- Born
- Birth nameMark Joseph Flood
- Nickname
- Mark the Shark
- Height6′ 5″ (1.96 m)
- Mark Flood was born on September 30, 1996, in Paisley, Renfrewshire, Scotland, as the second child of two school teachers. He is of Irish, Hebridean and Lithuanian heritage. He attended St. Cadoc's Primary School and St. Ninian's High School. Due to a lifelong fondness for film, art and animation, he attended classes at the Glasgow School of Art as a teenager, and began working on his own projects.
Mark began working regularly as a cartoonist in his teens, teaching himself the art of animation and screenwriting, learning from mentors in the industry, and borrowing equipment to produce his own material. He assembled a small team of fellow aspiring animators, whom he met at school and art school, to produce animated shorts. His team still work with him today, and in the early days, the group completed their work in their homes, garages and attics. The short cartoon films he directed as a teenager were screened in various festivals on both sides of the Atlantic, allowing him to begin establishing himself in the industry as a writer, actor, voice actor, animator, producer, and director.
Flood officially founded his own film company in 2014, to create feature-length films and television series using traditional hand-drawn animation, and eventually employing first-class animators from around the globe. He was the recipient of the Young Scot Award for Enterprise in 2015, and was named in June 2015 as one of 10 of Scotland's "Young Rising Stars" by Glasgow's Evening Times, a list that also included singer-songwriter Nina Nesbitt, Katie Archibald, Millie Innes and politician Mhairi Black.
Flood splits his time between his hometown of Glasgow, Scotland, and London. His upcoming work includes the 30-minute animated film Operation Alley Cat, and a live-action sitcom Strivers and Skivers, with several feature films and television series in development.
Outside of his work, Mark loves reading, motorbiking, playing guitar, and playing board games such as chess. He is active in campaigning for issues close to him, such as human and animal rights, healthcare and culture.- IMDb Mini Biography By: YES
- Frequently makes films with hand-drawn animation
- His animated films often contain dark themes
- His towering height
- Scottish accent
- Frequently uses music by Alan Orr
- Survived a major stroke at the age of 14, caused by complications of infective endocarditis due to mitral valve prolapse. He fully recovered within two months.
- Has no sense of smell.
- Is a volunteer and fund raiser for the MediCinema charity in Yorkhill Children's Hospital.
- A lifelong film buff. Some of his favorite movies include The Secret of NIMH (1982), Back to the Future (1985), Rushmore (1998), Trainspotting (1996), Frozen (2013), North by Northwest (1959), Boogie Nights (1997), It's a Wonderful Life (1946), School of Rock (2003), Harvey (1950), Singin' in the Rain (1952) and The Graduate (1967).
- Drew the raffle at the only preview of Skyfall (2012) in Scotland. The event was a fund raiser for Yorkhill Children's Hospital in Cineworld Renfrew Street in Glasgow.
- [2012, on recovering from a stroke] I could not have asked for the aftermath of a near-death experience to turn out better than it has.
- One bit of advice I really would want to give people is to put yourself out there and forge your own path! Don't be shy! Don't wait for somebody else to give you your big break - give yourself your big break! With so many ways to showcase your work yourself these days, there's nothing stopping you!
- I think one of the biggest mistakes you can make is to say you want to be the "next Walt Disney" or the "next Matt Groening". You have got to be you, and if people love what you do, great.
- A lot of people initially think I'm crazy when I say this, but having a stroke was actually one of the best things that has ever happened to me. Something like that always makes you appreciate later how lucky you are to have your health and be alive on this world that has so many wonderful things and places in it to be experienced.
- [on hand-drawn animation] It is a beautiful art form. You know when you are watching a hand-drawn cartoon there is a real person behind it. I think the characters take on that human soul in the process, while in computer generated films, to me the characters always behave a little like puppets.
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