Mark moved to New York shortly after graduation in 1992 and acted in non-paying showcases and downtown theatre projects. By his own estimation, he didn’t have a paying acting gig for 4 years. Then Mark entered theatrical history when he “fell into” a workshop production of a little show called RENT. He played Angel in a 1994 workshop of the musical but when it was remounted the next year as part of the New York Theatre Workshop season, a latino actor was cast as Angel, creator Jonathan Larson’s original intention for the role. Mark is quoted as saying “he probably wanted someone who wasn't hideous in drag. I was one ugly b--ch.” But that wouldn’t be the end of Mark’s involvement with the show. When RENT opened on Broadway, he was cast as an understudy, covering 4 parts and later taking over the role of Gordon. He followed this with a role in David Ives’ Don Juan in Chicago at New York’s Off-Broadway Primary Stages.
It was around that time that Mark and fellow A.R.T. graduate Becky Mode (1991) created the one man play Fully Committed, which, after many developmental readings and workshops, opened at the Vineyard Theatre in September 1999. In December of that year the show reopened at the Cherry Lane Theatre and ran there until May of 2001. Mark left the New York production in September 2000 and opened the show at LA's Coronet Theatre. That was followed by a short run at the Wilbur Theatre in Boston. Fully Committed remains one of the most produced plays in theatres across the country. In June of 2001 Mark shot the feature film New Suit and followed that with another successful off-Broadway play. The Last Sunday in June hit in winter 2003 and transferred to the Century Center Theatre where it ran from April - July 2003. Mark went back on the road to do plays at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego and The Huntington Theatre in Boston but was summoned back to New York to replace a sick actor in previews of Paul Weitz's Roulette, with Anna Paquin and Ana Gasteyer. A subsequent Fully Committed remount took him to Portland Center Stage in Oregon and then to London, England for what was originally a two month run at a small theatre. Mark ended up staying 8 months when the play moved to the West End.
More recently Mark was in Tea and Sympathy off-Broadway with the Keen Company, shot the film Life In Flight with Patrick Wilson, appeared on several Law and Orders and has been collaborating with actor-friend Matthew Wilkas on Pageant Play, which focuses on the twisted world of Texas child beauty pageants. Pageant Play will have a reading directed by Trip Cullman at Primary Stages in New York at the end of May 2007.
