Mark Kilmurry graduated from the Coventry Centre for the Performing Arts in 1985. After performing in Shakespeare productions (A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM, MEASURE FOR MEASURE, OTHELLO), plays by Pinter, Barrie Keefe and new work, Mark co-founded the Snarling Beasties Theatre Company with Debbie Isitt in 1986. He played the male leads in all Isitt's plays, including Punch in PUNCH AND JUDY, Jimmy in FEMME FATALE and Kenneth in THE WOMAN WHO COOKED HER HUSBAND.
Acclaimed for their uniquely cinematic, darkly humorous style, the Snarling Beasties won several Edinburgh Festival Perrier Pick of the Fringe Awards, The Independent Theatre Award and the Time Out Theatre Award. The company toured internationally, including the US, Australia, Ireland, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Europe and Ecuador. Mark also conducted acting workshops all over the world.
Since 1993, Mark has written, directed and performed his own plays. ONE SHOT, about a lonely man obsessed with Robert De Niro, opened in Sydney in 1993 and since then has toured Britain, the US and New Zealand.
In July 1996, Mark opened his second play, WILL THE REAL JAMES DEAN
PLEASE STAND UP? (pictured right) commissioned by the Santa Fe Stages
International Theatre Festival in the US, then toured Britain. Mark also
performed in Santa Fe in the US premier of NEVILLE’S ISLAND (pictured
above, with Brad Bellamy), and became a full member of US Actors' Equity.
Since moving to Australia in 1996, Mark has been involved in many different
projects. In 1997, he wrote, directed, filmed and performed A FILM FOR YOU,
which was selected as a finalist for Tropfest, Sydney's renowned short
film festival.
Mark returned to the Santa Fe Stages International Theatre Festival in
1997 to perform JOHN WAYNE NEVER SLEPT HERE, a stage western
commissioned by Santa Fe Stages and co-written by Mark and American actor Brad Bellamy.
Also in 1997, Mark performed a double-bill of ONE SHOT and WILL THE REAL JAMES DEAN PLEASE STAND UP? at STC's Wharf 2 and was commissioned by STC to write a new play, ARTHUR AND AMY, which was workshopped in August 1998.
Mark returned to England in 1998 to play the lead in Brighton Theatre Events’ new production of THE FOOTBALL FACTORY, based on the best-selling novel by John King, which toured England for three months.
In 1999, Mark performed in Sydney Theatre Company’s CYRANO DE BERGERAC as Count De Guiche. He also became an Australian citizen. In January 2000, Mark made another short film, THE ASSASSIN, which was accepted into the Short Stuff film festival, part of the 2000 Melbourne Fringe Festival.
In early 2000, Mark adapted and performed Dorothy Porter’s verse novel, WHAT A PIECE OF WORK, at the Stables Theatre, as part of the Griffin Theatre Company’s season and in 2001 adapted Yasmina Reza’s HAMMERKLAVIER for the stage, which opened at the Stables and played London and Paris.
Mark formed his own company, Studio Co, in 2001 with producer Patrick McIntyre. Between 2002 and 2006, Studio Co’s productions included MERCY THIEVES, written and directed by Mark, Pinter’s THE DUMB WAITER, HAMLET and KING LEAR.
In 2005, Mark became associate director at the Ensemble Theatre where he has acted (RABBIT HOLE, THE DRAWER BOY, ART, AFTERPLAY & THE YALTA GAME, AUNTIE & ME and JAPES), directed (CASANOVA, ABIGAIL’S PARTY, TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE, MARY STUART, THE BUSY WORLD IS HUSHED, HALPERN & JOHNSON, DERRIDA IN LOVE, THEY'RE PLAYING OUR SONG, THE RETREAT FROM MOSCOW) and written plays including YOU TALKIN' TO ME? DIARY OF AN OLYMPIC CABBIE and THE COW JUMPED OVER THE MOON.
In 2011, Mark became co-artistic director at the Ensemble Theatre with Sandra Bates.
Mark has won two Norman Kessell Memorial (GLUGS) Awards for Best Actor for HAMLET and JAPES and in 2007 was awarded the Hayes Gordon Memorial Award for Important Contribution to Theatre. His production of TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE, which he directed in 2008, toured Australia in 2011 and won the Australian Performing Arts Centres’ Drovers Award for Tour of the Year.
