Mark Kleuskens

Mark was born in the sixties on the border between Holland and Germany. The first love he discovered in his life was his love for music and as a teenager he decided to make a living out of this hobby. So after finishing high school Mark started an international career as a DJ and travelled through Europe for many years and performed in Holland, Germany, Italy, Spain and Ibiza. At the end of the 80's Mark came back to Holland and settled down in Amsterdam. In 1989 Mark, together with a good friend, founded the Dutch hard rock band 'Sudden Death'. With 'Sudden Death' he toured through Holland during the 90' s. It was in Amsterdam where Mark discovered his second passion: his love for film. In the early 90' s Mark decided to go to an acting school and, in addition to the music business, go for a career as an actor. He visited the 'Studio Sutton for Acting', 'de Trap' and 'het Collectief' and in addition, he did various workshops with among others: George Loros (Lee Strasberg Institute New York), Hans Kemna and Theu Boermans. In 1994 Mark made his debut in a Dutch tv-series called 'Coverstory' in which he played the role of a crime scene investigator for two years. Ever since Mark appeared in more than 130 film-and tv-productions in Holland, Belgium, Germany, Austria and Spain. So far he had the honor of working together with big directors such as Theu Boermans, Jean van de Velde, Paul Verhoeven and Michael Apted. Although Mark played all kind of roles during his career (priest, lawyer, cop and bad guy) his love and his strength is the character of the bad guy, the outlaw, the drop out, the man on the edge of life. Mark about this theme: "I studied these guys for years and the challenge is now to create a real and complete man out of this bad guy, who has also his charms and good side, and avoid him ending up as a one dimensional character". "The starting point is the fact that a sick mind is the result of a sick society and this way I give my characters a good reason to be a drop out of our main stream society". Mark sees these kind of roles as his "artistic specialty", his unique selling point. Meanwhile Mark discovered his third love: the art of writing. At the moment he is working on a novel and a screenplay. Mark's lifestyle dramatically changed in the last few years; instead of living the 'wild life of Rock & Roll' Mark works out like crazy in the gym every day, preparing himself for a new role. Mark speaks fluently Dutch, German, English and Spanish.