Mark’s parents took him to the auditions, all the while making sure they prepared him for disappointment, as he had absolutely no acting or singing training. To everyone’s utter surprise and delight, Mark not only won the role of “Spider”, one of Fagin’s gang of motley pickpockets but also ended up regularly performing the lead role of Oliver as the understudy.
As a child Mark said he loves acting because “it’s fun,” and “I get to pretend to be other people.” He went on to say he wants to be an actor when he grows up, no ifs and buts. Offstage and away from the cameras, Mark was an average Canadian boy who played baseball, soccer, and golf in the summer and skis and plays hockey in the winter. He also took karate and drum lessons.
Early roles for Mark include a recurring role on the TV series “The War Next Door” and a single episode of “Yo Awesome Awesome!” Both in the year 2000 and followed that up the next year with an episode of “Screech Owls.”
Mark has appeared in a wide variety of movie and TV roles through his child and teen years, including leads in the film “The Incredible Elephant” Hallmark’s “Tales From the Neverending Story,” for which he received a 2002 Gemini nomination. He also appeared in “Touching Wild Horses” opposite Jane Seymour, for which Mark received a 2003 Young Artists nomination; Disney Channel’s “The Scream Team” (2002) opposite Eric Idle, Kathy Najimy, and Tommy Davidson.
One of Mark’s outstanding acting performances was in 2002’s “The Interrogation of Michael Crowe” for which he received a 2004 ACTRA nomination for Best Actor. The year 2003 saw him playing Travis Morrow in the TV movie “Open House” and Joe Andrews in the feature “Blizzard”. He went on the next year to play Oliver Cauffield in “A Different Loyalty” (2004) as the son of Rupert Everett and Sharon Stone, and the Don McKellar black comedy “Childstar” (2004).
Some other TV work was the voice of the title character for the series “Arthur”, the TV movie “Mrs. Ashboro’s Cat” (2004), “Spirit Bear: The Simon Jackson Story” made for television and also appeared in the series “ReGenesis,” “Revelations” was the voice of Arthur for the second time in the direct to video “Arthur’s Halloween.”
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I had a crush on Marl as a kid. 😀
Seeing this mini bio reminds me of this actors performance in the film about Michael Crowe and gives me the urge to unearth it and watch it again, he was brilliant.
A brilliant performance by Mar in The Interrogation of Michael Crowe, I did not mind “Childstar” it was a fun movie if a bit raunchy and maybe inappropriate.
I remember mark he was a terrific child actor and especially in The Interrogation of Michael Crowe, was also very cute. cx