Whatever Happened To Demetri Martin?
When it comes to comedians in the mid-2000s into the early 2010s, few surpassed Demetri Martin. He was an up-and-coming talent who seemed to be everywhere. From the Jon Stewart era of "The Daily Show" to writing on over 100 episodes of "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" to stand-up comedy recordings to random internet musings, Martin was one of those voices of comedy that popped up everywhere. His Comedy Central series "Important Things with Demetri Martin" was a favorite for many, and yet he somehow fell out of comedic circulation.
But Martin is still around. He's still doing things as a writer, comedian, and actor. Whether you've recognized him or not, Martin has been in a variety of work in the last decade with no intention of stopping his comedy career anytime soon. So, what he has been doing since his Senior Youth Correspondent days? Read on to find out what Demetri Martin's been up to.
Demetri Martin made a movie inspired by his family
Over twenty years after losing his father, Demetri Martin wrote, directed, and starred in his 2016 film "Dean" which was inspired by his father. Martin's film follows a character named Dean, a guy who doesn't want his dad to sell his childhood home after his mom dies. Although it isn't about his dad, per se, the story is about handling grief. "At my dad's funeral, I remember thinking, 'This is the worst day of my life. No contest,'" Martin told the College Times. "It was horrible when he was sick. Don't get me wrong, but it was that finality. Then, I remember thinking that someday I'll be able to talk about this without crying."
Martin, who loves drawing, was able to include that passion in his film since his character was a cartoonist. He told the Washington Post that he'd been drawing since childhood and giving his character a background not in comedy gave him more room to play with non-verbal commentary. "Dean" starred Martin alongside Kevin Kline, Mary Steenburgen, and Gillian Jacobs. It won the Best Narrative Feature award at the Tribeca Film Festival. Per Deadline, the festival jury said of Martin's directorial debut: "It manages the near impossible task of breathing new life into a well-worn genre, balancing humor and pathos with an incredibly deft touch, and offering a unique perspective on the way we process loss."
Demetri Martin lives a comfortable life
With over two dozen acting credits in addition to his work as a stand-up comedian and now filmmaker, Demetri Martin doesn't necessarily have to constantly work to stay afloat. Martin is currently worth around $4 million, per Celebrity Net Worth. He even purchased a house from "How I Met Your Mother" alum Cobie Smulders back in 2017 for a cool $1.425 million. This is when we could make a joke about Martin being in the film "Moneyball," but we won't.
Though he's created a rather nice nest egg for himself, he's not pompous about it. Martin told Vice that he often had to take temp work in his early days as a performer because otherwise, he didn't make any money. "I left law school, got temp jobs during the day, and did stand-up during the night," he said. "I bombed regularly and made no money for years. Eventually, I found my way in, and now I look back and I'm like, 'Oh, I'm so glad I did that.'" Martin also added that he worked at his family's food stand in Jersey Shore as a kid so he has a lot of experience in the service industry — and that experience has stuck with him. "I'm a pretty good tipper because I know how hard food service jobs are," he said.
The 'domesticated' life of Demetri Martin
In 2019, as he got ready to head to Australia on tour, Demetri Martin told The Music that he has become "domesticated" since being in the country last — and he happens to be one of those celebrities whose spouse happens have a normal job. Martin married interior designer Rachael Beame Martin in 2012. "I got married and we got a house and we fixed up the house and then had two children and I'm finally leaving — just temporarily," he shared with the outlet. Martin then added that he feels bad when he travels on tour because he can't always bring his wife along who is admittedly a "better traveler" than he is.
Beame Martin owns her own design company, Beame Martin Design, and does work in retail, corporate and residential spaces. Per her company site, she has a graduate degree in Architectural Interior Design from Parsons School of Design along with her Bachelors in Interdisciplinary Engineering from the University of Florida. Her father Lawrence Beame is a well-known architect. Beame Martin did make a few appearances on her husband's show "Important Things with Demetri Martin" in 2009 and then 2010.
Demetri Martin has two kids
As a father of two, Demetri Martin recognizes that he has changed as a person after becoming a dad. "Probably the biggest thing is that I feel more compassion, just generally, for other people," he said in Vulture in 2017. "That's probably a normal response to becoming a parent, but I think it can open you up and make you feel for other people a little bit more." He has made a point not to talk a lot about his kids in public because he's a bit of a private person, he added.
Martin told The Boston Globe that one of his "proudest moments" was when his son once let the family know, unprompted, that he wanted to tell a joke. Even so, Martin added that he doesn't expect his children to become comedians like their old man. According to Celebrity Net Worth, son Paul was born in 2012 and daughter Eve was born in 2016.
He shared with Seven Days that being a father has also complicated his grief from losing his own dad when he was in his 20s. Now instead of thinking about his father's death in relation to himself, Martin sees it in relation to his own kids.
He's a star on a hit cartoon series
The adorably awkward animated series "We Bare Bears" is about a trio of bear siblings who want to coexist in the Bay Area alongside humans. The adorable and awkward bears are voiced by Bobby Moynihan, Demetri Martin, and Eric Edelstein. Martin plays Ice Bear (who is a polar bear) on the show. In 2017 Martin told The Patriot Ledger that doing the voice for "Three Bare Bears" is a good job for him because the commute isn't bad and they can knock out a lot of recordings in just one or two sessions a week.
"It has a sweetness to it that I love," he shared with the paper. "My 3-year-old doesn't watch much stuff yet because he's so young, but I'll go to him 'Ice Bear says good night,' and he laughs. He has this little plush toy of Ice Bear that he sleeps with because he figured out it's my voice on the show." The spinoff series "We Baby Bears" showcases the same bear trio as babies with Martin as the narrator. Per Variety, Cartoon Network announced in January 2022 — the same month the show premiered — that a second season was underway.
Demetri Martin launched the I Feel Funny Tour
In 2022, Demetri Martin kicked off his "I Feel Funny" tour. He told the Steamboat Pilot that returning to the stage has been great because people are a big part of a successful comedy performance due to the "call and response" nature of a show. "I feel so grateful that people are showing up and excited to be there," he said. "I just did a show in L.A.; it was sold out and everyone was so excited to be there."
Being on stage gives Martin joy, he explained via the Fairfax County Times. It's something that he missed less than a year into the pandemic shutdown and he is happy to be back doing something he loves so much. His current tour is full of material he wrote when he wasn't able to do live shows because of COVID-19 so audiences are seeing almost all new work from Martin. He explained, "I've been joking on stage that I had this time at home where I could reflect on this unprecedented time in global history and I found nothing, just more jokes about my dog and stuff." Dog jokes are always good though.
Demetri Martin has faced health issues
On September 23, 2019, Demetri Martin took to Twitter to express his sadness to fans about canceling his fall tour due to health issues. His announcement said, in part, "Over the course of this past year, I have become much more run-down than usual. What I thought was exhaustion has turned out to be something more serious...thankfully, it's not life-threatening, but it has left me severely anemic and not well enough to travel...I'm grateful that I'll be able to make a full recovery. I'm sorry to disappoint any of you." He added that he was excited to get back on tour in 2020.
Chortle pointed out that Martin canceled his gigs in the UK and Ireland earlier in 2019 due to "unforeseen circumstances" after rescheduling other dates because of a last-minute filming scheduling issue. Martin never revealed what illness caused him to cancel his tour in 2019, just that he was receiving treatment.
The pandemic was a 'reset' button for Demetri Martin
When the COVID-19 pandemic made the world pause, Demetri Martin was forced to take a break from stand-up shows and the like. And suddenly he could enjoy things again. "It was a total reset for me," he told Vanyaland. "Call it amateur or hobby or whatever, but I like drawing and painting, and I started making outdoor furniture for my house, and I was making mobiles out of little pieces of wood. It's not a career for me, and I don't think it's my calling, but it was very fulfilling for me." Because he had to step back from his comedy career, now Martin is coming back into it with a newfound appreciation for the art after some much-needed time away.
Scrolling through Martin's Instagram you can see his sketches, references to the work he's done in the past, and reminders of his 2022 comedy tour. Even though you can see the joy he has in the drawings he shares online, it's also clear that Martin embraces the joy that audiences bring him, especially after so long away. He admitted to Vanyaland that he "didn't realize" how much he missed being in front of an audience and really "connecting with" them. One of his drawings captures just how much he gives to his audience, even if, as he says, "they don't have any features."
In 2018, Demetri Martin's special hit Netflix
Demetri Martin's famous one-line jokes and penchant for deadpan delivery were on full display with his 2018 special "The Overthinker" on Netflix. Just shy of an hour-long set, Martin talks about everything from donut holes, dogs, and aggressive alphabet letters in a way only he can, according to IMDb. The special was met with mixed reviews although, as Sean McCarthy at Decider said, maybe folks shouldn't "overthink" this show. "Yes, he commits to the premise of overthinking his performance throughout the hour," McCarthy wrote. "And by employing split-screen to present illustrations as tags to jokes, 'The Overthinker' becomes the rare stand-up comedy performance better taken in at home than live."
Meanwhile, Dennis Perkins at AV Club wasn't so amused by Martin's show. Perkins likened Martin to "the wannest character in a lesser Wes Anderson movie." He goes on to say that the work in this special just isn't memorable. But for someone like Martin, who admittedly gets "lost in the analysis of stuff," leaning too much on criticism of his work wouldn't help with the overthinking problem he says he has. This special was like an experiment in working with all the things he likes to do when analyzing his work as he creates it, Martin told Forbes.
Demetri Martin has been working for years on a book
Although he has already published some books such as "If It's Not Funny It's Art" and "This Is a Book," Demetri Martin has been working on another for quite some time. "I still haven't finished it, and my wife jokes with me about how if I don't finish it during the pandemic, I'll never get it done," he shared with Vanyaland in 2022. That said, he shared that he's "made some good headway" on the book, adding, "I'm learning how to write fiction better." He told MN Daily in 2015 that his books are a way to "do comedy in print," so it only makes sense that he's branched out to another medium for his art.
Martin's other books include his quirky drawings along with his love of wordplay. He told NPR in 2011 that some of the work in "This Is a Book" is short but added, laughing, that it is also full of "pretty deep stuff." Well, we think "Palindromes for Specific Occasions" are pretty deep, so we'll have to agree there.