Mark Gatiss
 |
Mark Gatiss |
Mark Gatiss (born
October 17,
1966 in
Sedgefield,
County Durham,
England) is an
English actor and
writer.
The League of Gentlemen
He is best known as a member of the sketch comedy team
The League of Gentlemen (along with fellow performers
Reece Shearsmith,
Steve Pemberton and co-writer
Jeremy Dyson), which initially began as a stage act in
1995, transferred to
BBC Radio 4 as
On the Town with the League of Gentlemen in
1997 and then arrived on television on
BBC Two in
1999. The latter has seen Gatiss and his colleagues awarded with a
British Academy Television Award, a
Royal Television Society Award and the prestigious
Golden Rose of Montreux.
He met his
League of Gentlemen co-writers and performers at
Bretton Hall drama school in his late teens, which he began attending after finishing school and having spent a gap year travelling around Europe.
Other television work
Outside of the League, Gatiss' television work has included writing for the
2001 revival of comic telefantasy
Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) and
script editing the popular sketch show
Little Britain in
2003, making guest appearances in both. Other acting appearances include the comedy-drama
In the Red (
BBC Two,
1999), the macabre sitcom
Nighty Night (
BBC Three,
2003), and the live
2005 remake of the classic sci-fi serial
The Quatermass Experiment. A second series of
Nighty Night and the new comedy-drama
Funland, the latter co-written by his
League cohort
Jeremy Dyson, both featured Gatiss and aired on
BBC Three in the autumn of
2005.
Radio, stage and film
He appears frequently in
BBC Radio productions, including the
sci-fi comedy
Nebulous and
The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes story
The Shameful Betrayal of Miss Emily Smith. He is also involved with theatre, having penned the play
The Teen People in the early 1990s, and appeared in a successful run of the play
'Art' in
2003 at the Whitehall Theatre in
London. In film, he has starred in
Sex Lives of the Potato Men (
2004) and had minor roles in
Birthday Girl (
2001),
Bright Young Things (
2003) and
Match Point (2005).
The League of Gentlemen's Apocalypse, a film based on the television series, co-written by and starring Gatiss, was released in June 2005.
Gatiss is famously a long-time fan of the British
television science-fiction series
Doctor Who, preferring its style from the
1970s. Much of his writing has been devoted to the series, including the
BBV video spin-off series
P.R.O.B.E., four
novels, two audio plays for
Big Finish Productions and, fulfilling a lifelong dream, two episodes for the 2005-revived BBC television series. His first,
The Unquiet Dead, aired on
April 9, 2005; the second is
The Idiot's Lantern, aired on
May 27,
2006 as part of the second season. In addition, Gatiss is the narrator for the 2006 season of documentary series
Doctor Who Confidential, replacing
Simon Pegg.
He also wrote and performed the comedy sketches
The Web of Caves,
The Kidnappers and
The Pitch of Fear for the BBC's "
Doctor Who Night" in 1999 with
Little Britain's David Walliams, and played
the Master in the
Doctor Who Unbound play
Sympathy for the Devil under the name "Sam Kisgart", a
pseudonym he had previously used for a column in
Doctor Who Magazine. (The pseudonym is an
anagram of "Mark Gatiss", a nod to the Master who often used anagrams or translations of his title as false names, and to
Anthony Ainley, who was sometimes credited under an anagram to conceal the Master's identity from the viewers.)
In mainstream print, Gatiss is responsible for an acclaimed biography of the film director
James Whale. His first non-
Doctor Who novel,
The Vesuvius Club, was published in
2004, for which he has been nominated in the category of Best Newcomer in the 2006
British Book Awards. A follow up,
The Devil in Amber, is expected in 2006.
In 2006, Gatiss was awarded an honourary doctorate of letters by the
University of Huddersfield.
He lives in North London with his partner Ian and their dog Bunsen.
Novels
Doctor Who
*
Nightshade (ISBN 0426203763)
*
St Anthony's Fire (ISBN 0426204239)
*
The Roundheads (ISBN 0563405767)
*
Last of the Gaderene (ISBN 0563555874)
Lucifer Box
*
The Vesuvius Club (ISBN 0743257065)
*
The Devil in Amber (ISBN 074325709X) (not yet published)
Audio plays
Doctor Who
*
Phantasmagoria*
Invaders from Mars*
Sympathy For the Devil (as Sam Kisgart)
*
Sam Kisgart - Memoirs of a Gentleman
