Mark Kermode

Born July 2, 1963 · Barnet, England, UK

Mark Kermode (/ˈkɜːrˌmoʊd/, KUR-moh-d; né Fairey; born 2 July 1963) is an English film critic, musician, radio presenter, television presenter, author and podcaster. He is the co-presenter (with Ellen E. Jones) of the BBC Radio 4 programme Screenshot, and co-presenter (alongside long-time collaborator Simon Mayo) of the film-review podcast Kermode & Mayo's Take. Kermode is a regular contributor to The Observer, for which he was chief film critic between September 2013 and September 2023. Kermode is the author of several books on film and music, including It's Only a Movie; The Good, the Bad and the Multiplex; Hatchet Job; and How Does It Feel?. He is the co-author of Hollywood: Sixty Great Years (with Jack Lodge, John Russell Taylor, Adrian Turner, Douglas Jarvis and David Castell), The Movie Doctors (with Simon Mayo), and Mark Kermode's Surround Sound (with Jenny Nelson). He has also written three volumes for the BFI's Modern Classics series – on The Exorcist, The Shawshank Redemption and Silent Running. Since the late 1980s he has contributed to the BFI's film magazine Sight & Sound and its predecessor The Monthly Film Bulletin, and since January 2016 he has presented a monthly live show, MK3D, at the British Film Institute (BFI), South Bank. It is the BFI's longest-running live show. Kermode previously co-presented the BBC Radio 5 Live show Kermode and Mayo's Film Review, and previously co-presented the BBC Two arts programme The Culture Show. Between 2018 and 2021, he co-wrote and presented three seasons of the BBC Four film documentary series Mark Kermode's Secrets of Cinema, and between 2019 and 2024 he presented a weekly film music show on Scala Radio. He is a member of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts and a founding member of the skiffle band the Dodge Brothers, for which he plays double bass. Since 2008, the Dodge Brothers (with Neil Brand) have provided live accompaniment for silent films such as Beggars of Life, Hell's Hinges, White Oak and The Ghost That Never Returns. Description above from the Wikipedia article Mark Kermode, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.