Faculty Bio

John Wills Martin Department of Graduate Film Tisch Asia

Biography

John Wills Martin has worked in film and theater for over twenty years.  He was an Assistant Director and Dramaturge at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles where he worked on twelve new plays in development including two Pulitzer Prize winners, Angels in America and The Kentucky Cycle.  John has directed classic and contemporary theater in Los Angeles at LATC and in Edinburgh at the Richard Demarco Theatre.  Other directing credits include Hang Ong's Paper and his own translation of Buchner's Woyzeck.

John has acted in such films a The Believer with Ryan Gosling, Hamlet with Ethan Hawke, in television (Deadwood, High Incident) and numerous theatrical productions.  He has also worked as an acting coach for audition and for set-work for many years.  His clients have included Elisabeth Shue and Peter Dinklage.  John holds a B.A. in Theater from Bennington College and has an M.F.A. from the American Film Institute in Film Directing.  While at AFI he directed several shorts and, most notably, produced the Oscar-winning short film My Mother Dream's the Satan's Disciples in New York.  As an actor/director he has studied under Judith Weston, Harry Mastrogeorge and Charlie Laughton.