Born Mark Douglas Brown McKinney on June 26, 1959 in Ottawa, Ontario, comedian Mark McKinney has a signature style and range of unique character voices.  McKinney started doing comedy with the Loose Moose Theatre Company where he met Bruce McCulloch and formed a comedy team called “The Audience.” Together they moved to Toronto and met Dave Foley and Kevin McDonald, who were in the process of forming a comedy troupe. Along with fifth member Scott Thompson and producer Lorne Michaels, the sketch comedy show The Kids in the Hall started in 1989.

The Kids in the Hall

During the show’s five-year run, McKinney created memorable characters like the Chicken Lady, the Headcrusher, Tanya the Temp, and the ever-annoying Darrill. After the series ended, he reunited with the group for the 1996 feature film Brain Candy and the 2000 & 2008 live tours and documentary Same Guys, New Dresses.

Post Kids in the Hall Work

In 1995, he joined the cast of Saturday Night Live for two seasons. He then had small roles in SNL-related movies A Night at the Roxbury and The Ladies Man, the 1999 remake The Out-of-Towners, and the New York stage production Fuddy Meers at the Manhattan Theater Club. He can also be seen in Bruce McCulloch’s films Dog Park and Superstar, along with numerous independent films.  After appearing in the Canadian sitcom Twitch City, he played leading roles in Guy Maddin’s The Saddest Music in the World and Scott Smith’s Falling Angels, both of which were shown at the 2003 Toronto Film Festival.

From 2003 to 2006, he co-created, wrote and starred in the acclaimed mini-series Slings and Arrows, 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.

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