The great great great maternal grandson of Ulysses S. Grant, Mark Cirillo was born and raised just outside Hartford, in Connecticut's first town, Windsor. There, he and his family survived a tornado, a hurricane, and carbon monoxide poisoning all before he reached the age of 14. He grew up acting in school plays and local theater productions. His second cousin, Ernie Cirillo, taught and directed Mark at Windsor High School and Ernie's son, Patrick Cirillo is a screenwriter (Tears of the Sun) in Los Angeles. After High school graduation, Mark moved to Los Angeles at 18 years old to attend Loyola Marymount University where he double majored in Film Production and Theater Arts (Bachelor of Arts Degree) with actors Linda Cardellini (ER), Brian Poth (CSI: Miami), Busy Phillips (ER), actress/writer Gloria Calderon-Kellett (How I Met Your Mother) and producers Effie Brown (Real Women Have Curves) and Paul Redford (West Wing). After college, Mark studied (and continues to study) with Arthur Mendoza (Stella Adler's protégé) at the Actor's Circle Theater, The Groundlings, and Jack Plotnick (Ellen, Gods & Monsters). All throughout, appearing in plays, on television, and in films.
His film credits include the lead/title role in The Seminarian, Plato's Symposium, Cook Off! (with Gary Anthony Williams, Wendi McLendon-Covey, and Jennifer Elise Cox), Cameron Crowe's Almost Famous, Academy Boyz (with Ed Asner and Donald Faison), Girls Will Be Girls (with Varla Jean Merman and Miss Coco Peru), the multiple award-winning shorts Making Changes (with Rosa Blasi) and Gay Propoganda (over 150 film festivals world-wide) and voice over work on Sam Mendes' American Beauty. On television, Mark has appeared on Will&Grace, Quintuplets (with Andy Richter and Ryan Pinkston), How I Met Your Mother (with Neil Patrick Harris and Alyson Hannigan), Ashton Kutcher's Room 401 on MTV, had a recurring role on the short-lived Olsen Twins' series Two Of A Kind, and was a series regular in the independent Homwrecker Houseboy as the brain damaged Randy. Mark's greatest stage roles were Kenneth in Caught, Edmund in Long Day's Journey Into Night, Clov in Endgame, Andre in The Three Sisters, and Zachariah Rowen in The Kentucky Cycle.
When Mark isn't acting, he has worked in the community with non-profit organizations like the spcaLA (Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Los Angeles), Project Angel Food providing free meals to the seriously ill, and ConnPIRG protecting consumers and the environment. Mark has appeared on several news shows as a representative for Project Angel Food and has appeared with animals up for adoption on LA7 ABC Eyewitness News at 11AM and Good Day L.A. on FOX 11 as a representative for the spcaLA.
