L.A.'s 30 Under 30: The City's Rising Stars
The Publisher: Ken Baumann
Like most people we really admire, Ken Baumann’s success defies logic: He’s a writer, a working actor in Hollywood, a publisher of a self-founded press, and his preferred uniform for eighty percent of the year is simply pants. No shirt, no shoes. “I like straight-legged, raw denim.” Just try putting this man in a box (you’d probably have more luck getting him into a pair of A.P.C. New Standards)! While you may recognize Baumann for his acting on The Secret Life of the American Teenager, we find his literary-geek side even more compelling.
He started “intense” writing at ten years of age, and was driven to start Sator Press when friend and collaborator Blake Butler showed him Christopher Higgs’ manuscript of The Complete Works of Marvin K. Mooney, which propelled the multi-talent to go full force into the field. Coming up next is Solip, his first novel via Tyrant Books, hitting shelves in 2013. While you wait, you can explore his other writings on his personal website, and even get hand-picked summer-book recommendations from his Goodreads account. We're already subscribed!
—Elizabeth Parks Kibbey
Hair by Jacquie Fetch, makeup by Mayera Abeita and Ali Magee.
in NYC