Mark Rylance Biography

Mark Rylance is an award-winning actor in theatre, film and television. He won raves earlier this season for his performance as Valere in David Hirson's La Bête, on Broadway and in the West End, directed by Matthew Warchus. He won the 2008 Tony Award and Drama Desk for Best Actor in a Play and a Theatre World Award for his New York stage debut as Robert in Boeing-Boeing. He is a two-time winner of the Olivier Award for Johnny 'Rooster' Byron in Jerusalem (2010) and Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing (1993). He also won the 2010 Evening Standard and Critics' Circle Awards for Jerusalem. Rylance was the Artistic Director for Shakespeare's Globe from 1996 to 2005 and also served as an Associate Actor of the RSC, acting in 48 plays by Shakespeare and his contemporaries.

Rylance's breakthrough role was Hamlet, which he played first at the Little Theatre of Milwaukee, followed by productions at the Royal Shakespeare Company, A.R.T. in Cambridge and the Globe, amassing more performances in the role than any other actor in history, to date. His extensive theatre credits include Hamm in Endgame (Complicite, Duchess Theatre, West End); Peer Gynt in Peer Gynt (Guthrie); Macbeth in Macbeth (Phoebus Cart, Greenwich, UK Tour); Lee and Austin in True West (Donmar, West Yorkshire); Touchstone in As You Like It and Henry V in Henry V (Theatre for a New Audience); Constantine in The Seagull (A.R.T.); Romeo in Romeo and Juliet (RSC, UK Tour); Henry in Life x 3 (Royal National Theatre, Old Vic); Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream (Royal Opera); Valentin in The Kiss of the Spider Woman (Bush Theatre); Peter Pan in Peter Pan, Ariel in The Tempest, Lucentio in Taming of the Shrew, Michael in Arden of Faversham (RSC); among others. His credits at Shakespeare's Globe included Richard II in Richard II, Henry V in Henry V, Bassanio in The Merchant of Venice, Proteus in Two Gentlemen of Verona, Cleopatra in Antony and Cleopatra and Olivia in Twelfth Night, for which he received a 2002 Evening Standard Award. He is Co-Artistic Director for Phoebus Cart Theatre Company and the London Theatre of Imagination.

As director, his credits include: Julius Caesar (Globe), Macbeth, The Tempest (Phoebus Cart), As You Like It (Theatre for a New Audience), co-director for Much Ado About Nothing and Othello (Theatre of Imagination). Other awards include a 2009 Sam Scripps Lifetime Achievement Award from Theatre for a New Audience, a 2006 Sam Wanamaker Award for his pioneering work with Shakespeare and a 2002 Evening Standard Award for Shakespeare's Globe.

His film work includes: Henry Condell in Anonymous, Inspector Roberts in Blitz, Frank in Nocturne, Sir Thomas Boleyn in The Other Boleyn Girl, Jay in Intimacy (London Film Critics' Circle Award nomination), William in Angels and Insects, Jakob in Instituta Benjamenta, Ferdinand in Prospero's Book and Fizz in Hearts of Fire.

For television, his credits include David Kelly in "The Government Inspector" (2006 BAFTA Award), Leonardo in "Leonardo," Charles Raunce in "Loving," Con in "Love Lies Bleeding," William Blake in "In Lambeth," and John Healy in the multi award-winning "The Glass Arena".