Martellus Bennet has gone from the gridiron to the Disney Channel thanks to his kid’s wild imagination with the new Disney Jr. series, Hey AJ.
The former tight end wrote a children’s book series, Hey A.J., which has now grown into a new Disney Jr. series that debuted on Jan. 13 on the Disney Channel and streaming on Disney+ the following day.
The animated show follows A.J., a high-energy young girl whose imagination flips everyday moments into unpredictable adventures. Her stuffed bunny, Theo, tags along as her co-pilot. Bennett serves as an executive producer of the series and also voices A.J.’s dad, Marty, a retired football player who fully embraces his daughter’s creative world.
In a recent interview with Parents.com, the former football star says the project began when he started buying books for his daughter and realized how few reflected his family.
“You start buying children’s books, or you start looking at these shows, there’s not a lot of representation,” he explains. “All of my work is truly just a reflection. It’s just a reflection of my Black experience through the world.” Martellus wanted to build stories that centered imagination, not limits.
“Since there was a lack of what I wanted my daughter to see as possible, which was just the power of imagination,” he says, “I wanted to write books that brought this imaginative side of childhood to the bookstore, to the screen, where it really was just about play.”
Martellus credits his daughter for inspiring his creative shift. “A.J. is a representation of my daughter, but she’s also the genesis of my writing career. So [the book] gave birth to my journey creatively.”
In his interview, Martellus also notes that the messiness of creativity can be challenging for parents. “Being a parent of a creative child is really tough, especially in your early ages, because creativity is always a mess,” he says. He also emphasizes teaching structure: “Managing a creative child can also be tough if you don’t spend a lot of time with creatives, nurturing that creativity, but also teaching them how to clean up after themselves.”
The show reflects that balance. A.J.’s imagination spills into every environment, but the family ecosystem — parents, grandparents, neighbors — grounds his daughter and he hopes that the series will also encourage families to engage with each other in creative play and not just watch it on television.
“Just being a good neighbor by helping out another parent along the way,” he notes, explaining why community is built into the show’s rhythm.
Ultimately, Martellus sees Hey A.J. as an invitation for families to recognize the power of imagination in everyday life. “The shenanigans between dad and daughter, that’s very much our reality,” he says.
