with a friend the other day and we were grumbling about how busy we were, feeling pulled in too many different directions or perhaps not connecting with a project our agents had been pitching us on,” Jack says. “I stopped for a moment and said, ‘Can you believe the problems we have right now? Our 18-year-old unemployed selves would be stoked to hear this is what we’re complaining about!’ It was my dream to make a living as an actor, and I’m achieving that.”
Jack’s advice to aspiring actors is to focus on the journey, rather than the destination. “It’s a marathon, not a sprint,” he says. “When I started out, I did theatre shows in the basements of bars and abandoned furniture shops, with more people on stage than there were in the audience. I walked all the dogs of the Upper East Side to pay my rent. It’s a grind but it’s all working towards something, and today I love every moment I’m on set and feel incredibly grateful.”
You can see some of Jack’s recent performances in Manifest (Netflix), FBI Most Wanted (Paramount+) and the upcoming season of Moonshine (Binge).
