ABOUT MARK GATISS
FULL NAME
Mark Gatiss
CHARACTERS
Mycroft Holmes
DATE OF BIRTH
17 October 1966
PLACE OF BIRTH
Sedgefield, Durham, England, UK
HEIGHT
6.07 ft (1.85 m)
@markgatiss
FANMAIL
FAO: Mark Gatiss
c/o Curtis Brown Group Ltd.
Haymarket House
5th Floor, 28-29 Haymarket
London SW1Y 4SP, UK
MORE
Trained at Bretton Hall Drama College
As an actor, Mark Gatiss is best known as a member of the award-winning comedy team 'The League of Gentlemen'. Originating as a stage act, the team won the prestigious Perrier Comedy Award at the 1997 Edinburgh Festival Fringe. The team was commissioned by the BBC to produce a series on BBC Radio 4 in the same year, and then transferred to television in 1999. The series won numerous awards, including a BAFTA, The Royal Television Society Award and the prestigious Golden Rose of Montreux. The troupe also produced a film of the series, which was released in 2005.
Away from 'The League of Gentleman', Gatiss is one of the few to both write for and appear onscreen in 'Doctor Who', and is the only person to do so in the series' modern revival. His numerous other acting credits include roles in 'Spaced', 'Nighty Night', 'The Quartermass Experiment Live' (2005), 'The Wind in the Willows' (2007). In 2010, Mark appeared as Boy George's manager Malcolm McLaren in the BBC drama 'Worried About The Boy', as well as writing and appearing in an adaptation of HG Wells' 'The First Men in the Moon'. In the same year he created, wrote and acted in 'Sherlock', as Mycroft Holmes, and wrote and presented 'A History of Horror', a personal documentary series exploring the film genre. In 2012, Mark returned to the role of Mycroft in Sherlock Series Two, as well as making an appearance as Mr Snow, the leader of The Old Ones, in the cult BBC Three series 'Being Human.'
On stage, Mark has appeared at the Old Vic in an adaptation of Pedro Almodovar's 'All About My Mother', and in 'Season's Greetings' at the National Theatre alongside Catherine Tate. In 2012 he appeared in the Donmar Warehouse production of George Farquhar's play 'The Recruiting Officer,' and the Hampstead Theatre production of '55 Days' as Charles I.
His film credits include 'Birthday Girl'(2001), Stephen Fry's 'Bright Young Things'(2003), Woody Allen's 'Match Point'(2005), and 'Starter for 10'(2006), where he played real life University Challenge quizmaster Bamber Gascoigne opposite James McAvoy and his future 'Sherlock' costar Benedict Cumberbatch.
As well as being Mycroft Holmes onscreen, Mark Gatiss has a long and varied career as a writer and producer behind the camera, as well as a published author.
Thanks to a childhood interest in Doctor Who, his early writing was devoted to the series. His earliest published fiction was a sequence of novels in Virgin Publishing's New Adventures series of Doctor Who stories.
In mainstream print, Gatiss is responsible for a biography of the film director James Whale. His first non-Doctor Who novel, 'The Vesuvius Club', was published in 2004, and from there he wrote two further novels in the series to complete a trilogy.
Mark's great early success on television was as part of the comedy troupe The League of Gentlemen, where he both wrote and appeared onscreen.
Like Steven Moffat, Gatiss is one of the few writers to have written for all three Doctors in the modern television revival of 'Doctor Who', and the first three of his episodes are notable for their use of British historical figures and events. His first, 'The Unquiet Dead', with Christopher Eccleston, featured Simon Callow as Charles Dickens. The second, 'The Idiot's Lantern', starred David Tennant and was set on Coronation Day. His first episode starring Matt Smith, 'Victory of the Daleks', was set during the Second World War and featured Ian McNeice as Winston Churchill. Gatiss' series six episode entitled 'Night Terrors' broke the historical run, tapping into his lifelong love of horror while being set in a contemporary block of flats. Mark has written two episodes for Doctor Who's seventh series, as well as the screenplay for 'An Adventure in Space and Time', a 90 minute dramatisation of the genesis of the series that will form part of the 50th Anniversary celebrations.
Mark's other writing credits for television include episodes of 'Nighty Night' [2004 - 2005], the ghost story miniseries 'Crooked House' [2008] which he also executive produced, two episodes of Agatha Christies' 'Poirot', his adaptation of HG Well's 'The First Men in the Moon [2010] and all three episodes of the documentary series 'A History of Horror' [2010] and it's one off sequel 'Horror Europa' [2012], all of which he also presented.
He has written two episodes of Sherlock, 'The Great Game' in series one and 'The Hounds of Baskerville' in series two. Mark serves as an Executive Producer and Co-Creator on the series, and is invariable found on set when filming is underway, even though he may not be twirling Mycroft's umbrella.