Finding Your “And”: Kevin Goetz's Journey from Actor to Audience Whisperer
In Hollywood, many unknown people working behind the scenes have a big impact on the final cuts of films. Kevin Goetz is one of them. The Los Angeles Times called him the 'doctor of audience-ology' because of his work testing movies with audiences before they're released.
As the founder and CEO of Screen Engine/ASI, Goetz has tested more than 5,000 films with every major studio and streaming service. But what makes his story worth telling isn't just his impressive career; it's how he got there by discovering what he refers to as embracing his "and."
From Movie Testing to Global Research
Screen Engine/ASI started with a focus on movie testing but has grown into much more. Today, it's a global market research firm with over 300 employees serving clients across multiple industries.
"My firm tests. We diagnose. We prescribe a remedy," Goetz writes in his book Audience•ology. "Occasionally, we must break the news that the patient is dead on arrival."
While movie testing remains at Goetz’s core, Screen Engine/ASI now applies its research expertise to gaming, technology, consumer goods, healthcare, lifestyle, travel, and sports.
At the foundation is Goetz's approach: understanding how entertainment consumers respond to content and brands. In Hollywood, this has earned him nicknames like "the movie whisperer", but he prefers audience advocate, reflecting his mission to help creators connect with the people they're trying to reach.
The Brooklyn Boy Makes Good: Kevin's Early Years
Kevin Goetz was born in Brooklyn in the 60’s. From his earliest years, he was drawn to performance, practicing Oscar acceptance speeches in his bathroom mirror and begging his parents for singing, dancing, and music lessons.
"I had known that I belonged in show business from my first moment of consciousness," he recalls.
At fifteen, Goetz ran away from his New Jersey home, if only for a day, to pursue acting. Using the money he earned from odd jobs, he took a bus to New York City, found a photographer to take his headshots, and found a dance studio to take classes. He also ultimately found a talent manager. This bold move convinced his reluctant parents that his interest in performing wasn't just a phase.
By his late teens, Goetz was booking TV and radio commercials while studying at Rutgers University's Mason Gross School of the Arts, one of the most respected acting conservatories in the country. But his entrepreneurial spirit was already emerging. During high school, he founded his own dance studio, which helped support his college education. Once he graduated and moved to New York City, he tried to buy the video store where he worked on weekends while pursuing his acting career.
"I decided that if I was going to work at a video store, I was going to be the greatest goddamn video store employee the world had ever seen," he recounts. Though the owner, feeling threatened, fired him for being too ambitious, this early experience taught him valuable business lessons.
Discovering the Power of the "And"
The pivotal moment in Goetz's story came during his transition from actor to researcher. After moving to Los Angeles to pursue acting, he took a part-time job with National Research Group (NRG), moderating focus groups at film test screenings. What began as a "survival job" gradually revealed itself as something more.
For years, Goetz maintained a dual identity: actor, singer, dancer, and ultimately producer on the one hand; focus group moderator of pre-released movies on the other. This division created tension, as if one path represented his dream and the other was merely a practical necessity.
The breakthrough came when he realized these weren't competing identities but complementary parts of a whole. In his 2016 Rutgers alma mater commencement address, Goetz shared this epiphany:
"If I'm being totally honest, if someone told 21-year-old Kevin that this is what 53-year-old Kevin would be doing, I'd probably be disappointed, maybe even devastated, because it doesn't jive with the specific vision I had for my life. It's easy to get stuck, especially for artists. I implore you to keep an open mind and heart. I'm an artist AND an entrepreneur. That's what I was always meant to be."
This realization of finding his "and" became a defining principle. He elaborated during his keynote at the Insights Association conference in 2023:
"Every day I show up with my decades of experience as a researcher, strategist AND a creative, I show up with my ‘and.’ The 'and' is what connects our work with who we are."
This integration doubled his effectiveness. His actor's training gave him the emotional intelligence to read unspoken reactions in focus groups. His experience as a producer helped him speak the language of filmmaking and translate audience feedback into actionable suggestions. And his researcher mindset allowed him to analyze the feedback from individual respondents and patterns across thousands of screenings.
The Hollywood Tapestry
In 2024, during his acceptance speech for receiving the American Cinematheque’s Power of Cinema award, Goetz used a powerful metaphor: "What I can see clearly now is just how vast and rich the Hollywood tapestry is. How it somehow manages to fit so many of the twists and turns of my life and career."
This image captures something essential about both Goetz's story and his philosophy. Film is a collaborative medium, combining countless contributors, from directors, actors, and producers to editors, marketers, and audiences themselves.
As an "audience advocate," Goetz plays a vital role in this tapestry. His work has led to innovative approaches to audience research. For one big action film in particular, he developed a strategy where he paused the movie midway and asked the audience: "What do you think will happen next? And what do you want to happen next?"
The approach of trusting the audience to help craft the ending led to reshoots that transformed the film into a multi-million dollar worldwide success.
Lessons from Kevin's Journey
Goetz's story offers valuable lessons beyond the film industry. His three principles provide a framework for anyone navigating their career:
"Own the video store" – Bring your full passion to everything you do and get the proper homework done to take it to the next level.
"If you can't find a way, make a way" – Don't wait for permission; create opportunities when they don't exist.
"Find your 'and'" – Recognize that seemingly disparate skills can become your unique strength.
This third principle has proven most powerful. As Goetz noted:
"When you bring your all—all of your experience, all of your love, all of yourself to the process—that's when you start seeing a more full, interesting, and authentic story around what you are trying to accomplish. That's when you get to the essence of what's true... In those moments, you make magic."
In a world that pushes us to specialize, Kevin Goetz reminds us of the power of embracing our multifaceted selves. His career demonstrates that our greatest strengths often lie at the intersection of seemingly unrelated passions and skills.
In finding his "and," Kevin Goetz didn't just build a successful business; he found a way to use human connection to help filmmakers and audiences speak to each other through the wonder of movies.
Kevin Goetz is one of my favorite people on the planet!