Mark Ferguson

Australian Mark Ferguson has spent most of his career working in New Zealand. Along the way he has played varied villains on Gloss, and Spin Doctors, and arguably most memorably Shortland Street. He has also brought his dulcet tones to gigs as offscreen narrator, onscreen presenter and live master of ceremonies.

Ferguson has acted in both drama and comedy. His background in improvisational comedy would later feed into late 90s TV series Scared Scriptless and some of his more offbeat screen appearances, including the dodgy presenter on Truman Show style reality series Living the Dream.

Raised in Sydney, Ferguson acted at high school then trained at the National Institute of Dramatic Art. At age 21 he got his break with a part as millionaire Paul Sheppard on long-running Australian soap Sons and Daughters.

Ferguson headed to New Zealand around 1987, to help out on a Kaleidoscope episode about the development of Theatresports (at that point he coached and played it in Sydney). When his Australian nationality was confirmed by producer Janice Finn, he was quickly offered a role as a "greasy, cunning" Australian on Gloss, a show whose mixture of soap and yuppie-trampling comedy struck him as bracingly original. Time on hour-long sketch show Laugh Inz followed, which debuted as part of the 1989 launch of new channel TV3.

Ferguson went on to win many fans after joining new show Shortland Street; Ferguson's character of Darryl Neilson was introduced partly to help create more audience empathy for receptionist Marj Brasch (Elizabeth McRae), his screen mother. Shortland veteran Michael Galvin called him "the show's first great villain"; certainly his exploits appear regularly on lists of the show's most memorable moments.

Ferguson expected the show's frenetic accumulation of plot developments would result in Darryl's early expiry. Instead, over a frenetic four-year-long stop start period, Darryl found time to fake the abduction of his children, deny paternity of a daughter, store dodgy pharmaceuticals in his mother's house, sexually assault Kirsty (Angela Dotchin), and perhaps best of all, lock Galvin's character in a barn so that he missed his wedding. After the character drowned at Ferguson's own request, he later resurfaced to romance Kirsty, this time in the guise of Darryl's more likable twin brother Damien.

Having played the front half of a centaur in an early Hercules tele-movie, Ferguson endured further unusual hairdos plus the occasional death scene on both Hercules, and spin-off Xena. He also did two seasons of hit comedy Letter to Blanchy (as a car racing bogan), one season of the "very bizarre", David Lynch-inspired Neighbourhood Network, and three of the "amazing" Spin Doctors. Again trans-Tasman pigeonholing helped him win the latter gig. This time Ferguson played Andrew Couch, a ruthless Australian behind the throne at a public relations agency. Scripts for this highly topical satire arrived hot off the press on Sunday nights, with shooting following on Monday and Tuesdays.

In 1999 he hosted and helped launch TV series Scared Scriptless, which showcased two teams of improvisors in action.

Ferguson's has also narrated on a range of programmes, from NHNZ documentaries to the Kiwi edition of Big Brother: Australia. He has also been involved in two reality shows that flip the genre's blend of reality and artifice firmly towards the later. 2004's Living the Dream featured an innocent vineyard worker competing against a team of actors in disguise. Ferguson's host character satirised the manipulative antics of many reality shows — even getting caught engaging in an intimate tête-à-tête with one of the supposed contestants. In an interview with the NZ Herald, Fergusion described some of the show's developments as "absolute chaos", and called it his most "ulcer-inducing" screen gig to date.

Earlier he'd hosted the Kiwi version of The Mole, where contestants battle a double agent within their ranks. NZ Herald reviewer Fiona Rae argued that beneath his "low-key approach and easy rapport with the team", Ferguson ensured that all players remained under suspicion.

Ferguson has also spent time on the convention circuit, retelling memorable stories about a brief role as elven hero Gil-Galad in the prologue of The Lord of the Rings (the only character in the whole narrative, he hastens to add, "who went head to head with Sauron").

Ferguson used to run his own events company. As of early 2017 he was group account director at Auckland conference and marketing group Extra Mile Company.

Sources include
Mark Ferguson
'Mark Ferguson: On playing the bad guy...' (Video Interview), NZ On Screen website. Director Andrew Whiteside. Loaded 18 November 2013. Accessed 18 November 2013
Mark-Ferguson.info website (broken link). Accessed 14 November 2013
Rebecca Barry, 'The Untrue Man Show' (Interview)- The NZ Herald (e.g. pullout) 5 August 2004, page 4
Chris Philpott, 'Shortland Street: greatest moments, # 20-11' Stuff website. Loaded 22 May 2012. Accessed 9 March 2017
Fiona Rae, 'TV: Mole-hunt nears its end' (Review of The Mole) - The NZ Herald, 30 June 2000
Unknown writer, 'Mark Ferguson: Gil-Galad' (Interview) - Pavement, Summer 2003 – 2004 (Issue 62) page 134
Unknown writer, 'Shortland Street's best baddies' TVNZ website. Accessed 9 March 2017
Unknown writer, 'Shortland Street: The 10 best tales' The NZ Herald website. Loaded 16 May 2002. Accessed 9 March 2017
Gloss season three press kit