Martina Long
She’s the youngest member of the cast, and it’s her experience that helps the show stand out from its competition. While she only spent five weeks in high school, she was in this show for years. The three actresses who started at the same time and have since been kicked out are all now retired, but Long is still a member of the original cast. To add to that, in September, she married her husband Matt Frewer, who will be joining her on the show for his first season of “Parks & Recreation.”
“I have a lot of faith in Matt, and Matt and I have had some very serious problems,” she says. “We’ve gone through marriage counseling but it’s only been two months now, and we feel so far ahead of where we are. We can laugh and work through these problems, and Matt does too.”
But before the couple wed, Long was on the verge of turning 30. What prompted that decision and the time to move on?
“I don’t know how to answer that question. I wish that we could say that it was purely selfish,” she says. “It’s just a phase and I don’t see it as an end, but it’s definitely something that happens. There’s no reason not to do it if we can have a life together.”
The show, which aired its fourth and final season last year, recently had its very first kiss on screen (though, sadly, not of the kind we’ll tell you about in this article). Long is eager to reprise those moments and has been working on a memoir about the experience. She also has a new project in the works, titled “The Year of the Dog,” about her dog.
“I was in a really rough spot last year,” she says. “I had a really bad relationship with this dog for a year, and now he’s my best friend. He’s really important to me.”
“It’s just been really a life changing experience, actually,” she continues. “Just to find someone who feels that way. To find anybody for that to happen to at this age is really important.”
Long hopes her memoir will help other women of her age feel less alone without a support system. “It’s important to find someone who will open up and be able to talk about something if you’re afraid, or just find it so rewarding when somebody says