47 Facts About Mark Gatiss

Mark Gatiss is an English actor, comedian, screenwriter, director, producer and novelist.

Mark Gatiss wrote several episodes of Doctor Who during Moffat's tenure as showrunner, as well as two episodes during Russell T Davies' earlier tenure.

On stage, Mark Gatiss played Menenius in the revival of William Shakespeare's Coriolanus for which he earned a Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role nomination.

Mark Gatiss took on the role of King George III in a revival of the Alan Bennett play The Madness of George III.

Mark Gatiss portrayed Sir John Gielgud in the Jack Thorne play The Motive and the Cue for which he earned the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor.

Mark Gatiss was born in Sedgefield, County Durham, England, to Winifred Rose and Maurice Mark Gatiss.

Mark Gatiss grew up opposite the Victorian psychiatric hospital Winterton, and later in Trimdon, before his father, a colliery engineer, took a job as engineer at the School Aycliffe Mental Hospital in Heighington.

Mark Gatiss's passions included watching Doctor Who and Hammer Horror films on television, reading Sherlock Holmes and H G Wells, and collecting fossils.

Mark Gatiss attended Heighington Church of England Primary School, and Woodham Comprehensive School in Newton Aycliffe.

Mark Gatiss then studied Theatre Arts at Bretton Hall College, an arts college affiliated to the University of Leeds.

Mark Gatiss is a member of the sketch comedy team The League of Gentlemen.

Mark Gatiss first met his co-writers and performers at Bretton Hall, Yorkshire, a drama school which he attended after finishing school and having spent a gap year travelling around Europe.

Mark Gatiss appeared as Johnnie Cradock, alongside Nighty Night star Julia Davis as Fanny Cradock, in Fear of Fanny on BBC Four in October 2006, and featured as Ratty in a new production of The Wind in the Willows shown on BBC One on 1 January 2007.

Mark Gatiss wrote and starred in the BBC Four docudrama The Worst Journey in the World, based on the memoir by polar explorer Apsley Cherry-Garrard.

Mark Gatiss is 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.

The League of Gentlemen's Apocalypse, a film based on the television series, co-written by and starring Mark Gatiss, was released in June 2005.

Mark Gatiss plays the recurring character of Gold in the audio revival of Sapphire and Steel produced by Big Finish Productions.

Mark Gatiss appeared in Edgar Wright's fake trailer for Grindhouse, Don't, a homage to 1970s' Hammer Horrors.

Mark Gatiss wrote, co-produced and acted in the BBC Four ghost story Crooked House.

Mark Gatiss appeared in the stage adaptation of Pedro Almodovar's All About My Mother at the Old Vic in London from 25 August-24 November 2007.

Mark Gatiss won much critical acclaim for his portrayal of the transgender character Agrado.

Mark Gatiss adapted H G Wells' The First Men in the Moon into a television film of the same name for the BBC, playing Professor Cavor.

Mark Gatiss made a three-part BBC documentary series entitled A History of Horror, a personal exploration of the history of horror cinema.

From December 2010 to March 2011, Mark Gatiss was playing the role of Bernard in Alan Ayckbourn's Season's Greetings at the Royal National Theatre in London alongside Catherine Tate.

In December 2013, Mark Gatiss joined the cast of the Donmar Warehouse production of Coriolanus as Senator of Rome, Menenius.

James and adapted by Mark Gatiss was broadcast on BBC Two as part of the long-running A Ghost Story for Christmas series.

The programme saw Mark Gatiss explore the work of James and look at how his work still inspires contemporary horror today.

Mark Gatiss appeared in season four of Game of Thrones in 2014 playing Tycho Nestoris and reprised this role in season five and season seven.

Mark Gatiss appeared as the Prince Regent in the eight-part historical fiction television drama series Taboo first broadcast on BBC One in the United Kingdom on 7 January 2017 and in the United States on FX on 10 January 2017.

In May 2017, Mark Gatiss began a recurring role on The Secret History of Hollywood, a series of podcast biopics on Golden Age-era Hollywood.

In November 2018, Mark Gatiss portrayed the lead, King George III in a revival of the Alan Bennet play The Madness of George III at Nottingham Playhouse.

In May 2022, Mark Gatiss directed The Unfriend, a new play by Steven Moffat at the Minerva Theatre, Chichester, starring Amanda Abbington, Frances Barber and Reece Shearsmith.

In February 2023, Mark Gatiss directed The Way Old Friends Do a new play by Ian Hallard at the Birmingham Rep.

Mark Gatiss's Gielgud is lonely and lost, but still more than capable of getting one over on the wayward Burton.

At the age of eleven, Mark Gatiss won a school literary competition with a short science fiction story "The Anti-Noise Machine", published in a booklet by Darlington Borough Council.

Mark Gatiss had a childhood interest in the BBC science-fiction show Doctor Who and devoted much of his early writing to the series, despite its 1989 cancellation.

Mark Gatiss's earliest published work as a professional writer was a sequence of novels in Virgin Publishing's New Adventures series of continuation stories and novels.

The videos have since been released on DVD despite Mark Gatiss once commenting that he would not authorise their re-release, as he regarded them as a learning exercise.

Mark Gatiss has written nine episodes for the 2005 revival of the show.

Mark Gatiss wrote "Sleep No More" for series 9 and "Empress of Mars" for series 10.

Mark Gatiss has contributed to the franchise outside the main show.

Mark Gatiss wrote and performed in the comedy spoof sketches The Web of Caves, The Kidnappers and The Pitch of Fear for the BBC's "Doctor Who Night" in 1999 with David Walliams.

Mark Gatiss penned the 2013 docudrama An Adventure in Space and Time, a drama depicting the origins of the series, to celebrate the show's fiftieth anniversary.

Mark Gatiss has written for Doctor Who Magazine, including a column written under the pseudonym "Sam Kisgart," which he was originally credited as in the Doctor Who Unbound audio play Sympathy for the Devil for his role as the Master.

Mark Gatiss was featured on The Independent on Sundays Pink List of influential gay people in the UK in 2010,2011 and 2014.

Mark Gatiss entered into a civil partnership with actor Ian Hallard in 2008 in Middle Temple, in the City of London.

Mark Gatiss once built a Victorian era laboratory in his north London home, as the fulfilment of a childhood dream.