Mark Douglas Brown McKinney was born on June 26, 1959 in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Son of a diplomat, Mark spent his formative years in locales as diverse as Trinidad, Belgium, and France. He majored in political science at the University of Newfoundland, dropped out after one semester, worked at Foothills piano shop in Calgary and didn't know where to go from there.

Enter Keith Johnstone. Under his capable tutelage, Mark fell hard and fast under the magical spell of Theatresports. Impro RULEZ.* He met Bruce McCulloch at the Loose Moose Theatre, formed the impro group, The Audience, went head to head with The Kids in the Hall at Big City Improv (then composed of the founding members, Dave Foley, Kevin McDonald, and Luc Casimiri), and merged with said troupe. And so a new world religion was born.

After countless club shows in Toronto, Big Daddy Lorne came along and put up the cash for the greatest sketch comedy, nay, any television show of all-time: The Kids... in the Hall. A co-production between CBC and HBO, and aired on Comedy Central, CBS, and The Comedy Network, the show became a cult hit, finding favour among several slobbery, maladjusted fans.

Fast-forward to 1995. Following tens of tens of shows, Mark licked his wounds and joined the cast of Saturday Night Live. He was chronically underused; Waving Goodbye Guy was his biggest character. That sucked, so he left. (Mark, being the son of a diplomat, surely would not put it this way. Publicly.)

He moved on, made several movies, and spent time with his new family. In 1997, Mark played Don Carlos Homenides de Histingua opposite Mark "Larry Appleton" Linn-Baker in A Flea in Her Ear at the Roundabout Theatre in New York. Good times were had by all. Such good times, in fact, that Mark celebrated by putting a sock on his hand in 1999's Fuddy Meers, David Lindsay-Abaire's off-Broadway hit at the Manhattan Theater Club.

Following his critically-acclaimed performance, Mark joined his old buddy, Don McKellar, in the second season of Twitch City taking over the role of Rex Reilly from McCulloch. Then came... The Tour. A 25-city extravaganza which caused mass hysteria among his slobbery, maladjusted fans reignited the burning passion of Mark and co. for performing as the Kids in the Hall. A second leg was added, followed by a documentary and plans for more. Recently, Mark collaborated with "Same Guys, New Dresses" director, Jim Millan, to write a brilliant stage production of Scooby-Doo.

In late 2001/early 2002, Mark starred in the one-man, 40 character play Fully Committed. It's delicious. In 2002, Mark McKinney moved from New York City to Toronto with his beautiful wife, Marina, and their two lovely children, Christopher and Emma.

Mark continues to be active in theatre, television and film. In 2003 he won critical acclaim when he appeared in two films that were darlings of the 2003 Toronto Film Festival: Guy Maddin's The Saddest Music in the World and Scott Smith's Fallen Angels.