Mark McKinney

Mark Douglas Brown McKinney is a Canadian comedian and actor. He is best known for his work as a member of the sketch comedy troupe The Kids in the Hall from 1989 to 1994, and as a cast member on Saturday Night Live from 1995 to 1997.

Biography

Early Life

McKinney was born on June 26, 1959 in Ottawa, Canada. However, he didn?t grow up in Ottawa. Since his father was a diplomat, he did a lot of traveling when he was young. Some of the places he lived while growing up were Trinidad, Paris, Mexico, and Washington DC, where he attended a boarding school. For a short while, Mark was a student in a university in Newfoundland, where he was a political science major.

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Acting Career

The Kids in the Hall

He started doing comedy with the Loose Moose Theatre Company. There, Mark met Bruce McCulloch. Together they formed a comedy team called, ?The Audience.? Eventually, Mark and Bruce moved to Toronto, and met Dave Foley and Kevin McDonald. Dave and Kevin were in the process of forming a comedy troupe. Along with Scott Thompson, who wound up joining after coming to a stage show, and producer Lorne Michaels, the

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Kids in the Hall (KITH) was formed in 1989.

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Notable "Kids" characters played by McKinney include the Chicken Lady, Nina from Joymakers, Gerald the businessman, and Mr. Tyzik, the Headcrusher, an embittered Eastern European who crushes the heads of passersby between his thumb and forefinger.

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McKinney is considered by some to be the Kids' most versatile member, adopting countless different voices, accents, and personalities to match each bizarre skit.

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Saturday Night Live

Following the end of KITH, Mark joined the cast of another sketch comedy show, Saturday Night Live.

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Movie Appearences

He has appeared in several films, including the SNL spinoffs Superstar, The Ladies Man and A Night at the Roxbury. McKinney also starred opposite Isabella Rossellini in Guy Maddin's acclaimed tragicomedy The Saddest Music in the World.

Related Topics:
Superstar - The Ladies Man - A Night at the Roxbury - Isabella Rossellini - Guy Maddin - The Saddest Music in the World

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McKinney cowrote and starred in the Kids in the Hall movie Brain Candy, in which, among other roles, he spoofed SNL and KITH executive producer Lorne Michaels.

Related Topics:
Brain Candy - Lorne Michaels

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Latest Appearances

His latest appearances on television have been as a cast member on the CBC comedy Hatching, Matching, & Dispatching, as well as on the hit Canadian comedy Corner Gas, as an American who came to Dog River by accident.

Related Topics:
Hatching, Matching, & Dispatching - Corner Gas

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