Martin Kihn

Martin Kihn was born in Zambia, where his parents met while working in a hospital. His South African-born father is a doctor, and his Scottish mother, a former actress, is now a drama teacher.[2] He grew up in Michigan. He has earned a BA in Theater Studies from Yale and an MBA from Columbia Business School.[3] Kihn subsequently worked as a consultant for Booz Allen Hamilton and a digital marketing analyst for the advertising agency Digitas. In 2013, he became a digital marketing and advertising technology analyst for Gartner.[4]

Kihn is married to the musician Julia Douglass,[2] and they reside in Katonah, New York.[5] He is the basis for the character Marty Kaan, played by Don Cheadle in the Showtime series, House of Lies.

After working as a researcher and writer for Forbes and New York, among others, Kihn was head writer for the MTV Networks series, Pop-Up Video, from 1997 to 1999. His memoir, House of Lies, based on his experience as a consultant, was published in 2005. Writing in Salon, Farhad Manjoo said, "Kihn's breezy, Jay McInerney-inspired writing renders [management consulting] precisely, often hilariously."[6] Kihn published two subsequent memoirs: A$$hole (2008) and Bad Dog: A Love Story (2011). Warner Bros. paid $500,000 for the rights to A$$hole,[7] a parody of a business self-help book. Bad Dog: A Love Story relates how Kihn overcame personal problems by training his unruly Bernese Mountain Dog, Hola.[8]

• House of Lies: How Management Consultants Steal Your Watch and Then Tell You the Time, Grand Central, 2005
• Asshole: How I Got Rich and Happy by Not Giving a Shit About You, Broadway Books, 2008
• Bad Dog: A Love Story, Pantheon, 2011
• Customer Data Platforms: Use People Data to Transform the Future of Marketing Engagement, 2020 (with Christopher B. O'Hara)

• martykihn.com