Mark was born in London, shifted around a little, then settled in Kent age 3. For someone who you can have trouble shutting up these days Mark had a few speech problems as a kid, didn't say anything more than "mumma" until he was 4, and had to take speech therapy until he was 8; his school psychiatrists even went so far as to say he was autistic, and as a result he spent primary school being the "special" kid.

Comics were Mark's first arts love, and he really wanted to study drama, but got blocked by typically stupid school administration from taking drama as a GCSE, because of the fact that he hadn't done a school play (This is St Simon Stock School in Maidstone for anyone in the area who wants their child to have the privilege of learning subjects they actually want to).

By the 6th form Mark had already begun work at the same marketing company that just about everyone at Coffee has spent some amount of time with, he also finally got the chance to perform in his school's annual drama festival; a piece had to be entered by every house in the school, and he wrote, directed, and acted his tale of two hitmen who have to kill the owner of a club. One of the hitmen wore a classic Reservoir Dogs black suit, while Mark got to indulge in his love of repulsive Hawaiian shirts.

After school he got another opportunity to act in a semi-pro production of Beautiful Thing;

"I think I got it because there wasn't anyone else who was prepared to play a gay teenager, I loved every second of it though."

Sexuality aside Mark loved the acting side of it as well, and began writing scripts as well as comic strips. He first met Steve Piper and the rest of the Coffee crew through work, though he had the pleasure of sharing a house with Piper for a full year;

"I still can't believe that we lived in such absolute squalor! We were as bad as each other; though if I was honest I was probably the worst because I couldn't even be bothered to clean my own room, at least everyone else did that. It wasn't a horrific experience though; I was pretty glad to get away from my old flatmate who used to get up and steam clean the carpets at 3am."

Mark has been waiting for his stardom to come after being cast no less than three times as a leading character in Coffee's unsuccessful early feature efforts;

"I'm pretty sick of being cast as the twat in Steve's films, it's nice to get the chance to act at all, but I'd like something where I don't know about computers, don't have a breast fascination, don't get trodden on by everyone, and have at least one real friend!"

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