CASUAL BIO

Marvin Payne is a professional actor, wordcrafter, songwriter, and recording artist.  The fact that most of his clothes are from D.I. while his guitars are from the legendary C.F. Martin Guitar Company (established 1833) gives the clearest glimpse into his material priorities.   

He has released eighteen albums of original songs and has written on some widely-produced plays, including "The Planemaker,” in which he stars, and "Charlie's Monument," in which he was Charlie.    

He’s done everything from Shakespeare to “Phantom,” but he usually gets recognized in the mall as the guy behind daddy's nose in "Saturday's Warrior." One thing he loves is to show up as an 85-year-old J. Golden Kimball, the most colorful church authority since Jonah was regurgitated onto the beach.  

He stars in “The Trail of Dreams” about the Mormon Trail, which he wrote with James Arrington and Steven Kapp Perry, and some time ago premiered the two-player musical “Wedlocked,” which he wrote, again with Steven Perry.  

Favorite roles he didn’t write include Sweeney Todd, King Lear, and El Gallo the Bandit.  In the film "Man's Search For Happiness," he is the Man Who Searches.  

For kids, he plays a talking dog named Boo who likes to act out the scriptures, a wordy tortoise named Theo, a rhinocerous named Lou, and a scruffy critter named Lorenzo who has a magic songbook.  

He plays in a Celtic band called Pennyland, a classic rock cover band called Alpine Highway, and picks and grins as a solo artist wherever people will hold still.

In any given month, a couple dozen people in a dozen states are learning guitar from him.

If he is remembered by history, it will be because he is his children's father. They are songwriters, storytellers, artistic innovators, theatrical designers, and monster jazz guitarists.  

SMALL BIO

Marvin Payne lives in a cabin in Alpine, Utah, with his lovely singing actress wife Laurie, magical daughters Caitlin Willow and Adwen Lea, eight guitars, a banjo, and a cardboard moon from "The Fantasticks." They have a good dog, Brandy, who, if she hadn't been adopted and already had a name, they would have called something non-alcoholic.

He is fond of P.G. Wodehouse, sopranos, oceans, mountaintops, and anything involving tortillas.  

For fun, he rambles long distances along the Wasatch mountains rehearsing lines to vast audiences of bewildered squirrels.

ITTY-BITTY BIO

Marvin Payne acts in plays and films, writes hundreds of songs, records lots of albums, performs all around the nation from concert halls to homes and firesides, writes funny and useful books, owns and runs Babymoon Recording where he helps people hear their dreams come true, writes, directs, and produces dramas, creates and shares children’s theatre, counsels people on various aesthetic challenges and is generally a creative and helpful sort of guy.