David Mark Rylance Waters known professionally as Mark Rylance, is an English actor, theatre director and playwright. He was the first artistic director of Shakespeare's Globe in London, from 1995 to 2005. His film appearances include Prospero's Books (1991), Angels and Insects (1995), Institute Benjamenta (1996), and Intimacy (2001). Rylance won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and the BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of Rudolf Abel in Bridge of Spies (2015). He was born on 18 January 1960 in Ashford, Kent, England. Rylance spent most of his childhood and youth in the United States, living for some years in Connecticut before moving with his family to Wisconsin in 1969. In Wisconsin he attended the University School of Milwaukee, a private college-preparatory institution, where his father held a teaching post. Rylance became involved with Shakespeare and with acting during his teen years. At age 16 he participated in his school’s Shakespeare festival, playing the title role in Hamlet. A short while later, at another local Shakespeare celebration, he was praised for his performance as Puck in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Rylance stayed with the Globe until 2006, after which he began to receive greater recognition for his non-Shakespearean roles. In 2008 he made his Broadway debut as Robert in Boeing-Boeing, a performance for which he won a Tony Award for best actor in a play. In 2011 he won another Tony Award—this time for best actor in a leading role for his performance as Johnny (“Rooster”) Byron in Jerusalem, a tale of rural life in contemporary England. His creation of the character was founded on numerous interactions with Mickey Lay, a builder who lived in a village outside London. Upon winning each of his Tony Awards, Rylance pleasantly perplexed the audience by reciting prose poetry in lieu of the more-typical acceptance speech. In 2013 Rylance returned to Broadway in two Shakespeare plays running in repertory: as Olivia in Twelfth Night, for which he won a Tony (2014), and in the title role of Richard III. In 2016, he received the Oscar Award for Best Supporting Actor in the Bridge of Spies.