Festival Talks

Mark McGann

Mark McGann is a member of the McGann acting dynasty. He has appeared on big and small screens in many, many guises over the last 30 years including as Marcus Bannerman in the UK TV series ‘The Grand’; as Tom Crean in ‘Shackleton’ with Kenneth Brannagh for C4; as Niven Craig in Peter Medak’s acclaimed feature film ‘Let Him Have It’ and as Conor Phelan in ‘The Hanging Gale’, a Bafta Award winning TV series conceived and co-produced by Mark & his three brothers for the BBC.

Having started life as a musician, Mark became a professional actor in 1980 when he joined the acting company at the Everyman Theatre, Liverpool portraying numerous roles including John Lennon 1981 in ‘Lennon’. The success of this production ensured a West End transfer to the Astoria Theatre London, which saw him gain a first of two Olivier Award Nominations for Best Actor in 1985. He later reprised the role on TV in ‘John and Yoko – A Love Story’ for NBC in the US (1986) and on stage in Imagine in 1992.

Mark received a second Olivier Award Nomination for the West End production of ‘Up On The Roof’ at the Donmar Warehouse and Apollo Theatre Shaftesbury Avenue, which he also musically directed. Other major theatre appearances include as Inspector Goole in ‘An Inspector Calls’ by J.B.Priestley for the National Theatre, ‘Upright in On The Ledge’ at the National Theatre; Gethin Price in ‘The Comedians’ by Trevor Griffiths at the Young Vic; ‘Killers’ at the Royal Court, London and Don Giovanni in Mozart’s ‘Don Giovanni’; Macbeth in ‘Macbeth’; Mosca in ‘Volpone’ and Mickey in ‘Blood Brothers’ by Willy Russell for the Robert Stigwood Organisation’s first Major UK tour of the show in 1984.

Mark now combines writing, performing and producing plays for commercial theatre, large orchestral shows, writing screenplays and delivering original Stage and Screen acting workshops and professional actor mentoring through his creative company, Drama Direct Limited.