Mark McKinney
Encyclopedia
Mark Douglas Brown McKinney (born June 26, 1959) is a Canadian comedian
Comedian
A comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain an audience, primarily by making them laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting a fool, as in slapstick, or employing prop comedy...

 and actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...

, best known for his work in the sketch comedy troupe The Kids in the Hall
The Kids in the Hall
The Kids in the Hall is a Canadian sketch comedy group formed in 1984, consisting of comedians Dave Foley, Kevin McDonald, Bruce McCulloch, Mark McKinney, and Scott Thompson. Their eponymous television show ran from 1988 to 1994 on CBC in Canada, and 1989 to 1995 on CBS and HBO in the United States...

. Following the run of their television series (1989 to 1995) and feature film (Brain Candy
Brain Candy
Brain Candy is a feature film by The Kids in the Hall, a Canadian comedy troupe. Directed by Kelly Makin, filmed in Toronto, and released in 1996, it followed the five season run of their television series, which had been successful in both Canada and the United States.The five man team plays all...

), he went on to star in Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...

from 1995 to 1997. From 2003 to 2006, he co-created, wrote and starred in the acclaimed mini-series Slings and Arrows
Slings and Arrows
Slings and Arrows is a Canadian TV series set at the fictional New Burbage Festival, a Shakespearean festival similar to the real-world Stratford Festival...

, a TV show about a Canadian theatre company struggling to survive while a crazy genius director haunted by his dead mentor helps the actors find authenticity in their acting.

Early life

McKinney was born in Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

, the son of Chloe, an architectural writer, and Russell McKinney, a diplomat
Diplomat
A diplomat is a person appointed by a state to conduct diplomacy with another state or international organization. The main functions of diplomats revolve around the representation and protection of the interests and nationals of the sending state, as well as the promotion of information and...

. Because of his father's career, he did a lot of traveling when he was young. Some of the places he lived while growing up were Trinidad
Trinidad
Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands and numerous landforms which make up the island nation of Trinidad and Tobago. It is the southernmost island in the Caribbean and lies just off the northeastern coast of Venezuela. With an area of it is also the fifth largest in...

, Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

, Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

, and Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....

 He also attended Trinity College School
Trinity College School
Trinity College School is a coeducational, independent boarding/day school located in Port Hope, Ontario, Canada. TCS was founded on May 1, 1865, more than 2 years prior to Canadian Confederation. It includes a Senior School for grades 9 to 12 and a Junior School for grades 5 to 8.Among its...

, a boarding school in Port Hope, Ontario
Port Hope, Ontario
Port Hope is a municipality in Southern Ontario, Canada, about east of Toronto and about west of Kingston. It is located at the mouth of the Ganaraska River on the north shore of Lake Ontario, in the west end of Northumberland County...

. For a short while, McKinney was a student at Memorial University of Newfoundland
Memorial University of Newfoundland
Memorial University of Newfoundland, is a comprehensive university located primarily in St...

, where he was a political science major.

Acting career

The Kids in the Hall

He started doing comedy with the Loose Moose Theatre Company in Calgary, Alberta. There, McKinney met Bruce McCulloch
Bruce McCulloch
Bruce Ian McCulloch is a Canadian actor, writer, comedian, and film director. McCulloch is best known for his work as a member of The Kids in the Hall, a popular Canadian comedy troupe, and as a writer for Saturday Night Live. McCulloch has also appeared on series such as Twitch City and Gilmore...

. Together they formed a comedy team called “The Audience.” Eventually, McKinney and McCulloch moved to Toronto, and met Dave Foley
Dave Foley
David Scott "Dave" Foley is a Canadian comedian, writer, director, and producer best known for his work in The Kids in the Hall, NewsRadio, A Bug's Life, and Celebrity Poker Showdown...

 and Kevin McDonald
Kevin McDonald
Kevin Hamilton McDonald is a Canadian comedian and actor, known as a member of the Canadian sketch comedy group The Kids in the Hall.-Early life:...

, who were in the process of forming a comedy troupe. Along with Scott Thompson
Scott Thompson
Scott Thompson is a Canadian television actor and comedian, best known for his time as a member of the comedy troupe The Kids in the Hall.-Personal life:...

, who joined after coming to a stage show, and producer Lorne Michaels
Lorne Michaels
Lorne Michaels, CM is a Canadian-American television producer, writer, and comedian best known for creating and producing Saturday Night Live and producing the various film and TV projects that spun off from it.-Early life:...

, The Kids in the Hall
The Kids in the Hall
The Kids in the Hall is a Canadian sketch comedy group formed in 1984, consisting of comedians Dave Foley, Kevin McDonald, Bruce McCulloch, Mark McKinney, and Scott Thompson. Their eponymous television show ran from 1988 to 1994 on CBC in Canada, and 1989 to 1995 on CBS and HBO in the United States...

was formed in 1985.

Notable "Kids" characters played by McKinney include the Chicken Lady
Chicken Lady
The Chicken Lady was a character portrayed by Mark McKinney on the sketch comedy show The Kids in the Hall. She is a middle-aged, apartment-dwelling, physically strong, sexually-obsessed freak: the result of mating between a farmer and a hen...

, Darill , blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...

man Mississippi Gary, and Mr. Tyzik the Headcrusher, an embittered Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...

an who pretends to crush the heads of passersby between his thumb and forefinger.

Saturday Night Live

After the end of The Kids in the Hall, McKinney joined the cast of another Lorne Michaels
Lorne Michaels
Lorne Michaels, CM is a Canadian-American television producer, writer, and comedian best known for creating and producing Saturday Night Live and producing the various film and TV projects that spun off from it.-Early life:...

 sketch comedy show, Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...

in the middle of the 1994-1995 season (season 20) as a repertory player. McKinney survived the cast overhaul that occurred at the end of season 20 and stayed on SNL until the end of the 1996-1997 (season 22). During his time on SNL, McKinney had six recurring characters (some of note include Ian Daglers from "Scottish Soccer Hooligan Weekly", Melanie, a Catholic schoolgirl, and Lucien Callow, a fop often paired with David Koechner
David Koechner
David Michael Koechner is an American comedian, musician, and character actor. Koechner began studying improvisational comedy in Chicago at the ImprovOlympic, under the teachings of Del Close, before joining the Second City Northwest...

's fop character Fagan) and twenty-seven celebrity impersonations (some of note include Mel Gibson
Mel Gibson
Mel Colm-Cille Gerard Gibson, AO is an American actor, film director, producer and screenwriter. Born in Peekskill, New York, Gibson moved with his parents to Sydney, Australia when he was 12 years old and later studied acting at the Australian National Institute of Dramatic Art.After appearing in...

, Barney Frank
Barney Frank
Barney Frank is the U.S. Representative for . A member of the Democratic Party, he is the former chairman of the House Financial Services Committee and is considered the most prominent gay politician in the United States.Born and raised in New Jersey, Frank graduated from Harvard College and...

, Al Gore
Al Gore
Albert Arnold "Al" Gore, Jr. served as the 45th Vice President of the United States , under President Bill Clinton. He was the Democratic Party's nominee for President in the 2000 U.S. presidential election....

, Paul Shaffer
Paul Shaffer
Paul Allen Wood Shaffer, CM is a Canadian musician, actor, voice actor, author, comedian, and composer who has been David Letterman's sidekick since 1982.-Early years:...

, Jim Carrey
Jim Carrey
James Eugene "Jim" Carrey is a Canadian-American actor and comedian. He has received two Golden Globe Awards and has also been nominated on four occasions. Carrey began comedy in 1979, performing at Yuk Yuk's in Toronto, Ontario...

, Lance Ito
Lance Ito
Lance Allan Ito is an American Los Angeles County Superior Court judge, best known for his presiding decision during the O. J. Simpson murder trial. He currently hears felony criminal cases at the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center.-Early life and career:Ito was born to Jim and Toshi Ito...

, Tim Robbins
Tim Robbins
Timothy Francis "Tim" Robbins is an American actor, screenwriter, director, producer, activist and musician. He is the former longtime partner of actress Susan Sarandon...

, Steve Forbes
Steve Forbes
Malcolm Stevenson "Steve" Forbes, Jr. is an American editor, publisher, and businessman. He is the editor-in-chief of business magazine Forbes as well as president and chief executive officer of its publisher, Forbes Inc. He was a Republican candidate in the U.S. Presidential primaries in 1996...

, Wolf Blitzer
Wolf Blitzer
Wolf Isaac Blitzer is an American journalist who has been a CNN reporter since 1990. Blitzer is currently the host of the newscast The Situation Room and was the host of the Sunday talk show Late Edition until it was discontinued on January 11, 2009...

, Bill Gates
Bill Gates
William Henry "Bill" Gates III is an American business magnate, investor, philanthropist, and author. Gates is the former CEO and current chairman of Microsoft, the software company he founded with Paul Allen...

, and Ellen DeGeneres
Ellen DeGeneres
Ellen Lee DeGeneres is an American stand-up comedienne, television host and actress. She hosts the syndicated talk show The Ellen DeGeneres Show, and was also a judge on American Idol for one year, having joined the show in its ninth season....

.)

Movie appearances

He has appeared in several films, including the SNL spinoffs Superstar, The Ladies Man
The Ladies Man (2000 film)
The Ladies Man is a 2000 American comedy film that stars actor, comedian and former Saturday Night Live cast member Tim Meadows. It was directed by Reginald Hudlin. The movie focuses on the exploits of radio host and sex therapy expert Leon Phelps....

and A Night at the Roxbury
A Night at the Roxbury
A Night at the Roxbury is a 1998 comedy film based on a recurring skit on television's long-running Saturday Night Live called "The Roxbury Guys." Saturday Night Live regulars Will Ferrell, Chris Kattan, Molly Shannon, and Colin Quinn star....

. McKinney also starred opposite Isabella Rossellini
Isabella Rossellini
Isabella Fiorella Elettra Giovanna Rossellini is an Italian actress, filmmaker, author, philanthropist, and model. Rossellini is noted for her 14-year tenure as a Lancôme model, and for her roles in films such as Blue Velvet and Death Becomes Her.-Background and early life:Rossellini is a...

 in Guy Maddin
Guy Maddin
Guy Maddin, OM is a Canadian screenwriter, director, cinematographer and film editor of both features and short films from Winnipeg, Manitoba...

's acclaimed tragicomedy The Saddest Music in the World
The Saddest Music in the World
The Saddest Music in the World is a 2003 Canadian film directed by Guy Maddin. It stars Mark McKinney, Isabella Rossellini, Maria de Medeiros, David Fox and Ross McMillan....

. He also appeared in the Spice Girls
Spice Girls
The Spice Girls were a British pop girl group formed in 1994. The group consisted of Victoria Beckham , Melanie Brown, Emma Bunton, Melanie Chisholm and Geri Halliwell. They were signed to Virgin Records and released their debut single, "Wannabe" in 1996, which hit number-one in more than 30...

' movie Spiceworld
Spiceworld (film)
Spice World is a 1997 British musical comedy film directed by Bob Spiers, written by Kim Fuller and Jamie Curtis, and starring the best-selling pop girl group the Spice Girls...

.

McKinney cowrote and starred in the Kids in the Hall movie Brain Candy
Brain Candy
Brain Candy is a feature film by The Kids in the Hall, a Canadian comedy troupe. Directed by Kelly Makin, filmed in Toronto, and released in 1996, it followed the five season run of their television series, which had been successful in both Canada and the United States.The five man team plays all...

, in which, among other roles, he spoofed SNL and KITH executive producer Lorne Michaels
Lorne Michaels
Lorne Michaels, CM is a Canadian-American television producer, writer, and comedian best known for creating and producing Saturday Night Live and producing the various film and TV projects that spun off from it.-Early life:...

.

Theater

His theater appearances include The Ugly Man with One Yellow Rabbit at the Edinburgh Fringe festival and Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...

. He was in the cast of The Roundabout theater production of Flea in her Ear and David Lindsay Abaire's Fuddy Meers
Fuddy Meers
Fuddy Meers is an American play by David Lindsay-Abaire. It tells the story of an amnesiac, Claire, who awakens each morning as a blank slate on which her husband and teenage son must imprint the facts of her life. One morning Claire is abducted by a limping, lisping man who claims her husband...

for the Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...

 theater club. During the fall of 2001 McKinney performed the one-man show Fully Committed at the Wintergarden theater in Toronto and again in the summer of 2002 at the Centaur Theater in Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...

.

Latest appearances

His latest appearances on television have been as a cast member on the CBC
CBC Television
CBC Television is a Canadian television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcaster.Although the CBC is supported by public funding, the television network supplements this funding with commercial advertising revenue, in contrast to CBC Radio which are...

 comedy Hatching, Matching, and Dispatching
Hatching, Matching and Dispatching
Hatching, Matching and Dispatching was a Canadian television sitcom series. The CBC Television show starred Mary Walsh as Mamie Lou Furey, the matriarch of a family in Newfoundland and Labrador who own a combination ambulance, wedding and funeral business. The remaining cast included Shaun...

, the first season of Robson Arms
Robson Arms
Robson Arms is a Canadian television series that began airing on CTV on June 17, 2005 and ended on June 30, 2008. Robson Arms is a co-production between Vancouver-based Omni Film Productions Limited and Halifax's Creative Atlantic Communications....

, as well as on the hit Canadian comedy Corner Gas
Corner Gas
Corner Gas is a Canadian television sitcom created by Brent Butt. The series ran for six seasons from 2004 to 2009. Re-runs still air on CTV and The Comedy Network in Canada; it formerly aired on WGN America in the United States....

.

From 2003 to 2006, he co-created, co-wrote and starred in the acclaimed dramedy TV mini-series Slings and Arrows
Slings and Arrows
Slings and Arrows is a Canadian TV series set at the fictional New Burbage Festival, a Shakespearean festival similar to the real-world Stratford Festival...

, about the backstage goings-on in a Canadian Shakespearean theatre company struggling with financial problems as they rehearse and present various productions.

In 2006-7 he both worked as a story editor on and a recurring role in NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...

's Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip
Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip
Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip was an American dramedy television series created and written by Aaron Sorkin. It ran for 22 episodes.The series takes place behind the scenes of a live sketch comedy show on the fictional television network NBS , whose format is similar to that of NBC's...

as Andy Mackinaw, a humorless widowed writer/story editor for the show-within-a-show.

He directed the short film Not Pretty, Really for the 2006 anthology Shorts in Motion: The Art of Seduction
Shorts in Motion: The Art of Seduction
Shorts in Motion: The Art of Seduction is a Canadian anthology of 10 original, two-minute mobile shorts for video cell phones, by directors, artists and personalities, including: Ann Marie Fleming, Mark McKinney, Guy Maddin, Isabella Rossellini, Theodore Ushev and Denis Villeneuve...

.

As well, he directed and appeared on the CBC Radio
CBC Radio
CBC Radio generally refers to the English-language radio operations of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The CBC operates a number of radio networks serving different audiences and programming niches, all of which are outlined below.-English:CBC Radio operates three English language...

 post-apocalyptic comedy Steve, The First
Steve, The First
Steve the First was a four-part dark comedy set in a post-apocalyptic future, broadcast on CBC Radio One in 2005. It ran on Saturday mornings from 11:30 - 12:00pm...

and its sequel, Steve, The Second
Steve, The Second
Steve the Second was a four-part comedy series that was broadcast Saturday mornings on CBC Radio One, running from 11:30 - 12:00pm . The successor series to Steve, The First, this bleak comedy was set 25 years after the original story...

, for his friend Matt Watts
Matt Watts (comedian)
Matt Watts is a Canadian comedian, actor and writer.Best known for his work on Ken Finkleman's The Newsroom, he has recently been working for CBC Radio One, writing and performing in the dramas Steve, The First, its sequel Steve, The Second and Canadia: 2056...

. He is also a writer for Watts' new sitcom Michael, Tuesdays and Thursdays, scheduled to debut on CBC Television
CBC Television
CBC Television is a Canadian television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcaster.Although the CBC is supported by public funding, the television network supplements this funding with commercial advertising revenue, in contrast to CBC Radio which are...

 in fall 2011.

In the summer of 2007 he became the producer and executive story editor of Less Than Kind
Less Than Kind
Less Than Kind is a Canadian television comedy-drama series that stars Jesse Camacho as Sheldon Blecher, a teenager growing up in a loving but dysfunctional Jewish family in Winnipeg. The show's cast also includes Maury Chaykin and Wendel Meldrum as Sheldon's parents, Benjamin Arthur as his older...

, a half hour comedy starring Maury Chaykin
Maury Chaykin
Maury Alan Chaykin was an American-born Canadian actor. Best known for his portrayal of detective Nero Wolfe, he was also known for his work as a character actor in many films and on television programs.-Personal life:...

.

Was in an episode of the Canadian children's TV show Dino Dan
Dino Dan
Dino Dan is a Canadian/American television series for children ages 2-17, which is currently airing on TVO Kids in Ontario, and Nick Jr. in Australia and the USA. The series was created and directed by J.J. Johnson and produced in Toronto, Canada, by Sinking Ship Entertainment. It was co-written...

, Episode 'Prehistoric Zoo/Ready? Set? Dino!' He plays Dino Dan's track coach in the second part, 'Ready? Set? Dino!" of this two show episode released 4 October 2010 (Canada). reference: http://www.tvguide.com/tvshows/dino-dan-2011/episode-17-season-1/prehistoric-zoo-ready/307523

He co-wrote and starred in the Kids in the Hall 2010 reunion project Death Comes to Town
Death Comes to Town
Kids in the Hall: Death Comes to Town is an eight-episode Canadian mini-series that aired on CBC Television on Tuesdays between January 12 and March 16, 2010. The show takes place in a fictional Ontario town called Shuckton where their mayor has been murdered...

.

Dynaman

McKinney is also credited in the American dubbed parody of the popular Japanese television series Kagaku Sentai Dynaman
Kagaku Sentai Dynaman
is the seventh installment of Toei Company's Super Sentai series. It aired on TV Asahi from February 5, 1983, to January 28, 1984, with a total of 51 episodes...

 as the voice of Yousuke, aka Dyna Blue.

External links

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