Mark Leonard Winter is an Australian actor, known for performances in film, television and on stage.

Mark Leonard Winter
BornMarch 11th
NationalityAustralian
OccupationActor
Years active2009–present
SpouseGeraldine Hakewill (2021-present)

Early life edit

Winter's family moved from Australia to Washington DC, United States, when he was in grade ten. It was the freedom of his American school and new friends, that he credits with passion for the arts and creative thinking. He states that he started to think a bit too creatively, so his parents sent him back to Australia to attend boarding school where he fell in love with English literature and theatre.[1]

Winter spent a year studying at Flinders University in Adelaide, South Australia, and then went on to study acting at Victorian College of Arts.[1]

Career edit

Screen edit

Winter's film roles include Balibo (2009), Blame (2010), Dangerous Remedy (2012), Healing (2014), One Eyed Girl (2015), The Dressmaker alongside Kate Winslet, and Little Tornadoes (2020).[2][3] He starred in the 2020 thriller film Escape from Pretoria.[4]

In the TV series Pine Gap (2018) Winter played a technical geek on the autism spectrum, Moses Dreyfus. Winter was nominated for an AACTA Award for his performance in 2020's TV mini-series, Halifax: Retribution. Following that, Winter played Callum on the TV mini-series Inside, then Russell in the TV series The Newsreader in 2021. In 2021 he also played Joel Welch, a methadone addict in episode 3 of the ABC TV series Fires.[citation needed]

Stage edit

On stage, he has performed major roles with leading Australian theatre companies, including the Sydney Theatre Company and the Melbourne Theatre Company. Winter is one of the founding members of Black Lung, an independent theatre company.[5] In 2015, Winter starred in the Melbourne Theatre Company's production of Simon Stephens' Birdland. for which he won Best Male Actor at the Helpmann Awards.[2]

Winter directed Jason Alexander in an American production of The Blind Date Project, a type of improv which he helped to devise.[6][1]

Directing edit

Winter's first film as writer-director, The Rooster, is a comedy drama starring Hugo Weaving,[7] which premiered at the Melbourne International Film Festival in August 2023.[8] The film was selected as one of four nominees for the CinefestOZ Film Prize, worth A$100,000, in September 2023,[9][10] and was also nominated for the 2023 AACTA Award for Best Indie Film.[11]

It was released in Australian cinemas on 22 February 2024.[12]

Recognition and awards edit

Personal life edit

Winter is married to actress and singer, Geraldine Hakewill; they first met in 2011, occasionally crossing paths until they became a couple in 2017,[14] and married in December 2021.[15] They have co-starred in the 2020 psychodrama Disclosure.

Winter is a big fan of movies from the 1970s, and loves the work of Robert De Niro and Daniel Day-Lewis.[5]

In November 2018, Winter gave evidence against his co-star in King Lear, Geoffrey Rush, in Rush's defamation lawsuit against the Daily Telegraph.[16]

References edit

  1. ^ a b c "Feature: Mark Leonard Winter". Sydney Theatre Company. 28 April 2014. Retrieved 4 June 2021.
  2. ^ a b Spring, Alexandra (27 June 2015). "Mark Leonard Winter: we hold up celebrities as idols, then we crucify them". The Guardian. Retrieved 16 December 2017.
  3. ^ Harford, Sonia (5 June 2015). "Rock stars like us: MTC's Birdland looks beyond the glamour". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 4 June 2021.
  4. ^ "Daniel Radcliffe-starrer 'Escape From Pretoria' kicks off in South Australia". if.com.au. 13 March 2019. Retrieved 13 March 2019.
  5. ^ a b "Mark Leonard Winter: we hold up celebrities as idols, then we crucify them". the Guardian. 27 June 2015. Retrieved 4 June 2021.
  6. ^ "The team". theblinddateproject. Retrieved 4 June 2021.
  7. ^ Buckmaster, Luke (7 August 2023). "The Rooster review – Hugo Weaving kicks this study of masculinity into gear". The Guardian. Retrieved 4 September 2023.
  8. ^ "The Rooster: Mark Leonard Winter (2023)". Melbourne International Film Festival. 2023. Retrieved 25 February 2024.
  9. ^ Slatter, Sean (13 July 2023). "'Bromley: Light After Dark', 'Monolith', 'Shayda', 'The Rooster' up for $100,000 CinefestOZ prize". IF Magazine. Retrieved 3 September 2023.
  10. ^ Slatter, Sean (3 September 2023). "Noora Niasari's 'Shayda' wins $100,000 CinefestOZ prize". IF Magazine. Retrieved 3 September 2023.
  11. ^ Slatter, Sean (8 February 2024). "'Talk To Me' takes home five AACTA Industry Awards". IF Magazine. Retrieved 19 February 2024.
  12. ^ Weaving, Hugo (20 February 2024). "Hugo Weaving wanted to star in Australian movie The Rooster to shift taboos about men and mental health". ABC News (Australia) (Interview). Interviewed by Russell, Stephen A. Retrieved 25 February 2024.
  13. ^ Winter, Mark (2020). "Mark Winter CV" (PDF).
  14. ^ Dow, Steve (27 March 2021). "Tested by Fire and Plague, How Australia's Great New Drama Nearly Didn't Get Made". The Sydney Morning Herald. Archived from the original on 18 January 2022. Retrieved 5 October 2022.
  15. ^ Hakewill, Geraldine [@geraldinehakewill] (29 December 2021). "Wed". Retrieved 9 May 2022 – via Instagram.
  16. ^ Michaela Whitbourn (7 November 2018). "Judge 'grapples' with why Rush would have been 'potentially destructive' on-stage". Western Australia Today. Retrieved 25 February 2019.

External links edit