By Olaf Growald
Kenn Scott
To compare it to something more universally renowned, it was like picking your Hogwarts House. In the early ’90s, any child who had yet to crack the decade mark was either Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello, or Michelangelo; everyone had a favorite Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, and whichever you picked was a portrayal of your personality.
For those who grew up when shoulder pads were stylish, the Cowboys were winning Super Bowls, and Arsenio Hall had a late-night talk show, few movies were as downright badass as the first two installments of “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.” Like the Beatles of the ’60s, they were as iconic to a generation as one can get.
So, I was star-struck, to say the least, when I first met Kenn Scott during a lunch with mutual friends. We’d been chatting for half an hour over some pho before someone leaned over and told me that he was Raphael in the first two “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle” movies — I would later discover, thanks to his new memoir, Teenage Ninja to Mutant Turtle: Becoming the Reel Raphael, that each turtle is technically played by four performers: an actor, a puppeteer, a stunt double, and a voice actor. The scene where Raphael saves Ariel after being attacked by foot soldiers in the subway? That was Kenn.
Charismatic is an easy adjective to apply to Kenn; he comfortably strings complex thoughts together in easy-to-understand language, has a Hollywood smile but a down-to-earth inclination, and can shoot the breeze on almost any topic without seeming like a know-it-all. Growing up in Greensboro, North Carolina — where “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” was filmed, which played a big part in his getting the role of Raph — Kenn then spent 22 years in Los Angeles, where he had bit parts in, what Kenn calls “shitty movies” — “I was office No. 2,” he says. He also headlined an action flick, wrote and directed some B-movies, served as a fitness trainer, and found some time to work in marketing.
“You’re talking about the ’90s, man,” Kenn says about his time in Los Angeles. “Just such a huge martial arts world back then.”
He’s been in Fort Worth for the last six years, setting up shop near The Foundry District with Avadel Agency, a creative marketing firm he founded with David Valentine.
In November, Kenn released a memoir about his life up to the end of the second “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” film, the aforementioned Teenage Ninja to Mutant Turtle: Becoming the Reel Raphael. The self-published book, of which the proceeds are donated to the Sea Turtle Conservancy, is a quick and enjoyable read about happenstance and determination.
“I went as far back as I could and started writing down a list of everything I could remember,” Kenn says. “What came out of that was basically a bullet-point list of everything I could remember from the time I was born up through Ninja Turtles. And I was, like, ‘Well, shit, that’s my autobiography right here. Let me figure out how to turn that into 50,000 words.”
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Barbara Walters and the Ninja Turtles.
2 of 4
Kenn Scott, Leif Tilden, Ernie Reyes Jr., Judith Hoag, Michelan Sisti, and Nick Palma at comic-con.
3 of 4
Kenn Scott and drinking buddy Jurt Bryant (Tokka) having some backlot fun.
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Johnny Holbrook, Billy Lui, Tom DeWier (doubling Casey Jones), and Kenn Scott.
We caught up with Kenn at Avadel Agency and chatted about his post-turtle life — we purposely avoided talking about things one can read in his book to avoid redundancy.
FW: Your book ends at your time as a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle. What happened right after that?
Kenn: I was a bit-part player in a couple of different films, here and there, and then I took my fate in my own hands. It was really hard to get an agent and do all that stuff, so I invented my own management company. I made some letterhead, I got some business cards made, and I made my roommate, Tony, my manager. I said, “You don’t have to do anything, but I just want to use your name.”
So, I put together this whole management package, created a management company, and put in an extra phone line. I also put together a Kenn Scott promotional kit with some video tape from Ninja Turtles, interviews that I had done, and I filmed myself doing karate. And I sent it to 10 or 15 companies that were making martial arts films, and then I sat on the couch and played “Super Nintendo.” Then, lo and behold, one day the phone rings, and a production company wants to cast me in a movie. They ended up writing a movie for me called “Showdown.”
They signed me to a two-picture deal and everything, man. And “Showdown” was hugely successful. But then they made “Double Dragon” after that, and I was not in “Double Dragon,” and that bankrupt the company. That was the end of my two-picture deal.
FW: So how did you end up going from playing Raphael and living in Los Angeles for 22 years to living in Fort Worth? Tinseltown to Cowtown is an interesting dichotomy.
Kenn: Did you ever see the movie “Bull Durham”?
FW: Of course.
Kenn: Okay. I was Bull Durham. I had played in the major leagues for a very brief period of time, but then I was mostly a minor league player. I was doing a lot of independent martial arts movies and low budget stuff and stunt coordinating and second unit directing for the History Channel. I wasn’t breaking into the A game. After a while, I was like, “All right, I’m ready to do something else with my life.”
My family doesn’t have roots here or anything, but my brother got a great offer to work in Southlake as a hand surgeon. He’s been here about 18 years, and I kept visiting him. I wanted to be closer to somebody in my family, and I was like, “Well, my brother and I play music together, so I’ll just go move near my brother, and then we’ll cultivate that relationship and find something to do there.”
So, I moved here with no idea what I was going to do. Just wanted to come, but then I found Fort Worth. I was like, “Oh, okay. There’s texture and culture here.” I really like it.
FW: Tell me about what you’re currently up to.
Kenn: I became a marketing consultant in Fort Worth, and then I managed to win the Business Plan Competition in 2015. And, because of that, my network expanded, and I managed to meet David [Valentine], who was having great results in digital marketing. So, two years ago, we teamed up to form Rethink Creative, which we eventually rebranded to Avadel.
As soon as we started working together, we increased the agency 300% in terms of revenue and everything. And we’re now one of the three finalists in the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce Small Business Awards. That’s what happened there. I just teamed up with Dave, and now we’re just kicking ass.
