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Long before Mark was lauded for his voice characterization of Hugh Neutron in the Academy Award Nominated film (& TV series) Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius, he was punished for doing the exact same thing. Nuns don’t dig silly voices coming from the rear of Math class. So after 12 years of Chicago parochial education, Mark escaped to UCLA and began his stand up comedy career. Broke, he appeared on the NBC game show Sale of the Century, and eleven shows later, retired as Sale’s all-time champion, winning $115,736 and the world’s ugliest eelskin coat. Without an immediate need to wait tables, Mark decided to perform in front of them.
He founded The Frayed Knots!, a six member improv/sketch group, and directed and performed with the group for five years. In 1988 Mark was hired by The Second City, as a founding member of the legendary troupe’s West Coast sketch company. Mark performed in several original revues before the quake-ravaged theater closed in 1990.
Episodic TV and bits in films led, somehow, to a hosting gig on a silly dating show. STUDS became a breakout hit in syndication, but was mysteriously cancelled at the peak of its popularity after 580 episodes. Thanks for nothing, Anna Murdoch! Mark hit the road at The Improvs, Laugh Factories, and anywhere two or more gathered in the name of yuks. Even the Comedy Store.
In May of 1994, he was the creator, executive producer and host of the ground breaking late night comedy/talk show Goodnight America for its only season. In 1997, Mark returned to Fox hosting Big Deal, a primetime Sunday night comedy show. Mark also hosted the popular FX late night comedy, The X Show, for its first season, leaving the show in June 2000 after 220 episodes, to act in shows like; Seinfeld, Evening at the Improv, Matlock, The Ben Stiller Show, and recurring on HBO’s Tracey Takes On, and Curb Your Enthusiasm.
Let’s talk cartoons. Mark’s voiced characters on; Duckman, Real Monsters, Rugrats, in the #1 IMAX Box Office hit Santa vs. The Snowman, and is a regular in Steve Oedekirk’s THUMB-series of SHOWTIME comedy specials, including ThumbTanic, Thumb Wars, The Godthumb and as Hugh Neutron in the Nickelodeon primetime Jimmy Neutron TV series.
The future is all about movies. Mark played God in the romantic comedy Three Days, selected for the Chicago International Film Festival. He’s also appeared in Three to Tango, A Wake in Providence, and A Fare to Remember, Betty Thomas’ R3, a new Guffman-esque comedy about reality TV, Raising Helen, a new comedy from Garry Marshall, Raising Genius, a comedy with Wendy Malick and Steven Root, Sex Sells: the Making of Touche, and on September 9, 2005 Mobsters & Mormons. Mark has written and will star in the feature film Mr. MOJO, a romantic "comedy with the Blues." The film shoots in Chicago in 2006.
He’s currently working on Ant Bully and Barnyard, two new animated feature films. When not eating all over the country for the Travel Channel’s Taste of America with Mark DeCarlo, he lives in the Hollywood Hills with an empty fridge. |
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