Mark Leonard Winter

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

Early life
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.

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

Screen
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). He starred in the 2020 thriller film Escape from Pretoria.

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.

Stage
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. 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.

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

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

It was released in Australian cinemas on 22 February 2024.

Recognition and awards

 * 2017 Sidney Myer Creative Fellowship: Recognising Outstanding Talent for mid-career artists
 * 2017 Green Room Award Nomination: Best Male Actor for Miss Julie (Melbourne Theatre Company)
 * 2016 Helpmann Award Winner: Best Male Actor for Birdland (Melbourne Theatre Company)
 * 2016 Helpmann Award Winner: Best Male Supporting Actor for King Lear (Sydney Theatre Company)
 * 2015 Green Room Award Nomination: Best Male Actor for Birdland (Melbourne Theatre Company)
 * 2015 Madrid International Film Festival Award Nomination: Best Lead Actor for One Eyed Girl (Projector Films)
 * 2014 21st Annual Austin Film Festival: Dark Matters, Jury Award for One Eyed Girl (Projector Films)
 * 2012 Sydney Theatre Awards Nomination: Best Leading Actor for Thyestes (Belvoir Street Theatre)
 * 2012 Sydney Theatre Awards Nomination: Best New Australian Work for Thyestes (Belvoir Street Theatre)
 * 2010 Green Room Awards Nomination: Best Actor for Thyestes (Malthouse Theatre)
 * 2010 Green Room Awards Winner: Best Production, Best Adaption, Best Ensemble for Thyestes (Malthouse Theatre)
 * 2009 Green Room Award Nomination: Best Show for 3 x Sisters (The Hayloft Project)

Personal life
Winter is married to actress and singer, Geraldine Hakewill; they first met in 2011, occasionally crossing paths until they became a couple in 2017, and married in December 2021. 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.

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