Mark was born in Nottingham
in 1978, a performer, always craving attention! It was
no surprise to anyone really when he eventually took
to the stage of Nottingham's Theatre Royal at the age
of 9 and never looked back.
From a touring production
of Catherine Cookson's 'The Fifteen Streets', to playing
Fagin's sidekick 'The Artful Dodger' in Oliver; Mark played
both amateur and professional stage shows throughout the
Midlands, Buxton Opera House being a particularly grand
set of boards he managed to tread on numerous occasions,
and in 1990 he was awarded the prize of Most Promising
Young Actor by the Nottingham Operatic Society.
Always needing a project
on the go, the summer holidays gave Mark the opportunity
to get more creative in other ways and by 1994 he had
been Marks & Spencer's national 'Young Environmentalist
of the Year' for 3 consecutive years running. A bit of
creative writing and a pack of felt tip pens was all that
was required there, but the prize meant a celebrity-filled
awards ceremony on London's Park Lane and a free holiday!
Every young boy's dream.... From Ernie Wise to Tony Hart,
Mark had the chance to meet some remarkable people, and
I guess you could say that's where he got the bug for
showbiz!
It was radio that really
grabbed Mark's attention after that, and following a few
false-starts, not least as one of Steve Wright's Young
DJ's broadcast on BBC Radio One, he headed south to university
and it was whilst studying in Farnborough, that Mark realised
an ambition by having his own daily radio show. You could
probably count the number of listeners on one hand, but
it was the experience that mattered and it led to Mark's
first full time job in radio as Head of Production for
the Student Broadcast Network in1998.
By the new millennium,
Mark had become responsible for looking after the entire
output of the station. He managed things through turbulent
times and as a sceptical radio industry became more accepting
of this small radio service that was already making big
waves in the music industry, Mark was asked to speak on
a panel at the Radio Academy's annual News & Speech
conference. Here, he addressed key members of the radio
community and even met with the Prime Minister at a subsequent
lunch at 10 Downing Street, so things were on the up!
Thanks to Mark's aptitude
for new technology, he joined the team at RCS UK in 2001.
Here he spent 3 years as a member of the support team,
providing help and guidance to users of the company's
software throughout the UK and Ireland. Training was a
big part of the job and for a worldwide company meant
a lot of travel too, so head office in New York beckoned
on several occasions, and if you can cope with radio there,
you can pretty much cope anywhere!
The call of the microphone
was never far away though, and although Mark had undertaken
many voiceover projects in the interim, it was the lure
of television that brought him to ITV full-time in 2004
as a Continuity Announcer for ITV1. Regularly broadcasting
to audiences of up to 12 million, you might just hear
him as you sit down to watch Coronation Street!
Now based in West London,
Mark is a keen ice-skater and snowboarder. Travel is a
big passion too and his passport often gets a battering!
He's currently studying for a qualification in professional
photography.
