My dad was a journalist and managed to get banned by the racist Apartheid regime in South Africa - we escaped to America and I spent part of my childhood in New York and the East Coast.  When I'm not writing I mentor students at UEA (The University of East Anglia) and help out photographing events at KITS (Kids in the Spotlight) - a charity to help foster kids by training them to to write, cast, and star in their own short films.

http://www.imdb.me/marklaing

SAG and AFTRA actor.

Graduated from the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School.

Journalist, script reader and screenwriter with three completed scripts, several treatments, staged readings.

Script Reader, Edward Pressman productions, Beverly Hills 1988-1990

Sub editor\Journalist, The Daily Telegraph 1982-1983

Freelance sub editor\writer for the Daily Telegraph sports desk.

Freelance sub-editor, The Sun, Daily Mirror, Reader's Digest Books, Financial Times, Observer, Health and Social Services Journal, The Times, Sunday Times.

Sub Editor, The Oxford Mail, Oxford 1980-1982
Large regional evening newspaper. Movie reviews, book reviews, sports and news editing and writing.

Education: University of East Anglia — English and American Studies, one year.
Bembridge School, Isle of Wight. Bristol Old Vic Theatre School.

Further Education: Sherwood Oaks Film School, Los Angeles; UCLA Writers' Extension, Los Angeles; TV Pilot and New Series Workshop, On The Page, Pilar Alexander, Richmond Writer's Circle, and New Richmond, UK; Original Writer's Group, Lavender Hill, London; Richmond Theatre Adult Scriptwriting group, Janna Gelfand's Writing Group, Greg Dean's Standup Comedy Workshop.