# Mark Rylance
**Mark Rylance** (born David Mark Rylance Waters, 1960) is an English actor, theater director, and playwright who won the 2016 [Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor](https://www.edgepedia.org/academy-award-for-best-supporting-actor) for *Bridge of Spies* and served as the first artistic director of [Shakespeare's Globe](https://www.edgepedia.org/shakespeares-globe) in London from 1995 to 2005[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0753314/bio/) • [2](https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/2016). His career pairs leading work in classical theater, including more than 50 productions by Shakespeare and his contemporaries, with film and television roles for directors such as [Steven Spielberg](https://www.edgepedia.org/steven-spielberg), Christopher Nolan, and Aaron Sorkin[3](https://www.shakespearesglobe.com/bio/mark-rylance/). He was knighted in 2017 for services to the Theatre[3](https://www.shakespearesglobe.com/bio/mark-rylance/).
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Born | 1960, Ashford, Kent, England; birth name David Mark Rylance Waters[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0753314/bio/) |
| Globe leadership | First artistic director of Shakespeare's Globe, 1995–2005[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0753314/bio/) |
| Stage awards | Olivier Award for *Much Ado About Nothing* (1994) and *Jerusalem* (2010); Tony Awards for *Boeing-Boeing* (2008) and *Jerusalem* (2011)[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0753314/bio/) |
| Screen awards | Oscar, BAFTA Film Award (both Best Supporting Actor, *Bridge of Spies*, 2016); BAFTA TV Awards for *The Government Inspector* (2006) and *Wolf Hall* (2016)[2](https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/2016) • [4](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0753314/awards/) |
| Shakespeare roles | More than 50 productions by Shakespeare and his contemporaries over his career[3](https://www.shakespearesglobe.com/bio/mark-rylance/) |
| Honors | Knighted 2017 for services to the Theatre[3](https://www.shakespearesglobe.com/bio/mark-rylance/) |
| Spouse | Claire van Kampen, composer, playwright, and theater director (died January 2025)[3](https://www.shakespearesglobe.com/bio/mark-rylance/) • [5](https://www.theguardian.com/stage/mark-rylance) |
## Early life and training
Rylance was born in [Ashford, Kent](https://www.edgepedia.org/ashford-kent), in 1960 to Anne (née Skinner) and David Waters, both English teachers, and moved with his family to the United States in 1962[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0753314/bio/) • [3](https://www.shakespearesglobe.com/bio/mark-rylance/). He lived in [Connecticut](https://www.edgepedia.org/connecticut) until 1969, when the family settled in [Milwaukee](https://www.edgepedia.org/milwaukee), Wisconsin, where his father taught English at the University School of Milwaukee[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0753314/bio/). At that school he performed in most of its productions with the theater director Dale Gutzman, playing the lead in a 1976 *Hamlet* and Romeo in *Romeo and Juliet*[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0753314/bio/).
He returned to London in 1978 and trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art from 1978 to 1980 under Hugh Cruttwell[3](https://www.shakespearesglobe.com/bio/mark-rylance/). The Citizens Theatre in Glasgow gave him his first professional job in 1980, a year in repertoire that included a trip to the Carnivale in Venice with Goldoni and his Equity card[3](https://www.shakespearesglobe.com/bio/mark-rylance/).
## The Globe years
Rylance was the first artistic director of Shakespeare's Globe, holding the post from 1995 to 2005[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0753314/bio/). In that decade, he directed the opening of the Elizabethan playhouse's South Bank reconstruction and watched it grow into a site celebrated among London's best-known landmarks[6](https://www.whatsonstage.com/news/20-questions-with-mark-rylance_21465/). In the 1980s he had already played Hamlet and Romeo for the [Royal Shakespeare Company](https://www.edgepedia.org/royal-shakespeare-company), and he also founded his own cooperative theater company, Phoebus Cart, touring sacred sites such as the [Rollright Stones](https://www.edgepedia.org/rollright-stones)[3](https://www.shakespearesglobe.com/bio/mark-rylance/).
His stage acting included his Olivier-winning performance as Benedick in [Much Ado About Nothing](https://www.edgepedia.org/much-ado-about-nothing) and his Tony-winning performance as Olivia in [Twelfth Night](https://www.edgepedia.org/twelfth-night); the Tony was awarded in 2014, after his Globe directorship.[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0753314/bio/) • [7](https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2010/jun/15/mark-rylance-interview-la-bete) • [17](https://officiallondontheatre.com/news/mark-rylance-wins-third-tony-award-230170/). A 2000 production of *Hamlet* that toured to the Broadmoor high-security hospital left a strong impression on him; he described playing it there as "like a fire that burnt away any excess of ego and all the tricks you would rely on"[8](https://etheses.bham.ac.uk/id/eprint/9590/7/Stewart2020PhD.pdf).
## Stage career and awards
After leaving the Globe, Rylance focused on creating new drama and on a series of widely praised stage roles[3](https://www.shakespearesglobe.com/bio/mark-rylance/). In 2007 he wrote his first play, *I Am Shakespeare*, and after the Globe he worked mainly on new writing: *Farinelli and the King* by [Claire van Kampen](https://www.edgepedia.org/claire-van-kampen), *Nice Fish* co-written with poet Louis Jenkins, and *Dr Semmelweis*, co-written with Stephen Brown and Tom Morris[3](https://www.shakespearesglobe.com/bio/mark-rylance/).
His signature popular roles include Countess Olivia in *Twelfth Night*, *Richard III*, Johnny "Rooster" Byron in [Jez Butterworth](https://www.edgepedia.org/jez-butterworth)'s *Jerusalem*, Valere in *La Bête*, and Robert in *Boeing-Boeing*[3](https://www.shakespearesglobe.com/bio/mark-rylance/). His awards on stage total four top-actor honors across the two major London and New York ceremonies: Olivier Awards for *Much Ado About Nothing* in 1994 and *Jerusalem* in 2010, and [Tony Awards](https://www.edgepedia.org/tony-awards) for *Boeing-Boeing* in 2008 and *Jerusalem* in 2011[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0753314/bio/). He also won the Critics' Circle Theatre Award for Best Actor in 2009 for *Jerusalem* at the [Royal Court Theatre](https://www.edgepedia.org/royal-court-theatre)[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0753314/bio/). After two of his three Tony wins, in 2008 and 2011, he recited the work of poet Louis Jenkins in place of a traditional acceptance speech[9](https://www.backstage.com/magazine/article/mark-rylance-acting-career-profile-interview-71933/).
A 2016 *Vanity Fair* interview traces the trademark quality of his screen work, a quiet attentiveness, back to this period: before then, he said, his acting was more "excessive", less attuned to the impact of contrasts and opposites[10](https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2016/06/how-oscar-winner-mark-rylance-learned-to-transfix-audiences).
## Film and television
Rylance's film career began with [Peter Greenaway](https://www.edgepedia.org/peter-greenaway)'s *Prospero's Books* (1991) and *Angels & Insects* (1995), later adding *The Other Boleyn Girl* (2008), *Institute Benjamenta*, and *Intimacy* (2001)[11](https://goldenglobes.com/person/mark-rylance/) • [12](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/mark-rylance). His commercial breakthrough came with three films for Steven Spielberg: *Bridge of Spies* (2015), *The BFG* (2016), and *Ready Player One*[3](https://www.shakespearesglobe.com/bio/mark-rylance/). For playing Rudolf Abel in *Bridge of Spies* he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor at the 88th Academy Awards in February 2016[2](https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/2016), along with the BAFTA Film Award and critics' prizes including the Boston Society of Film Critics and London Critics' Circle awards[4](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0753314/awards/).
He followed with Christopher Nolan's *Dunkirk* (2017), Aaron Sorkin's *The Trial of the Chicago 7* (2020), *Don't Look Up* (2021), *The Phantom of the Open* (2021), Ciro Guerra's *Waiting for the Barbarians*, *The Outfit*, and Luca Guadagnino's *Bones and All* (2022), for which he received Gotham and Independent Spirit Award nominations[3](https://www.shakespearesglobe.com/bio/mark-rylance/) • [11](https://goldenglobes.com/person/mark-rylance/) • [4](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0753314/awards/).
His television work centers on three series with director Peter Kosminsky: *The Government Inspector*, *The Undeclared War*, and *Wolf Hall*, in which he played Thomas Cromwell[3](https://www.shakespearesglobe.com/bio/mark-rylance/). *The Government Inspector* won him a BAFTA TV Award in 2006, and *Wolf Hall* brought the Best Leading Actor BAFTA in 2016, plus a Golden Globe nomination[4](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0753314/awards/) • [11](https://goldenglobes.com/person/mark-rylance/). He reprised Cromwell in *Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light*, the final installment of Hilary Mantel's trilogy broadcast in 2024, for which the director Peter Kosminsky told a UK parliamentary inquiry that Rylance had taken a "significant" pay cut after streaming services rejected the second series[5](https://www.theguardian.com/stage/mark-rylance) • [13](https://mcc5cvw0bkdze132fxg-cd.managedcloud.sitecore.com/-/media/pressroom/public-assets/programs/masterpiece/wolf-hall-the-mirror-and-the-light/wolf-hall-the-mirror-and-the-light-announcement.pdf).
## Acting approach
Writers frequently describe a quality of stillness in Rylance's performances. The *Independent* noted that time "has an odd way of slowing down around him", on screen as Thomas Cromwell and in the horror film *Bones and All*[14](https://www.the-independent.com/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/features/mark-rylance-interview-dr-semmelweis-b2367330.html). The Globe biography records how a Broadmoor audience reshaped his approach to *Hamlet*: performing there demanded, in his words, being "absolutely acid, honest" and stripped of tricks[8](https://etheses.bham.ac.uk/id/eprint/9590/7/Stewart2020PhD.pdf). His range runs from classical Shakespeare to cross-dressed comedy (Olivia, for which he won a Tony Award) to O'Casey; a 2024 West End revival of *Juno and the Paycock* cast him as the drunken Dubliner "Captain" Jack Boyle opposite *Succession*'s J Smith-Cameron[5](https://www.theguardian.com/stage/mark-rylance) • [17](https://officiallondontheatre.com/news/mark-rylance-wins-third-tony-award-230170/).
## Activism and personal life
Rylance is an honorary bencher of Middle Temple Hall in London, a trustee of Intermission Youth Theatre, patron of Survival, the international movement for tribal peoples, and a founding patron of the peace charity Peace Direct; he has described himself as an active member of Stop the War[3](https://www.shakespearesglobe.com/bio/mark-rylance/).
One charitable connection grew from a prison workshop. On Christmas Eve 2004, while he was the Globe's artistic director, Rylance led a Shakespeare masterclass at HMP Brixton where he met Darren Raymond, a young prisoner serving a sentence there[15](https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2026/aug/30/mark-rylance-darren-raymond-interview-intermission-tartuffe-remixed-marylebone-theatre-london). Raymond went on to found Intermission Youth, which works with young people aged 11 to 30 through theater, and in 2026 he directed Rylance in the lead role of *Tartuffe (Remixed)*, his own adaptation of Molière, at the Marylebone Theatre, where Rylance plays the conman Pastor Terrence Blake[15](https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2026/aug/30/mark-rylance-darren-raymond-interview-intermission-tartuffe-remixed-marylebone-theatre-london) • [16](https://www.aol.com/articles/love-african-culture-sir-mark-050736000.html).
Rylance married the composer, playwright, and director Claire van Kampen, who wrote *Farinelli and the King* and collaborated with him at the Globe; she died in January 2025 at the age of 71[3](https://www.shakespearesglobe.com/bio/mark-rylance/) • [5](https://www.theguardian.com/stage/mark-rylance). He is also a trustee of the Shakespearean Authorship Trust, reflecting his long-standing interest in the authorship question he dramatized in *I Am Shakespeare*[3](https://www.shakespearesglobe.com/bio/mark-rylance/).
## References
1. [Mark Rylance – Biography, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0753314/bio/)
2. [The 88th Academy Awards, Oscars.org](https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/2016)
3. [Mark Rylance – Shakespeare's Globe biography](https://www.shakespearesglobe.com/bio/mark-rylance/)
4. [Mark Rylance – Awards, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0753314/awards/)
5. [Mark Rylance – The Guardian (stage news index and coverage)](https://www.theguardian.com/stage/mark-rylance)
6. [20 Questions With… Mark Rylance, What's On Stage](https://www.whatsonstage.com/news/20-questions-with-mark-rylance_21465/)
7. [Mark Rylance: the great chameleon, The Guardian](https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2010/jun/15/mark-rylance-interview-la-bete)
8. [Stewart (2020), PhD thesis on Hamlet in performance, University of Birmingham](https://etheses.bham.ac.uk/id/eprint/9590/7/Stewart2020PhD.pdf)
9. [Mark Rylance's No. 1 Piece of Acting Advice, Backstage](https://www.backstage.com/magazine/article/mark-rylance-acting-career-profile-interview-71933/)
10. [How Oscar-Winner Mark Rylance Learned to Transfix Audiences, Vanity Fair](https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2016/06/how-oscar-winner-mark-rylance-learned-to-transfix-audiences)
11. [Mark Rylance – Golden Globes](https://goldenglobes.com/person/mark-rylance/)
12. [Mark Rylance, Television Academy](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/mark-rylance)
13. [Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light announcement, PBS Masterpiece press release](https://mcc5cvw0bkdze132fxg-cd.managedcloud.sitecore.com/-/media/pressroom/public-assets/programs/masterpiece/wolf-hall-the-mirror-and-the-light/wolf-hall-the-mirror-and-the-light-announcement.pdf)
14. [Mark Rylance interview on Dr Semmelweis, The Independent](https://www.the-independent.com/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/features/mark-rylance-interview-dr-semmelweis-b2367330.html)
15. ['That's what saved me': Darren Raymond and Mark Rylance, The Guardian](https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2026/aug/30/mark-rylance-darren-raymond-interview-intermission-tartuffe-remixed-marylebone-theatre-london)
16. ['I love African culture': Sir Mark Rylance stars in Tartuffe Remixed, AOL](https://www.aol.com/articles/love-african-culture-sir-mark-050736000.html)
17. [Mark Rylance Wins Third Tony Award 230170, officiallondontheatre.com](https://officiallondontheatre.com/news/mark-rylance-wins-third-tony-award-230170/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Screen people and creators › Screen actors of the Anglosphere and Europe › English actors: 2000s onward › Surnames Q to Se*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 17, 2026; Sep 30, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Sep 30, 2026; Oct 12, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license