Meet Ben Cena | Illustrator, Podcast Host, and Screenwriter

We had the good fortune of connecting with Ben Cena and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Ben, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
I’ve always wanted to become a freelance illustrator but didn’t know where to begin, and of course, I’ve always wanted to meet celebrities and collaborate with artists, so I started a Podcast titled Retro Podcast; you can find it on YouTube and Spotify. Then, after two years of hosting Retro Podcast, it came to my intention that I wanted not just to turn my freelancing into illustration but always to take my freelancing to both the direction of Podcasting and screenwriting, so it became a mix of three subjects.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
What I am most proud of as a podcast host is that it’s amazing how many requests we send and hear back from. Of the guests we hear back from, we have those who are interested, whom we interview, and those who are curious but are not available to be interviewed. We have had guests from Corbin Bernsen, Greg Sestero, and Kevin McNally, and for the beginning of Season 3, which will return this fall, we have guests Robert Torti from Starlight Express and The Game Plan.

Was it easy, being an artist is not easy, you have to enjoy the experience to learn from it because it’s not about what you’ve done in the past or you think you will do in the future. It’s about the experience; being an artist is the worst job you can think of because you have to figure out what your style is, and you have to apply for as many art jobs as you can; most of them you will face rejections, you do get the job eventually, but you face too many rejections and to learn from the experience is enjoying it, because when you fail you know, you fail you learn from your mistake, and then when you learn something better comes along.

What I want people to know about Retro Podcast is that it’s not an ordinary talk show where we interview famous people. We interview both famous and not famous people and those who used to be famous.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
My favorite spots in Marblehead, Ohio, would be the view of the Lake in Lakeside Chautauqua and sometimes the Cleveland Stadium next to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame; my favorite part about visiting the stadium. I remember when I was 18 years old, my parents took me to see Taylor Swift live for the first time during her Reputation Tour; and it was the best time of my life such a fun memory. One place I would take my friends to is the Cleveland Stadium, but I would mostly give them a tour of Lakeside. Lakeside is such a wonderful place; I think everyone should visit it. Marblehead is a great place to live because places around Marblehead, like Sandusky and Port Clinton, share a culture similar to Canada. For example, I was with some friends the other day. We don’t get to see each other as much as we used to because few of us have careers and few of us are still building careers, few of us have significant others and a few of us don’t few of us already have children and a few of us don’t. Still, when you are both in Marblehead and Canada, it doesn’t matter what your life is; people get to hang out and be social. Yes, we work and pay our taxes, but at the end of the day, there is more downtime than work time.

I’m not Canadian. I was born in Ohio, but I went to Canada last summer, and it was fun. I met so many people and artists this year who are Canadian-based, and a few of them I became friends with and a film collaborator have an idea for a family-friendly film we want to film in both Marblehead and Canada; we are trying to find the right story and proper script, where just in the process of shopping for the right idea.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I graduated from the Columbus College of Art & Design in the spring of 2023. I had an idea of what I wanted to be but didn’t know where to begin; I remember at the beginning of summer of that year, things were falling apart, not so much with my career but mainly with personal life situations, and one of the things I did was to move forward from them was I had to put those things behind and focus on both the present and the future, Retro Podcast season 1 wrapped up with Greg Sestero, and both my screenplay Orlando Monster was already accepted into three festivals including a nomination, A documentary I did with Shary Williamson won two awards. After that success, I had to start developing goals and plans.

This year has been a blast, joined IMDb, my work is now listed on the website, and my team and I opened the official Retro Podcast website with a store, those were some goals that took me three years to accomplish, and very relieved. I also have a comic book coming out later this year titled Night at North Pole and want to thank both my professor, mentor, and friend from CCAD, Ben Towle, for teaching me how to draw and also my illustration friend Tim Bevins for helping me edit the book, and another friend who I want to thank who has passed away early this year Carl Telfer, we were friends since I was a senior in high school until the day he passed. He taught me much like Professor Towle did with perspective drawing; I don’t know who I would be without them.

Website: https://retropodcast.godaddysites.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/retro_ben_cena/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-cena-3459971b2/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@retropodcast8740

Other: https://open.spotify.com/show/2zNvzY8o3ZK8fokJJEDT4z

https://m.imdb.com/name/nm15859225/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_2_tt_4_nm_4_q_ben+cena

Image Credits
Ben Cena