Mark Thomas

Mark Thomas Biog – in numbers

Mark has been performing comedy for 35 years
He has written 5 books and 4 playscripts
Curated and authored 2 art exhibitions with artist Tracey Moberly.
Won 8 awards for performing, 3 for human rights work and 1 he invented for himself
He has taken the police to court 3 times and has won twice. The third is on going and a fourth is in the pipeline
He made 6 series of the Mark Thomas Comedy Product for Channel 4
He made 3 Dispatches for Channel 4
He was commissioned to write 1 new show for the Royal Opera House
He has made 5 series of the Manifesto for Radio 4
He was a Guinness World Record holder for holding 20 protests in 24 hours
He has given evidence to Parliamentary select committees on 2 occasions
He has walked 724km around the length of the Israel Wall in the West Bank
He has been credited with changing the law on tax avoidance bringing in £1,000,000s for HMRC
He has performed in 4 continents and in 10 countries, 1 liberal synagogue, a squatted MP’s second home, on the roof of a multi-storey car park and outside a US military base.
He has performed 4 shows at the National Theatre
He has cost 1 councillor and one government minister their job
He has tried to get the government in court over the Iraq war once
He cost BNF over £1m in clean up operations after exposing irradiated pigeon shit
He was a columnist for the New Statesman magazine for 4 years though it might be 5.
The 100 Acts of Minor Dissent campaigned successfully for trade union recognition for cinema workers, got a multinational to change their practices, brought 4 court cases and annoyed lots of people.
He started a comedy club in Palestine with Dr Sam Beale.
How to describe his work? A mix of standup, theatre, journalism and the odd bout of performance art. He is 57 years old and doesn’t care if it sounds pretentious.
He has an honorary doctorate from Bradford University and is an online pastor legally able to perform weddings and funerals in America.
He writes for The London Economic currently.
He was born in South London in 1963.