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 co-writing the feature script 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 graduated from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, where she studied experimental theater, movement, and cinema. 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 meditation, traditional yoga, indigenous healing, and tea ceremony. When she’s not behind the lens, she provides mentorship, teaches workshops, and serves tea.

Subscribe to her Substack called MAKING by Kat Mills Martin.