Mark Douglas Brown McKinney (born June 26, 1959) is a Canadian actor and comedian. He is best known as a member of the sketch comedy troupe The Kids in the Hall, which includes starring in the 1989 to 1995 TV series '' The Kids in the Hall'' and 1996 feature film ''

Brain Candy Brain Candy may refer to: * ''Brain Candy'' (TV series), 2003 standup comedy variety TV series on BBC Three * ''Brain Candy'' (album), 2020 album by Australian duo Hockey Dad * '' Kids in the Hall: Brain Candy'', 1996 Canadian comedy film by ...

''. He was a cast member on ''

Saturday Night Live ''Saturday Night Live'' (often abbreviated to ''SNL'') is an American late-night live television sketch comedy and variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Dick Ebersol that airs on NBC and Peacock. Michaels currently serve ...

'' from 1995 to 1997; and from 2003 to 2006, he co-created, wrote and starred in the series '' Slings & Arrows'' and he also appeared as Tom in FXX's '' Man Seeking Woman''. In recent years he has appeared as store manager Glenn Sturgis on NBC's '' Superstore''.

Early life

McKinney was born in

Ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...

, the son of Chloe, an architectural writer, and Russell McKinney, a

diplomat A diplomat (from grc, δίπλωμα; romanized ''diploma'') is a person appointed by a state or an intergovernmental institution such as the United Nations or the European Union to conduct diplomacy with one or more other states or internati ...

. Because of his father's career, he did a lot of travelling when he was young. Some of the places he lived while growing up were

Trinidad Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands of Trinidad and Tobago. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is often referred to as the southernmos ...

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. ...

Mexico Mexico ( Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guate ...

, and Washington, D.C. He also attended Trinity College School, a boarding school in

Port Hope, Ontario Port Hope is a municipality in Southern Ontario, Canada, approximately east of Toronto and about west of Kingston. It is located at the mouth of the Ganaraska River on the north shore of Lake Ontario, in the west end of Northumberland County. T ...

. For a short while, McKinney was a student at Memorial University of Newfoundland, where he was a political science major.

Career

He started performing comedy with the Loose Moose Theatre Company in Calgary, Alberta. There, McKinney met

Bruce McCulloch Bruce Ian McCulloch is a Canadian actor, comedian, writer, musician and film director. McCulloch is perhaps best known for his work as a member of the comedy troupe The Kids in the Hall, including starring in the TV series of the same name. He ...

. Together they formed a comedy team called "The Audience." Eventually, McKinney and McCulloch moved to Toronto, and met Dave Foley and Kevin McDonald, who were in the process of forming a comedy troupe. Along with Scott Thompson, who joined after coming to a stage show, The Kids in the Hall was formed in 1985. The troupe appeared in their own TV series, '' The Kids in the Hall'', which was co-produced by

Lorne Michaels Lorne Michaels (born Lorne David Lipowitz; November 17, 1944) is a Canadian-American producer, screenwriter, and comedian. He is best known for creating and producing ''Saturday Night Live'' (1975–1980, 1985–present) and producing the '' La ...

and ran from 1988 to 1995. Notable characters on the show played by McKinney include the Chicken Lady, Darill (pronounced da-RILL), bluesman Mississippi Gary, and Mr. Tyzik the Headcrusher, an embittered

Eastern Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion of the European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural, and socio-economic connotations. The vast majority of the region is covered by Russia, wh ...

an who pretended to crush the heads of passers-by between his thumb and forefinger. After ''The Kids in the Hall'', McKinney joined the cast of another Lorne Michaels sketch comedy show, ''

'', in the middle of the 1994-1995 season (season 20) as a repertory player. McKinney survived the cast overhaul that occurred at the end of season 20 and stayed on ''SNL'' until the end of the 1996–1997 (season 22). During his time on ''SNL'', McKinney had six recurring characters (some of note include Ian Daglers from "Scottish Soccer Hooligan Weekly", Melanie, a Catholic schoolgirl, and Lucien Callow, a fop often paired with

David Koechner David Michael Koechner ( ; born August 24, 1962) is an American actor and comedian. He is best known for playing roles such as Champ Kind in the '' Anchorman'' films and Todd Packer on NBC's '' The Office''. Koechner first became involved in p ...

's fop character Fagan) and twenty-seven celebrity impersonations (some of note include

Mel Gibson Mel Columcille Gerard Gibson (born January 3, 1956) is an American actor, film director, and producer. He is best known for his action hero roles, particularly his breakout role as Max Rockatansky in the first three films of the post-apocal ...

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, Al Gore,

Paul Shaffer Paul Allen Wood Shaffer (born November 28, 1949) is a Canadian singer, composer, actor, author, comedian, and multi-instrumentalist who served as David Letterman's musical director, band leader, and sidekick on the entire run of both ''Late Ni ...

, Mark Russell,

Jim Carrey James Eugene Carrey (; born January 17, 1962) is a Canadian-American actor, comedian and artist. Known for his energetic slapstick performances, Carrey first gained recognition in 1990, after landing a role in the American sketch comedy t ...

, Lance Ito,

Tim Robbins Timothy Francis Robbins (born October 16, 1958) is an American actor and filmmaker. He is known for portraying Andy Dufresne in the film '' The Shawshank Redemption ''(1994), and has won an Academy Award and two Golden Globe Awards for his role ...

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Bill Gates William Henry Gates III (born October 28, 1955) is an American business magnate and philanthropist. He is a co-founder of Microsoft, along with his late childhood friend Paul Allen. During his career at Microsoft, Gates held the positions ...

, and

Ellen DeGeneres Ellen Lee DeGeneres ( ; born January 26, 1958) is an American comedian, television host, actress, writer, and producer. She starred in the sitcom '' Ellen'' from 1994 to 1998, which earned her a Primetime Emmy Award for " The Puppy Episode". S ...

). He has appeared in several films, including the ''SNL'' spinoffs ''

Superstar A superstar is someone who has great popular appeal and is widely known, prominent, or successful in their field. Celebrities referred to as "superstars" may include individuals who work as actors, musicians, athletes, and other media-based profe ...

'', '' The Ladies Man'' and '' A Night at the Roxbury''. McKinney also starred opposite

Isabella Rossellini Isabella Fiorella Elettra Giovanna Rossellini (born 18 June 1952) is an Italian-American actress, author, philanthropist, and model. The daughter of the Swedish actress Ingrid Bergman and the Italian film director Roberto Rossellini, she is note ...

Guy Maddin Guy Maddin (born February 28, 1956) is a Canadian screenwriter, director, author, cinematographer, and film editor of both features and short films, as well as an installation artist, from Winnipeg, Manitoba. Since completing his first film in ...

's tragicomedy '' The Saddest Music in the World''. He also appeared in the

Spice Girls The Spice Girls are a British girl group formed in 1994, consisting of Melanie Brown, also known as Mel B ("Scary Spice"); Melanie Chisholm, or Melanie C ("Sporty Spice"); Emma Bunton ("Baby Spice"); Geri Halliwell ("Ginger Spice"); and Vi ...

' movie '' Spice World''. In 1999 he appeared in the Canadian television film adaptation '' Jacob Two Two Meets the Hooded Fang''. McKinney cowrote and starred in the Kids in the Hall movie ''

'', in which, among other roles, he spoofed ''SNL'' and ''KITH'' executive producer

Theatre

His theatre appearances include ''The Ugly Man'' with One Yellow Rabbit at the Edinburgh Fringe festival and

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated pop ...

. He was in the cast of The Roundabout theatre production of ''Flea in her Ear'' and

David Lindsay Abaire David Lindsay-Abaire ( Abaire; born November 14, 1969) is an American playwright, lyricist and screenwriter. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2007 for his play '' Rabbit Hole'', which also earned several Tony Award nominations. Ear ...

's ''

Fuddy Meers ''Fuddy Meers'' is an American play by David Lindsay-Abaire. It tells the story of an amnesiac, Claire, who awakens each morning as a blank slate on which her husband and teenage son must imprint the facts of her life. One morning Claire is abduct ...

'' for the

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five Boroughs of New York City, boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the List of co ...

theatre club. During the fall of 2001 McKinney performed the one-man show ''Fully Committed'' at the Wintergarden theatre in Toronto and again in the summer of 2002 at the Centaur Theatre in

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple- ...

. In September 2022 he will appear in the European premiere of '' Eureka Day'' at

The Old Vic The Old Vic is a 1,000-seat, not-for-profit producing theatre in Waterloo, London, England. Established in 1818 as the Royal Coburg Theatre, and renamed in 1833 the Royal Victoria Theatre. In 1871 it was rebuilt and reopened as the Royal Vi ...

theatre in London.

Later appearances

He also appeared in the first season of '' Robson Arms'', as well as on the Canadian comedy '' Corner Gas''. From 2003 to 2006, he co-created, co-wrote and starred in the TV series '' Slings & Arrows'', about the backstage goings-on in a Canadian

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...

an theatre company struggling with financial problems as they rehearse and present various productions. In 2006–7 he both worked as a story editor on and a recurring role in

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters ...

's ''

Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip ''Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip'' is an American comedy-drama television series created and primarily written by Aaron Sorkin. The series was about the production of a live comedy series, similar to ''Saturday Night Live''. Produced by Warner Br ...

'' as Andy Mackinaw, a humourless widowed writer/story editor for the show-within-a-show. He appeared as a cast member on the CBC comedy '' Hatching, Matching, and Dispatching'' and its 2017 follow up ''A Christmas Fury''. He directed the short film ''Not Pretty, Really'' for the 2006 anthology '' Shorts in Motion: The Art of Seduction''. As well, he directed and appeared on the

CBC Radio CBC Radio is the English-language radio operations of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The CBC operates a number of radio networks serving different audiences and programming niches, all of which (regardless of language) are outlined below ...

post-apocalyptic Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction is a subgenre of speculative fiction in which the Earth's (or another planet's) civilization is collapsing or has collapsed. The apocalypse event may be climatic, such as runaway climate change; ast ...

comedy ''

Steve, The First ''Steve, The First'' was a four-part dark comedy set in a post-apocalyptic future, broadcast on CBC Radio One in 2005. It ran on Saturday mornings from 11:30 - 12:00pm (half an hour later in Newfoundland). Steve, a young slacker, emerges fro ...

'' and its sequel, ''

Steve, The Second ''Steve The Second'' was a four-part comedy series that was broadcast Saturday mornings on CBC Radio One, running from 11:30 - 12:00pm (half an hour later in Newfoundland). The successor series to '' Steve, The First'', this bleak comedy was set ...

'', for his friend Matt Watts. He also wrote one episode of Watts' sitcom ''

Michael, Tuesdays and Thursdays ''Michael: Every Day'', formerly known as ''Michael: Tuesdays and Thursdays'', is a Canadian television sitcom that debuted on CBC Television in 2011.CBC Television CBC Television (also known as CBC TV) is a Canadian English-language broadcast television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcaster. The network began operations on September 6, 1952. Its French- ...

in fall 2011."Camelot & cover songs: Inside CBC's new fall lineup"
. ''

National Post The ''National Post'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet newspaper available in several cities in central and western Canada. The paper is the flagship publication of Postmedia Network and is published Mondays through Saturdays, with ...

'', June 8, 2011. In the summer of 2007, he became the show-runner and executive producer of '' Less Than Kind'', a half hour comedy starring Maury Chaykin. McKinney was in an episode of the Canadian children's TV show ''

Dino Dan ''Dino Dan'' is a Canadian television series that was created and is directed by J. J. Johnson. The series premiered on TVOKids in Canada on January 4, 2010 and on Nick Jr. in the United States on October 17, 2010. The show is produced by Sinkin ...

'' called "Prehistoric Zoo/Ready? Set? Dino!" He plays Dino Dan's track coach in the second part, "Ready? Set? Dino!", of this two-part episode released 4 October 2010 (Canada). He co-wrote and starred in the ''Kids in the Hall'' 2010 reunion project ''

Death Comes to Town ''The Kids in the Hall: Death Comes to Town'' (or simply ''Death Comes to Town'') is an eight-episode Canadian mini-series that aired on CBC Television on Tuesdays between January 12 and March 16, 2010. The show takes place in a fictional Ontario ...

''. In 2011, he was an executive producer of '' Picnicface'', a sketch TV series from the Halifax comedy troupe of the same name produced for

The Comedy Network CTV Comedy Channel (often shortened to CTV Comedy and formerly known as The Comedy Network) is a Canadian English-language specialty channel owned by Bell Media which focuses primarily on comedy programming. The channel first launched on Octobe ...

. In 2013, he co-starred in '' Rocket Monkeys'' as the main antagonist, Lord Peel. In 2014, he appeared in the CBC television series '' The Best Laid Plans''.Bill Brioux
"‘Best Laid Plans’ turns satiric focus on politics"
''

Toronto Star The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. The newspaper is the country's largest daily newspaper by circulation. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and pa ...

'', January 4, 2014. Beginning in 2015, he was a co-star on the NBC sitcom '' Superstore'' which was cancelled in 2021. In 2020, he appeared as a guest on the ''

'' marathon fundraiser episode of '' The George Lucas Talk Show.''

Filmography

Film

Television

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:McKinney, Mark 1959 births Living people 20th-century Canadian comedians 21st-century Canadian comedians 20th-century Canadian male actors 21st-century Canadian male actors Male actors from Ottawa Canadian male film actors Canadian male television actors Canadian male voice actors Canadian television personalities Canadian television producers Best Supporting Actor Genie and Canadian Screen Award winners The Kids in the Hall members Best Actor in a Drama Series Canadian Screen Award winners Canadian sketch comedians Memorial University of Newfoundland alumni Canadian male comedians Comedians from Ontario Canadian Comedy Award winners