Thisbiography of a living personneeds additionalcitations forverification. Please help by addingreliable sources.Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced orpoorly sourcedmust be removed immediately from the article and its talk page, especially if potentiallylibelous. Find sources: "T. J. Martin" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(August 2023) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

T.J. Martin
Martin in 2017
Born	Thomas McKay Martin Jr.[1] (1979-09-07)September 7, 1979 (age 46)[1] Seattle,Washington, U.S.[2]
Alma mater	Fairhaven College Western Washington University
Occupations	Film director screenwriter film editor cinematographer producer commercial director
Years active	2002–present
Relatives	Tina Bell (mother)

Thomas McKay Martin Jr. (born September 7, 1979), known professionally asT. J. Martin, is an American filmmaker. Martin's filmUndefeated (2011), for which he was co-director, co-editor, and co-cinematographer, won the 2012Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature, making Martin the first film director of African-American descent to win anAcademy Award for a feature-length film.^[2][3]

Martin's filmLA 92 (2017), for which he was co-director and co-editor, won the 2017Primetime Emmy Award for Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking.

Martin co-directed the documentary filmTina (2021) about the life of singerTina Turner, for which he was nominated for aPrimetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Documentary/Nonfiction Program.

Martin was born on September 7, 1979,^[1] inSeattle, Washington,^[2] to singerTina Bell (1957–2012) and guitarist Tommy Martin (1958–2019),^[4] both members of the late punk/earlygrunge Seattle band Bam Bam.^[5] Martin's mother wasAfrican-American^[6] and his father was white.^[4][1] Martin is also ofNative American,Scandinavian,Chinese andJewish origin.^[1]

Martin graduated from Roosevelt High School in Seattle and went on to attendFairhaven College atWestern Washington University, where he studied American Cultural Studies, graduating in 2005.^[1] While there, Martin co-directed his first film, the feature documentaryA Day in the Hype of America (2002), concerning the hysteria around theY2K problem, which won Best Documentary at the 2002Rhode Island International Film Festival.^[7] Martin then directed short films such asLoves Martha andOn the Rocks, the latter is a docudrama about drug and alcohol addiction.^[8]

In 2007, Martin met future directing partnerDaniel Lindsay in Los Angeles, when they collaborated on the feature documentaryLast Cup: Road to the World Series of Beer Pong, directed by Lindsay and edited by Martin.^{[citation needed]} The film was distributed byMorgan Spurlock's company Warrior Poets.^{[citation needed]}

As co-directors, Martin and Lindsay next made the feature documentaryUndefeated, which chronicles the football team ofManassas High School inMemphis, Tennessee.^[9] The film focuses on the lives of several of the players and their coach,Bill Courtney, over the course of a single season.Undefeated premiered at the 2011SXSW Film Festival and was purchased byThe Weinstein Company for North American distribution just hours after the first screening.^[10] Released to near universal acclaim, the film went on to win the Academy Award forBest Feature Documentary in 2012.Undefeated holds a 96% rating on the review aggregator siteRotten Tomatoes.^[11]

In November 2012, Martin was listed onEbony Magazine's "Power 100" list.^[12] That same year he received the award for “Outstanding Achievement in Directing” from theSeattle International Film Festival.^[13]

On April 28, 2015, Martin gave a talk atTEDx on Orcas Island, Washington, titled “Reimagining America’s Culture Narrative”, in which he discussed race and diversity in the film and television industry and mass media more broadly.^[14]

In 2017, Martin and co-director/co-editor Lindsay, made the documentary featureLA 92. Composed entirely of archival footage, the film explores the days of civil unrest that followed the acquittal of fourLAPD officers captured on video beating motoristRodney King—the events commonly referred to as the1992 Los Angeles riots.LA 92 premiered at the 2017Tribeca Film Festival and made its broadcast premiere shortly thereafter on theNational Geographic Channel. The film was named by several publications, includingRolling Stone andThe Playlist, as one of the best documentaries of 2017.^[15][16] In June 2017,LA 92 won thePrimetime Emmy Award for Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking.^[17] The film was shortlisted for Best Documentary Feature for the90th Academy Awards and holds a 97% rating on the review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes.^[18]

In 2021, Martin co-directed a documentary film forHBO about the life ofTina Turner, titledTina.^[19] That same year, he signed a first look deal withImagine Documentaries.^[20]

In 2015, Martin co-directed a documentary special titledI Am Dying, which was produced byJoaquin Phoenix,Casey Affleck and Mary Lisio for theNational Geographic Channel.^[21][22] The film chronicles Renee and Rita Heidtman as Renee loses her life to terminal breast cancer while her sister Rita cares for her.

In 2018, Martin co-directedTerritorio de Zaguates, episode five of the TV seriesDogs. The show is an episodic television show exploring the relationships between humans and dogs. The episode featuredTerritorio de Zaguates, a no-kill dog sanctuary in Costa Rica. The series premiered onNetflix in November 2018.^[23]

Working officially as the directing duoMartin + Lindsay, Martin and Lindsay have continued their work across various platforms including short films, television, and commercial work. Their short filmMy Favorite Picture of You (2013), was built around an audio interview with Martin's grandparents^[24] and was screened at numerous film festivals, was featured onThe Atlantic^[25] andVice,^[26] chosen as a Vimeo Staff Pick, and nominated for a Webby Award.^[27][28]

Martin and Lindsay have co-directed television commercials for clients that includeStarbucks,Comcast,Gatorade,Facebook,Toyota,Prudential Financial,Hallmark Cards, theUnited Negro College Fund,Honey Maid,Google and theNew York Times. The “This Is Wholesome” campaign, directed for Honey Maid, garnered both controversy and praise for its portrayal of parents and their children that include a single father, an interracial couple, and a gay couple.^[29][30]

In 2020, Martin and Lindsay's "The Truth is Worth It" campaign forThe New York Times swept the commercial awards circuit^{[citation needed]} and won aClio award and two Grand Prix Lions for Best Film and Film Craft atCannes Lions.^[31]

• T. J. Martin atIMDb 
• T. J. Martin atRotten Tomatoes
• T. J. Martin atMetacritic
• T. J. Martin atTV Guide

• 1979 births
• Living people
• Film directors from Washington (state)
• Filmmakers from Seattle
• African-American film directors
• American people of Scandinavian descent
• American people of Chinese descent
• American people of Jewish descent
• American television directors
• American film editors
• American cinematographers
• Directors of Best Documentary Feature Academy Award winners
• 20th-century African-American people
• 21st-century African-American people
• Roosevelt High School (Washington) alumni
• Primetime Emmy Award winners

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• BLP articles lacking sources from August 2023
• All BLP articles lacking sources
• Use American English from August 2023
• All Wikipedia articles written in American English
• Use mdy dates from August 2023
• Articles with hCards
• All articles with unsourced statements
• Articles with unsourced statements from August 2023