Mark Umbers Mini-Bio:
Born in Harrogate, Yorkshire, (
June 17, 1973), Umbers was raised in Wetherby. In 1991, he enrolled at Oxford University to study Latin and Greek Literature and Philosophy. He appeared in many student Shakespeare productions, as well as in George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion in which he played Freddy, a role he would reprise a decade later in My Fair Lady at the Royal National Theatre in London.
Umbers' first professional theatre engagement was in Joseph Papp's adaptation of The Pirates of Penzance at the West Yorkshire Playhouse. Director Trevor Nunn included him in the ensemble of the 1999 season at the Royal National Theatre, where he appeared in Candide, Troilus and Cressida, and The Merchant of Venice, which was filmed for broadcast by the BBC. Various television roles followed, including a lead in the BBC period drama The Scarlet Pimpernel opposite Richard E. Grant.
Following My Fair Lady, Umbers appeared in Noel Coward's The Vortex, directed by Michael Grandage at the Donmar Warehouse. The high-profile production led him to be cast in his first leading film role by Mike Barker, opposite Helen Hunt, Tom Wilkinson, and Scarlett Johansson in A Good Woman, an adaptation of Oscar Wilde's Lady Windermere's Fan. After playing opposite Anjelica Huston, Terence Stamp and Lauren Bacall in the British independent film These Foolish Things and with John Malkovich in Colour Me Kubrick, he played the lead role of Perkin Warbeck in Channel 4's historical drama Princes in the Tower.
A brief cameo in Woody Allen's Cassandra's Dream followed, after which director Rupert Goold cast Umbers as Jim O' Connor in Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie in the West End opposite Jessica Lange. He was longlisted for the Evening Standard Award Best Actor Award for his performance.
Steven Soderbergh cast Umbers as British journalist George Roth in the Che Guevara biopic, Guerrilla starring Benicio del Toro. The film received its first screening at the Cannes Film Festival in 2008.
Umbers also starred in Chichester Festival Theatre's 2008 revival of Funny Girl, playing Nick Arnstein opposite Samantha Spiro as Fanny Brice.
