Like every executive producer, Marsai Martin understands how long it takes to bring a feature film to the screen. She spent nearly one-third of her life doing it. The 14-year-old originator of Universal Pictures’ Little first pitched the idea, with her father, way back when she was 10. “We had zero clue what we were doing, to be honest,” Martin says of their meeting with Kenya Barris, who’d created Martin’s breakout vehicle, ABC’s Black-ish. But Barris embraced the idea, which was inspired by the 1988 Tom Hanks classic Big, and looped in producer Will Packer (Girls Trip) to shepherd it to screen. Martin signed on as executive producer, the youngest person ever to earn that title for a major motion picture. Little took in $15.5 million when it debuted in April. Earlier this year, Martin launched Genius Productions and became the youngest person Universal Studios has ever granted a first-look deal. She plans to executive-produce and star in the first Genius/Universal project in development, the comedy Stepmonster. “Hollywood should pay attention to this next generation,” Martin says. “We have a voice, and we want to be heard.”
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