Mark Bennington

Biography

Mark Bennington is an American actor, photographer, drummer and author. Born in Columbia, Missouri to a psychologist Father and educator/activist Mother, Mark grew up between the sleepy college town of Davis, CA and the rougher side of South Sacramento with dreams of being a ballet dancer and an architect. After graduating from Mike Nichols’s The New Actors Workshop (MFA acting program) in New York City, Mark worked in theater for 10 years, doing everything from Shakespeare to Ibsen to Coward and even doing experimental theater for 3 years with Tony Award winning director Diane Paulus’s ensemble ‘Project 400’. Theater highlights include working with: Sir Trevor Nunn in An Enemy of the People with Sir Ian McKellen, improv guru Paul Sills (founder of Second City) in Ghost & Love Stories and maverick writer/director Charles Marowitz playing ‘William Shakespeare’ in Marowitz’s play Murdering Marlowe… also playing- ‘Elyot’ in Private Lives, ‘Lomov’ in A Marriage Proposal, ‘Sebastian’ in Twelfth Night, ‘Howard Rudd’ in Holy Ghosts and ‘Bassino’ in The Merchant of Venice to name a few. As a theater director, Mark mounted the original production Elizabeth Logun’s On My Knees off-Broadway at Alice’s Fourth Floor and Noel Coward’s Mild Oats in Los Angeles at The Classical Theater Lab. In 2019, he returned to the theater after 16 years, directing Jeff Goldberg’s The Mumbai Terror Attacks at The Royal Opera House in Mumbai and acting in Devika Rani: Goddess of the Silver Screen directed by Lillette Dubey . As a photographer, Mark’s work has been published in The Atlantic, The Huffington Post, UpWorthy, CNN, PDN, GQ India, Varity, Verve, Man’s World, Forbes, Lucky, Self, Platform, The Los Angeles Times, LA Weekly, The Wall Street Journal, Times of India, Virginia Quarterly Review, Boston Globe, BuzzFeed and many more. Mark authored the acclaimed photography book “Living the Dream: The Life of the ‘Bollywood’ Actor” (HarperCollins) and in 2016 his photography project America 2.0 about Muslim youth in NYC received worldwide recognition. He was also one of the ‘Top 10′ actor headshot photographers in both LA & NY, an adjunct professor of photography at The S.I. Newhouse School of Media and Communication at Syracuse University and his work has been exhibited in Jerusalem, Rome, Tokyo, New York City, Hudson, San Fransisco, Berlin and London. Also as a drummer, Mark played over 400 shows and recorded 3 albums with the legendary LA roots/rock band ’50cent Haircut’ (Knitting Factory Records). Based in Mumbai, he married cultural anthropologist, Dr. Taapsi Ramchandani on December 21, 2013.