Biography

Kristin Owen (nickname: KO), pen name; Kristin Woodworth-Owen is an award winning poet (Editor's Choice Award 5 years in a row), published cartoonist ('The Grass Is Always Greener... a collection of Kirby & Clyde cartoons' for sale on Amazon), screenwriter of 'Canyon of the Damned' (member of the WGA), photographer (member of the Photography Laureate Hall of Fame), actress, spokesmodel, and professional visual artist. Born Kristin Lynn Woodworth on May 31, 1979 in Daytona Beach, FL to Pamela Gay Silva Woodworth; a wood sculptor, painter, and poet, and Bruce Eugene Woodworth; an oil painter, writer, and carpenter, who served as a radioman on a destroyer escort in the United States Navy.

Artistic talent running strong through Kristin's family tree, her maternal grandfather Wilbur 'Bill' Silva, was also a talented artist and carpenter, who moonlighted as a pin-up artist while serving in the 5th Air-force during WWII. After the war Bill worked in advertising design and architectural drafting, before becoming a master carpenter and proud member of the local carpenter's union. Upon retiring, Bill taught carpentry classes at Daytona Beach Community College, the same campus Kristin would later attend as an adult.

As a child Kristin attended Spruce Creek Elementry School, in Port Orange, Fl. It was during this time she began stretching her artistic wings, participating in, and winning most area coloring contests. She then caught the attention of news outlets in her hometown by entering large-scale art shows alongside her mother Pam. During the shows, Kristin's parents would set up a table near her mother's impressive stained glass and wood sculptures, and Kristin would sculpt and paint small birds (flamingos and herons) from clay, to the delight of onlookers. She sold her finished sculptures for $3 a piece, officially making her a professional artist at the young age of 9. Kristin loved sculpting with clay, and was in fact so detailed with her work, that she was once disqualified from a grade school Social Studies fair when the judges mistakenly assumed she had purchased plastic animals for an endangered species project she had entered. In actuality, young Kristin had spent weeks meticulously sculpting and painting the animals by hand.

Later as a teen, Kristin would attend Spruce Creek High School her Freshman year, continuing to dabble in fine art, and taking on a new interest in photography, utilizing her campus's dark room to develop film she shot with her father's 35mm camera. Her Sophomore year Kristin applied for, and was ultimately granted a zoning waiver to attend her home-town's newest, state-of-the-art Atlantic High School, which boasted its focus on the arts. It also had the most advanced video production equipment in the area at the time. It was here, in an environment encouraging creativity, that Kristin honed her many talents. In drama classes, she participated in plays as an actress, set designer, and writer. She joined the school's art club where she designed class t-shirts, as well as t-shirts for school clubs, and painted most of the football team's breakthrough banners. She also, once again gained local media attention when she created the first full-length cartoon made by a high school student, while enrolled in a video production course at the school. It was called 'The Board Brothers,' and followed the antics of four skateboarding buddies. The cartoon lasted just over a minute (the time needed to qualify as full-length), and consisted of 53 celluloid frames, and 13 backgrounds, all of which were hand-painted by Kristin. She also did all of the script writing, video editing, and audio overlay; recording voiceovers done by fellow male students. The cartoon was shown on the end of semester program and became an instant hit.

After graduating high school, Kristin attended college at Daytona Beach Community College. Here she majored in fine art, video production, and community theater; again participating in many productions as not only a set designer and script writer, but an actress, continuing to flex her wide-ranging artistic abilities. It was also during this time, while working part-time at Down The Hatch Seafood Restaurant in Ponce Inlet, Fl, that she met her future husband Shawn Owen (m.2003), and father of their two children, a boy Peyton (2014), and girl, Faith (2019). Sadly, due to the high cost of tuition, Kristin was unable to continue her college career and reluctantly dropped out, going to work at the restaurant full-time while taking odd jobs painting portraits, as well as large wall murals for both businesses and private residences within her community. She published several award-winning poems, and as a semi-professional photographer was inducted into The Photo Laureates Hall of Fame in 2000 for a sepia- toned photograph of a church taken in St. Augustine, Fl entitled 'Crossing Over.'

Over the years Kristin worked as a struggling artist while holding a wide-range of steady jobs, demonstrating her incredible versatility, not only as an artist, but in everything she sets out to accomplish. She has worn several hats in the job field; as a bookkeeper for a successful restaurant, an office and accounts manager for a bathtub refurbishing business, an ophthalmologist's technician, a veterinary technician, veterinary surgical technician, a rehabilitation specialist for injured and retired racing Greyhounds, a certified medical coding and insurance billing manager, certified dermatological medical assistant, surgical technician, and an executive manager of a dermatological surgery center for the nation's largest dermatology practice. Kristin ultimately settled for over a decade in the dermatology field after initially being offered a secretary position by a friend in management. She knew nothing of the field going in, but studied hard, putting herself through the proper schooling, and gradually climbing the ranks to executive management. Then, in 2017 the company she worked for changed hands and Kristin was caught up in a mass overhaul, where many long-time, higher paid employees were let go. It would be a blessing in disguise. Suddenly, Kristin found herself a stay-at-home mother. A position she fully embraced. Not only was she able to spend more time with her small son, but she could once again delve into her creative side. Kristin began writing and painting again, rekindling a passion for the arts, she had once reluctantly pushed aside in lieu of a steady income.

Fast forward to 2020, which brought with it the COVID lockdowns. During which, as a life-long equestrian and cartoonist, Kristin wrote and illustrated the equine cartoon book, 'The Grass Is Always Greener... a collection of Kirby & Clyde cartoons,' The book follows the hilarious antics of unlikely horse duo, Kirby and Clyde. It is currently selling on Amazon and Amazon/Kindle. After the successful publication of 'The Grass Is Always Greener,' Kristin continued writing, publishing several more poems, and ultimately penning a full-length western, action/adventure screenplay entitled; 'Canyon of the Damned,' which follows a female outlaw and her posse on a daring adventure to uncover those responsible for the disappearance of her adoptive father, a Lakota Chief, while finding herself falling, reluctantly in love with a drifter along the way. Last summer Kristin's screenplay gained notoriety while being entered in several national screenplay contests, and its trending genre and unique perspective as a western, written from a woman's point of view, has caught the attention of several notable industry veterans. Production of COTD is currently in the development stage.

It is Kristin's hope, that Canyon will pioneer change in the way women, Native Americans, African Americans, and those with disabilities are portrayed, particularly in the western genre, and give them a more prominent, and respected voice. Kristin has said, "It's long been the case, especially in older westerns, that if you were a woman cast in this genre, you'd most likely be a saloon hostess, a school teacher, or a kidnapping victim, but rarely the hero. Native Americans were often portrayed as simple-minded, scalping savages for the audience to root against, and many African Americans were portrayed as uneducated slaves, stable grooms, and house keepers. Sadly, it's been a similar case for people with facial scarring being portrayed primarily as villains in a lot of Hollywood films. In my story one of the most beloved supporting characters has a large facial scar. The industry has come a long way, particularly in the past few years, but we could go so much further to rewrite previously established stereotypes for minorities in film. It's time for the second string underdogs to ride to the forefront and become the heroes they've always been capable of being."

Kristin is also a proud advocate for Native American rights, as well as for saving America's wild mustangs and burrows from slaughter. In 2000 Kristin started Helping Hooves USA, a popular MySpace-based site which had a focus on educating the public about the atrocities of horse abuse and slaughter in America.

Currently, Kristin and her representatives are in talks with several industry professionals as she pursues her given talents, in the hopes of inspiring other women, particularly busy mothers, to follow their dreams.

- IMDb mini biography by: Emily Marks