Jacob Martinez Is Building a Career Without Leaving People Behind

Some people enter a room looking for the spotlight. Others quietly notice who is already standing inside it. Before we spoke with Jacob Martinez, we expected to meet an actor preparing for a defining chapter of his career. Instead, we met someone who kept redirecting the conversation away from himself. Every answer seemed to return to another person—a friend whose work inspired him, a swing whose dedication often goes unnoticed, a veteran willing to share advice, a father excited for his son to finally see someone like him on screen. It became clear that Jacob doesn’t measure life by how many people are watching him. He measures it by how many people he continues to see.

That perspective is remarkably uncommon in an industry built on visibility. Asked about the experiences that shaped him before Days of Our Lives, Jacob never points to a breakthrough audition or a career-defining opportunity. He simply says he grew by “watching my friends and colleagues work hard and chase their own dreams.” It is a small sentence that quietly reveals a much larger truth. Long before audiences knew his name, he had already learned that admiration is a better teacher than comparison. Success wasn’t something to compete for. It was something to witness, celebrate, and learn from.

The same instinct appears when he talks about acting itself. Many performers spend years trying to perfect their technique. Jacob describes the moment everything changed as the moment he stopped thinking about himself. He laughs at the familiar questions every actor knows—“Do I look and sound okay?”—before arriving at the realization that reshaped his craft: “The character has far more interesting thoughts than just ‘does my hair look okay?'” In a single answer, performance becomes less about being seen and more about seeing someone else deeply enough to tell their story honestly.

Perhaps that is why theatre continues to occupy such an important place in his journey. Speaking about his years as a swing, he doesn’t focus on the pressure or the preparation. Instead, he calls those performers “the unseen superheroes of theatre.” It is an observation that perfectly mirrors the rest of the conversation. Jacob has a habit of recognizing the people most audiences never think about. Later, discussing Days of Our Lives, he speaks with the same respect about listening to actors and crew members who have spent years building the show’s legacy. His ambition never seems to replace his curiosity. If anything, success has made him more willing to learn.

That humility is perhaps most evident when he reflects on the years before television. Like many actors, he worked side jobs while waiting for opportunities that often felt just out of reach. But his definition of perseverance sounds different from the one we usually hear. Rather than describing survival through struggle alone, he offers something quieter: “Sometimes perseverance means having peace wherever you are.” It is a profound idea because it refuses to postpone life until success arrives. Peace isn’t treated as a reward at the end of the journey. It becomes part of the journey itself.

Throughout our conversation, another pattern quietly emerged. Representation was never discussed as visibility for its own sake. It was always about what another person might feel. Jacob recalls a crew member telling him how excited he was for his gay son to see someone like him on screen. The moment stayed with him because it reminded him that storytelling reaches beyond entertainment. Sometimes a role becomes permission. Sometimes simply being visible allows another person to imagine a future for themselves.

Even his definition of success resists the individualism that often surrounds this industry. When asked what success looks like today, Jacob doesn’t mention awards, recognition, or career milestones. Instead, he says, “I will feel successful when the people I love feel successful as well.” That answer doesn’t simply conclude the interview—it explains everything that came before it. The gratitude. The listening. The generosity. The belief that careers are not measured only by how far they take us, but by whether we continue to carry other people with us as we grow.

The entertainment industry will always celebrate the moment someone arrives. It should. Those moments matter. But after spending time with Jacob Martinez, we found ourselves thinking less about his arrival than about the person who arrived. Long before television, before recognition, before audiences had the chance to know his work, he had already become someone who notices others before himself. In the end, that may be the foundation beneath everything he builds. Careers rise and fall. Headlines eventually fade. But character has a way of remaining long after the applause has ended. And perhaps that is why Building More Than a Career was never really about a profession at all. It was always about the person quietly choosing who he wanted to become.

Photography DaMarko GianCarlo @damarkoGianCarlo

Words Kyra Greene @noteasybeingreen

Wardrobe Madina Farhadi Mass @madinamass

Grooming Ana @berthas_artistry

Creative Services Firstsight International @firstsight.intl