Mark Gatiss has had a long and varied career as a writer, director and producer behind the camera, as well as being a critically-acclaimed actor and published author. 

His early success on television was as part of the comedy troupe The League of Gentlemen, for which he both wrote and appeared onscreen as various characters.  

He had a childhood passion for Doctor Who and both wrote for and starred in the modern revival. He was also the writer and executive producer of An Adventure in Space and Time, a drama of the genesis of the series as part of the show’s 50th Anniversary celebrations in 2013.  

Mark is the co-creator and executive producer of Sherlock, the hit BBC series starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman which has seen unprecedented global success and in which he also plays Sherlock’s brother Mycroft Holmes. The show has won a total of nine Emmys and twelve BAFTAs across its four series.  

Mark’s other writing credits for television include Crooked House (2008), his adaptation of HG Well’s The First Men in the Moon (2010), Dracula (2019), The Amazing Mr Blunden (2021) and all three episodes of the documentary series A History of Horror and its one-off sequel Horror Europa, all of which he presented as well. Additionally, he has written and directed several Christmas ghost stories for the BBC in recent years.  

Most recently he has created a brand new detective series Bookish in which he also stars. The 6-part series aired on U&Alibi in the UK and has been sold across Europe.  

Recent screen roles include: The Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025), Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning (2025), Moonflower Murders (2024), Time Bandits (2024), Nolly (2023), The Father (2021), The Favourite (2018) and Christopher Robin (2018) 

On stage, he starred as Sir John Gielgud in The Motive and the Cue (written by Jack Thorne and directed by Sam Mendes) for which he won Best Actor at the 2024 Olivier Awards. He has also starred alongside Tom Hiddleston in Coriolanus (2013), as Harold in Mart Crowley’s The Boys in the Band (2016) and as Doctor Shpigelsky in Patrick Marber’s adaptation of Turgenev’s Three Days in the Country for which he received the Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. 

As a stage director he helmed The Unfriend - a new play by Steven Moffat and The Way Old Friends Do written by Ian Hallard.