Martín Acuña Connects Broadway and Latin America Through Media, Marketing and Advocacy

In an industry sustained as much by relationships as by performance, Martín Acuña has built a career at the intersection of strategy, storytelling and cultural exchange. A Colombian performing arts marketer and media creator based in New York, Acuña has become a visible advocate for emerging and seasoned talent through his work in arts marketing and as the founder of Backstage Talk, the bilingual podcast devoted to Broadway and musical theater professionals across the Spanish- and English-speaking worlds.

His interest in the stage began early. At 14, after seeing The Lion King on Broadway, he recognized the world he wanted to inhabit. What followed was not a single path but a sustained preparation: undergraduate studies in performing arts with a concentration in acting, alongside additional academic training in communications and filmmaking. The combination would later prove defining, merging artistic sensibility with a practical understanding of audience engagement and media.

Rather than treat marketing and performance as separate disciplines, Acuña has built bridges between them. By day, he works in arts marketing; beyond that role, he has steadily developed platforms that connect artists, institutions and audiences.

That impulse led to the creation of Backstage Talk, launched shortly before the pandemic. Conceived as a meeting point between Broadway, its voices, and Latin America, the program arrived at a moment when artists and audiences were searching for new forms of connection. Nearly six years later, it remains one of the few bilingual podcasts worldwide dedicated specifically to musical theater and the performing arts on an international scale.

Its guest list reflects Acuña’s reach across the industry. He has interviewed prominent figures including Sergio Trujillo, the Colombian-born Broadway artist whose career helped redefine Latino visibility on major stages, as well as performers working across New York, London and beyond. The podcast has become a forum where established artists and emerging professionals discuss craft, access and representation.

Acuña’s growing influence was recognized at BroadwayCon, where he was invited to lead his own panel in 2022. He returned in 2025 with multiple conversations focused on immigrant achievement, Latino visibility and the role of independent media in theater culture.

One panel, titled Immigrants: We Get the Job Done — echoing the now-familiar phrase associated with Lin-Manuel Miranda — brought together theater professionals from varied backgrounds to discuss how International Artists build careers in New York. Another featured Broadway veteran Mandy Gonzalez, tracing her career from Aida through In the Heights, Wicked, Hamilton and Sunset Boulevard. A separate discussion examined the expanding influence of podcasts within the Broadway ecosystem.

In January 2026, Acuña continued the series with a new edition, Foreigners: We Get the Job Done, highlighting international professionals whose work shapes New York’s cultural life. The conversation featured guests Aline Mayagoitia, currently appearing in Real Women Have Curves, and Julio Rey, known for his work in Lempicka, Bad Cinderella and Aladdin.

Alongside his media work, Acuña serves as Senior Marketing Manager at Ballet Hispánico New York, one of the leading Latino cultural institutions in the United States and widely regarded as a cornerstone of American dance. Recognized by the Ford Foundation as a national cultural treasure, Ballet Hispánico encompasses a professional company, a school and a broad community arts division.

In that role, Acuña supports campaigns ranging from performance promotion to brand strategy and audience development. The organization’s annual New York season at New York City Center has become one of the city’s major spring engagements, with recent programming devoted to women choreographers from across the Latin American diaspora, including artists with Dominican, Cuban, Brazilian, Mexican American and Colombian backgrounds.

For Acuña, the institution carries personal meaning. Working there, he has said, brings him particular pride as a Latino professional contributing to one of the country’s most important cultural organizations.

Ballet Hispánico’s wider mission also aligns with his own. Its educational programs serve students from early childhood through older adulthood, offering open classes in ballet, hip-hop, salsa, flamenco and Spanish dance. That commitment to access mirrors Acuña’s longstanding interest in making the performing arts more visible and more attainable.

Though he has acknowledged a desire to return to the stage as an actor, his career has evolved into something broader: helping shape the systems through which artists are seen, heard and supported.

At a moment when the performing arts are increasingly international, multilingual and digitally connected, Acuña has positioned himself as both participant and architect — a professional whose work expands not only audiences, but pathways.