Mark Tapio Kines
Mark Tapio Kines (Writer/Director) graduated from the CalArts film school in 1992, where he was enrolled in the school's prestigious animation program. While at CalArts, however, he spent most of his time writing and directing live action films. It was here that he began his ascent into a promising writing career. In both 1992 and 1993 his plays were accepted into CalArts' highly competitive New Plays Festival. In 1993, a Los Angeles Times article featured Mark as one of three up-and-coming young dramatists in Southern California.
After CalArts, Mark forged a career as an artist in the exploding new media industry. He designed several award-winning CD-ROMS and had his work featured in Rolling Stone and Entertainment Weekly. In 1995 he played an early role in the Internet revolution and became one of the Web's first "star" artists, creating some of the first story-based animations ever seen on the Internet, as well as high-profile sites for Universal, MGM, NBC and a host of other entertainment companies.
In the spring of 1996 he wrote the script for Foreign Correspondents and was determined to make it into a film the following year. Right on schedule, Foreign Correspondents was filmed in July-August 1997.
Mark is now pursuing his writing and directing career full time. Last year he completed his latest screenplay "Sharky Baby," which was a semi-finalist at the Project Greenlight, developed by Ben Affleck, Matt Damon and Miramax Films. Mark has also completed two more feature screenplays, "Scarred For Life" and "Typhoid Mary," and is busy developing no less than three others.
"I won't give you a boring autobiography, but I will mention a few pertinent facts, as many articles across this site make reference to them. I grew up in Cupertino, California, in the heart of Silicon Valley. In 1989 I came down to Southern California to go to CalArts, where I got my BFA in film, with an emphasis on experimental animation. After graduating in 1992, I moved into the city of Los Angeles itself and have made a living as a graphic designer. For seven years I worked in the Internet industry (and didn't get canned once!) designing web sites. Nearly four of those years were at Paramount Pictures in Hollywood, where I was the art director for the Star Trek site, among others.
All that's over now. In April 2002 I quit my day job to pursue filmmaking, screenwriting, traveling, and just living my own life, full-time. We'll see how long I can last before my savings account dries up. I still accept the odd freelance design gig now and then."
(As published by Mark Tapio Kines on Cassavafilms.com)
Melanie Lynskey
When Peter Jackson's Heavenly Creatures was released to international acclaim in 1994, it launched the career of a then-unknown actress by the name of Kate Winslet. Unfortunately, it didn't do the same for Winslet's co-star, the similarly unknown and equally talented Melanie Lynskey. As Pauline Parker, a New Zealand schoolgirl who, along with best friend Juliete Hulme (Winslet), brutally murders her mother, Lynskey turned in a performance that combined sullen adolescent alienation with cold-blooded brutality. Although marked as a promising newcomer, she did not enjoy a subsequent breakthrough of the magnitude of Winslet's but instead worked quietly for a few years, gradually earning belated recognition from audiences and industry figures alike.
I'm a Man Woman seeking a Woman Man
Enter city or ZIP
Age: to
Show only ads with photos
Born in New Plymouth, New Zealand, on May 16, 1977, Lynskey was a high school student when she was discovered by Peter Jackson's wife, Frances Walsh, who cast her in Heavenly Creatures. Following the film's success, the fledgling actress moved to Los Angeles, but encountered endless rejection thanks to her non-blonde, non-waifish physique, and after only six weeks returned to her native country. Eighteen months of film, theatre, and English studies at Victoria University followed, as did a supporting role in Jackson's The Frighteners (1996).
A self-professed attitude change -- the result of her friendship with director Gaylene Preston, who encouraged the actress to make herself a stronger person -- also altered Lynskey's approach to acting, and she subsequently won a role in her first Hollywood film, Andy Tennant's Ever After (1998). Cast as the not-so-evil stepsister of Drew Barrymore's Cinderella-like heroine, Lynskey enjoyed the greater recognition the film's success afforded her and went on to supporting roles the next year in Detroit Rock City, in which she co-starred with Natasha Lyonne and Edward Furlong, and Michael Cacoyannis' adaptation of The Cherry Orchard, which also starred Alan Bates, Charlotte Rampling, and Katrin Cartlidge. With another successful independent film, Jamie Babbit's But I'm a Cheerleader (1999), and a Jerry Bruckheimer chick flick, Coyote Ugly, also under her belt, Lynskey began the new decade on a decidedly promising note. ~ Rebecca Flint, All Movie Guide
Sheeri Rappaport
Made her television debut as a troubled teen in the series Clarissa Explains It All. Thus began a busy career on the small screen, with recurring roles on CSI, 7th Heaven, Xena and, most notably, NYPD Blue, where she guest-starred for a season as Officer Mary Franco, Rick Schroder's love interest. Having also appeared in the TV movies For My Daughter's Honor, Two Voices and My Summer as a Girl, Sheeri gained a cult following - which included a special layout in the magazine Femme Fatale - for her starring role in the teen horror flick Little Witches.
In 2003 Sheeri will be seen on the big screen in the independent features The United States of Leland, produced by Kevin Spacey, and Speakeasy, produced by Ben Affleck and Matt Damon.
Mary Lynn Rajskub
A dark-haired performer who has made a her name in the industry with an original take on high-concept comedic stage productions as well as notable TV and film acting skills, Mary Lynn Rajskub proved a versatile and dynamic player. Appearing in extensive productions on stage in California, Rajskub started out as a San Francisco Art Institute student who found her comic side in performance pieces that played upon her skewed sense of humor and knack for bringing out the laughs in uncomfortable situations. Noticed by comedians Bob Odenkirk and David Cross, Rajskub was cast on their HBO concept comedy sketch series "Mr. Show with Bob and David" in 1995 and remained with the program until 1996 when she switched to the network's "The Larry Sanders Show", replacing friend Janeane Garofalo's character as the show within a show's new eager to please and often inappropriate booker.
Her often frenzied and daring portrayals proved Rajskub an energetic and versatile performer, a reputation she would further prove with stage appearances including the one-woman show "The Littlest Angel", performed at Santa Monica's Powerhouse Theater in 1996. A guest role on the failed sitcom "The Army Show" (The WB) marked one of the actress' few television appearances until her offbeat comedy met its match in "The Downer Channel" (2001), a Steve Martin-produced sketch series on NBC.
Her film work has included a small role in the 1996 romantic comedy "The Truth About Cats and Dogs" and a part in "Man on the Moon" (1999), Milos Forman's biopic of Andy Kaufman, another concept comedian to whom Rajskub has been likened. A small part in "Magnolia" (1999) and a relationship with score composer Jon Brion allied the actress with Paul Thomas Anderson, who cast her in his as yet untitled follow-up, starring Adam Sandler (and set for a 2002 release). Rajskub would also have memorable scenes in the comedies "Road Trip" and "Dude, Where's My Car" (both 2000) as well as appearing as a guest at "The Anniversary Party" (2001), co-scripted and co-directed by Alan Cumming and Jennifer Jason Leigh. Rajskub got her most prominent film role yet in her friend P.T. Anderson's dark romantic comedy "Punch-Drunk Love," playing one of Adam Sandler's overbearing sisters, who sets him up with his eventual love (Emily Watson).
(on Hollywood.com)
top
Special on 
