Mark Stephen Moraghan was born in Toxteth, Liverpool on the 27th of January 1963 and says that he was very lucky that he had great drama teachers in his primary school. They cast him in his first role, Peter Pan, when he was 8 or 9 which gave him the bug. Then his drama teacher in secondary school saw something in him too. He started acting in 1978, when the BBC held auditions in his high school for the TV play 'Lies', and he was selected. In the same year he played the character Rolo in a mixture of fictional and non-fictional thought-provoking short films aimed at students of school and college. Although theatre was always his first love he used to sing and was in the band 'Personal Column' when he was 16 or 17 but kind of left that to be an actor, because that was the thing that he wanted to do. Following an appearance as a policeman in 'Bread' (1987), on the 14th of May 1988 he started his professional acting career playing a ferryman in the comedy 'Help!'. Following more 'one off' appearances, he had a more substantial role as Det. Sgt. 'Macker' McVay in Phil Redmond's police series 'Waterfront Beat' (1990-91) and then as Jacko in another series, 'Wilderness Edge' (1992). He played 'Barry the Scouser' in 'Harry Enfield and Chums' (1994-97) while the series, 'London's Burning' 1995), and 'The Vet' (1996) provided him with more work. He also appeared in a television commercial for the fabric softener 'Bounce' in 1996 with fellow Liverpudlian Katy Carmichael.
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| as Owen in BBC One's Holby City |
Following 2 episodes in 'Peak Practice' (1996-97) he eventually played the popular character Greg Shadwick in 'Brookside' (1989-99) from which he went to longer stints as Ray Wyatt in 'Dream Team' (1999-2001) and then as Owen Davies the consultant Obstetrician in 'Holby City' (2001-2005), his longest running role. He has also appeared in many British drama series including 'Peak Practice', 'London's Burning' and 'Heartbeat'.
In 2013 he began as the narrator for 'Thomas & Friends' ( 2013 - 2021) when Michael Angelis stepped down from the series after many long years, as the longest standing storyteller in the history of 'Thomas and Friends'. He also portrayed Mr Evans, a stationmaster who reads books from The Railway Series, and other stories about Thomas and his friends to the audience in the web series 'Storytime with Mr. Evans' which aired from the 1st to the 7th of March 2019. He then went on to return to his role as narrator as part of the podcast: Thomas & Friends Storytime airing from June 2020 to December 2021.During that time he appeared in the popular soaps, 'Coronation Street' (2015) for 13 episodes and 'Emmerdale Farm' (1988) and 'Emmerdale' (2017) as two different characters. His last major TV appearance was as Johnny Walker in 'Cockney and Scouse' (2020-2022), a 10-part action drama series also starring David Easter and Stuart Antony filmed in a Kent town. His vast theatre work includes 'Our Day Out' and 'Funny Money' (Royal Court, Liverpool), 'My Fair Lady' (Liverpool Philharmonic), 'Come Fly With Me ' (Millennium Centre, Cardiff), 'Twopence to Cross the Mersey' and 'Eric’s' (Liverpool Empire), 'Strictly Murder' (UK tour), 'Bad Blood' (Key Theatre), 'Bouncers', 'Little Match Girl', 'Barbarians' and 'Arabian Nights' (Unity Theatre), 'Macbeth' (Art Theatre Company), 'Fears and Miseries of the Third Reich' (Liverpool Playhouse and Young Vic), 'The Beaux’ Stratagem' (Liverpool Playhouse), 'The Jungle Book' (Cleveland Theatre Company) and 'High Rise Dreamer' (Liverpool Lunchtime Theatre Company).
Mark may be best known for his acting, but he also sings, and in 2006 he starred in a musical production of Willy Russell's 'Our Day Out' at the Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool. Also in 2006 he came second in the BBC singing competition, 'Just the Two of Us' partnering Atomic Kitten's Natasha Hamilton with whom he sang classic songs like 'Islands in the Stream' and 'With You I'm Born Again'. However swing is his thing. It always was. 'The Police' drummer Stewart Copeland said of Mark "He is relaxed, easy and cool" and described his singing as "blazing excellence". CeCe Sammi, the vocal coach to the stars said, "He's very tender, very passionate, very sexy - superb." His debut swing album, 'Moonlight's Back in Style' (words by Nicky Campbell) was released on Linn Records on the 14th of September 2009. He sang the title song from the album on GMTV on the 2nd of September 2009.
see also :- http://www.thefootballvoice.com/2024/09/a-history-of-liverpool-thespians.html
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