Mark McKinney

Mark McKinney
McKinney in 2004
Born	Mark Douglas Brown McKinney (1959-06-26) June 26, 1959 Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Nationality	Canadian
Occupation(s)	Actor, comedian
Years active	1985–present
Spouse	Marina (divorced)
Children	2

Mark Douglas Brown McKinney (born June 26, 1959) is a Canadian actor and comedian, best known for his work in the sketch comedy troupe The Kids in the Hall. Following the run of their television series (1989 to 1995) and feature film (Brain Candy), he was a cast member in Saturday Night Live from 1995 to 1997. From 2003 to 2006, he co-created, wrote and starred in the series Slings & Arrows, a TV show about a Canadian theatre company struggling to survive while a crazy genius director haunted by his dead mentor helps the actors find authenticity in their acting. McKinney currently has a regular role as Glenn on the NBC comedy Superstore and appeared as Tom in FXX's Man Seeking Woman.

Early life

McKinney was born in Ottawa, Ontario, the son of Chloe, an architectural writer, and Russell McKinney, a diplomat. 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, Paris, Mexico, and Washington, D.C. He also attended Trinity College School, a boarding school in Port Hope, Ontario. For a short while, McKinney was a student at Memorial University of Newfoundland, where he was a political science major.

Career

The Kids in the Hall at the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival

He started performing comedy with the Loose Moose Theatre Company in Calgary, Alberta. There, McKinney met Bruce McCulloch. 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, and producer Lorne Michaels, The Kids in the Hall was formed in 1985. Notable "Kids" characters played by McKinney include the Chicken Lady, Darill (pronounced da-RILL), bluesman Mississippi Gary, and Mr. Tyzik the Headcrusher, an embittered Eastern European who pretended to crush the heads of passers-by between his thumb and forefinger.

Afterwards McKinney joined the cast of another Lorne Michaels sketch comedy show, Saturday Night Live 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's fop character Fagan) and twenty-seven celebrity impersonations (some of note include Mel Gibson, Barney Frank, Al Gore, Paul Shaffer, Mark Russell, Jim Carrey, Lance Ito, Tim Robbins, Steve Forbes, Wolf Blitzer, Bill Gates, and Ellen DeGeneres).

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. He also appeared in the Spice Girls' 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 Brain Candy, in which, among other roles, he spoofed SNL and KITH executive producer Lorne Michaels.

Theatre

His theatre appearances include The Ugly Man with One Yellow Rabbit at the Edinburgh Fringe festival and Glasgow. He was in the cast of The Roundabout theatre production of Flea in her Ear and David Lindsay Abaire's Fuddy Meers for the Manhattan 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.

Later appearances

He also appeared in the first season of Robson Arms, as well as on the hit Canadian comedy Corner Gas.

From 2003 to 2006, he co-created, co-wrote and starred in the acclaimed dramedy TV series Slings & Arrows, about the backstage goings-on in a Canadian Shakespearean 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's Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip 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 post-apocalyptic comedy Steve, The First and its sequel, Steve, The Second, for his friend Matt Watts. He is also a writer for Watts' new sitcom Michael, Tuesdays and Thursdays, which aired on CBC Television in fall 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 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.

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.

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. Beginning in 2015, he has been a co-star on the NBC sitcom Superstore which was renewed for a sixth season in February 2020.

Dynaman

McKinney is credited in the American dubbed parody of the popular Japanese television series Kagaku Sentai Dynaman as the voice of Yousuke, aka Dyna Blue.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1994	The Passion of John Ruskin	John Ruskin	Short film
1996	Kids in the Hall: Brain Candy	Don Roritor / Simon / Cabbie / Gunther / Cop #1 / Nina Bedford / Melanie / Drill sergeant / Sharisse (White-trash woman)	Also writer
1997	The Wrong Guy	Cameo	Uncredited
1997	Hayseed	Alien Doctor
1997	Spice World	Graydon
1998	Fidelio	Mark	Short film
1998	The Last Days of Disco	Rex
1998	The Herd	Unknown
1998	Dog Park	Dr. Cavan, Dog Psychologist
1998	A Night at the Roxbury	Father Williams
1999	The Out-of-Towners	Greg
1999	New Waterford Girl	Doctor Hogan
1999	Jacob Two Two Meets the Hooded Fang	Mr. Fish
1999	Superstar	Father Ritley
2000	The Ladies Man	Mr. White
2000	This Might Be Good	Unknown	Short film
2002	Toothpaste	Husband	Short film
2003	The Saddest Music in the World	Chester Kent	Also additional camera operator
2003	Falling Angels	Reg and Ron
2006	Snow Cake	Neighbour	Uncredited
2006	Not Pretty, Really	Interviewer	Short film; also director
2006	Unaccompanied Minors	Guard in the Hall #3
2008	Carfuckers	Payette	Short film; also writer
2009	High Life	Jeremy
2017	Room for Rent	Warren Baldwin
2018	Seven Stages to Achieve Eternal Bliss By Passing Through the Gateway Chosen By the Holy Storsh	Cultist
2018	Doozy	Clovis (voice)

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1985–1990	Saturday Night Live	Various voices	21 episodes; uncredited
1987	Seeing Things	Unknown	Episode: "Another Point of View"
1987–1990	Street Legal	Stanley / Officer Robert Kaufman	2 episodes
1988	Dynaman	Dynablue (voice)	Unknown episodes
1988–1995	The Kids in the Hall	Various	102 episodes; also writer and director
1995–1997	Saturday Night Live	Various	48 episodes
2000	Twitch City	Rex Reilly	3 episodes
2000	Strangers with Candy	Lee	Episode: "The Last Temptation of Blank"
2000	The Industry	Dean Sutherland	Episode: "Wrongly Convicted"
2001	Clerks	Freak #2 (voice)	Episode: "The Last Episode Ever"
2001	3rd Rock from the Sun	Guy	Episode: "My Mother, My Dick"
2001	Mentors	Mack Sennett	Episode: "Silent Movie"
2001	Dice	Sam Cutter	6 episodes
2001	Criminal Mastermind	Unknown	TV movie
2003	Wanda at Large	Mark	2 episodes
2003	Lilo & Stitch: The Series	Bertley Pleakley (voice)	Episode: "Fibber: Experiment 032"
2003	The Toronto Show	Various	Episode #1.1
2003–2006	Slings & Arrows	Richard Smith-Jones	18 episodes; also creator and writer
2004	Puppets Who Kill	Quiz Show Host	Episode: "Rocko Gets a Lung"
2005	Corner Gas	Bill	Episode: "An American in Saskatchewan"
2005	Kevin Hill	Professor Xavier Ambrose	Episode: "Losing Isn't Everything"
2005	Robson Arms	Tom Goldblum	3 episodes
2005	Burnt Toast	Trevor	TV movie
2005	Rick Mercer Report	Driver in Responsible Drinking Commercial	Episode #3.3
2005–2006	Hatching, Matching and Dispatching	Todd	6 episodes
2006	Heyday!	Bob Hope	TV movie
2006–2007	Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip	Andy Mackinaw	10 episodes; also writer
2010	The Kids in the Hall: Death Comes to Town	Various	8 episodes; also writer
2010	Less Than Kind	Gunman / The Bear	2 episodes; also writer, executive producer, and director
2010	Dino Dan	Mr. Drumheller	2 episodes
2013	Rocket Monkeys	Lord Peel (voice)	3 episodes
2013	Mother Up!	Leland	Episode: "Shoe I Am"
2014	The Best Laid Plans	George Quimby	6 episodes
2013–2014	This Hour Has 22 Minutes	Various	2 episodes; also writer
2014	Spun Out	Alastair	Episode: "Middle Aged Men in the Hall"
2014	Space Riders: Division Earth	Chair	3 episodes
2014	Odd Squad	General Pentagon	Episode: "Crime at Shapely Manor"
2015–2017	Man Seeking Woman	Tom	18 episodes
2015–present	Superstore	Glenn Sturgis	Main cast

External links

• Mark McKinney at IMDb
• Mark McKinney on Twitter