In 2023, she was selected to be a Directing Fellow by Women in Film. Kat’s work has screened at Raindance Film Festival, Inside Out Toronto, Cinequest, Austin Film Festival, Heartland Film Festival, LA Asian Pacific Film Festival, and Hawai’i International Film Festival, among others. Her short film CELESTE IN SPRING premiered on the British Independent Film Awards qualifying film platform Directors Notes and is a Vimeo Staff Pick. Kat is currently writing a feature script set in Hawai’i and co-writing the feature LITERALLY DYING with Nora Logan.

Kat’s debut feature WAKE UP, LEONARD, a self-help comedy, screened at more than 20 film festivals worldwide and is now streaming on Amazon Prime, AppleTV+ and more. The film won Best Feature Film at the Best of NFMLA Awards, the Humor & Humanity Award at Heartland Film Festival, and was nominated for the Comedy Vanguard Award at Austin Film Festival and Best Performance at Raindance.

Kat is a graduate of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts with a BFA in Drama. Traversing the mundane to the transcendent, her work deconstructs elements of our human condition with compassion, reverence, and humor. She is the founder of Studio Norté, a creative studio based in Los Angeles and Ojai, California.

Kat is a longtime student of the wisdom traditions of India and Tibet, earth-based healing, and tea ceremony. When she’s not behind the lens, she provides creative mentorship, teaches workshops, and serves really good tea.

Subscribe to her Substack MAKING by Kat Mills Martin.