Martin Russell Johnson

At the early age of 10, Martin Russell Johnson knew that producing film was his calling. Instead of joining a gang like a lot of his friends, Martin would focus on escaping his toxic environment through his creativity. A year after graduating from high school, Martin attended a one-year filmmaking program at The Los Angeles Film School. Although he would find himself taking two buses and three trains per day to get to school, Martin was determined to finish the course and start his career in the entertainment industry. At film school, he majored in Production Design and minored in Screenwriting and Directing. In one year, Martin was able to design 7 short films, and write, direct, and produce his short thesis film that would later be accepted into the 2007 San Diego Asian Film Festival.

In 2011, after moving to Los Angeles permanently, Martin's film festival and stage management experience landed him a part-time gig as a Theater Manager at the Directors Guild of America (DGA). He'd get promoted just a few months later to work on logistics for the DGA Awards Show, and two months after that he got promoted again and would have the opportunity to help the DGA and its Diversity Committees lead the charge in developing diversity directing programs and building industry diversity reports that would be used during negotiations.

After successfully fighting to increase diverse representation in the industry with the NAACP and DGA, Martin's goal was to jump back into a creative role. For three years he would work alongside Warner Bros. Home Entertainment to create promotional partnerships that supported intellectual property such as Aquaman and The Harry Potter Franchise during release windows. In his first assignment as a Brand Strategist-for an independent film called American Wrestler-Martin created a grassroots marketing campaign strategy that was responsible for 70% of ticket sales during opening weekend.

For the past three years, Martin has been the leader of this amazing organization that helps underserved youth confront and overcome their psychological, emotional, and developmental trauma through filmmaking and storytelling-something all too familiar to Martin. Under Martin's leadership, he has increased film festival submissions for the youth's films; created additional programming and work opportunities for the youth by conceptualizing new partnerships with studios; and led the charge in producing over twenty short films starring actors such as Terry Crews [Brooklyn 9-9], Ariel Winter [Modern Family], Oscar Nunez [The Office], and Ringo Starr [The Beatles].