Mark Rylance

During his remarkable acting career, Mark Rylance has impressed audiences and critics alike, and his performances have earned him an Academy Award®, three Tony Awards®, two Olivier Awards and three BAFTAs. "The BFG" marked his second collaboration with director Steven Spielberg, which was followed by his third Spielberg-directed feature, "Ready Player One."

Rylance has grabbed the attention of film and television audiences worldwide with his Oscar® and BAFTA-winning performance as Rudolf Abel in "Bridge of Spies" and the critically-acclaimed "Wolf Hall," directed by Peter Kosminsky, which was broadcast in multiple countries including the U.S. and the U.K. His portrayal of Thomas Cromwell garnered a BAFTA TV Award for Best Leading Actor, Limited Series or Movie and an Emmy® nomination.

Rylance was born in England in 1960 and immigrated with his family to America in 1962. He lived in Connecticut until 1969 before moving to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he lived until he returned to London in 1978. He trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts (1978-1980) under Hugh Cruttwell. Rylance was given his first job by the Glasgow Citizens Theatre in 1980, as well as a year in repertoire, a trip to the carnival in Venice with Goldoni and an Equity card.

In addition to many leading acting roles, Rylance was the artistic director of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in London for 10 years (1996-2006) and played a major part in creating its ongoing success. Earlier in 2016, Rylance returned to the Globe Theatre and the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse as King Philippe V in "Farinelli and the King," written by Claire van Kampen, a production that moved to the Duke of York's Theatre in London's West End.

In 2007, Rylance wrote his first play, "I Am Shakespeare," which premiered at the Chichester Festival Theatre under the direction of Matthew Warchus and was published in 2012 by Nick Hern Books. Additional companies he has worked for include: the RSC; RNT; The Bush; The Tricycle; Shared Experience; TFANA (New York); and for his own companies, The London Theatre of Imagination (LTI) and Phoebus Cart. Throughout his career, he has acted in more than 50 productions by Shakespeare and his contemporaries.

Additional theatre roles include: Ron in "Nice Fish," which Rylance co-wrote with Louis Jenkins and which was staged this year in New York and Boston; Countess Olivia in "Twelfth Night"; "Richard III"; and Johnny "Rooster" Byron in "Jerusalem." Other West End/Broadway performances are: Valere in "La Bête" and Robert in "Boeing- Boeing." He won Best Actor Tony Awards® for "Twelfth Night," "Jerusalem" and "Boeing-Boeing"; Best Actor Olivier Awards for "Jerusalem" and "Much Ado About Nothing"; and the Best Actor BAFTA Award for the TV movie "The Government Inspector."

Other film and television credits include: "The Gunman," directed by Pierre Morel; "Days and Nights" (Palm Springs International Film Festival, 2014), directed by Christian Camargo and produced by Juliet Rylance; "Anonymous"; "The Other Boleyn Girl"; "The Grass Arena"; "Love Lies Bleeding"; "Intimacy"; "Angels & Insects"; "Nocturne"; and "Institute Benjamenta," by the Brothers Quay. He is also the voice of Flop in the BBC's "Bing Bunny" animated TV series.

Rylance is an ambassador of Survival, the global movement for tribal peoples' rights; a patron of Peace Direct, an organization dedicated to the non-violent resolution of conflict; an honorary bencher of the Middle Temple Hall in London; and a trustee of the Shakespearean Authorship Trust.

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