Mark Phillip Gibbs was born in the town of Bamboo in St. Ann’s Parish, Jamaica on April 13th, 1989. He never met his father who was killed before Mark was born, and his mother died of breast cancer when he was 4 years old. After a brief stay with an abusive aunt, he ran away from home permanently at the age of 8. For several years he lived on the street, staying occasionally with relatives and friends in Bamboo, Runaway Bay and St. Ann’s Bay before finding work as a cook in Ocho Rios. While many of the friends he grew up with on the streets of Jamaica wound up dead or in jail, Mark managed to stay ahead of the game and keep himself out of trouble.
In 2008 he was hired as a production assistant for the American movie production, “Wah Do Dem” which was produced and directed by Ben Chace and Sam Fleischner. During the course of the production he proved to be a savvy apprentice, and quickly stepped up, assuming the role of associate producer when one of the local crew members quit. Towards the end of the shoot, as the production budget dwindled and the directors were forced to re-write the ending, they turned to Mark for help. Collaborating with Chace and Fleischner and their lead actor Sean Bones, Mark helped improvise a new ending to the film, and began his acting career playing the role of “Juvi” – a street youth character which he based on his own life experience.
The sequence they came up with during a single day of shooting, instantly became the most memorable in the film, and it serves as the climax and conclusion for the American protagonist’s odyssey through Jamaica. “Wah Do Dem”, which also features appearances by Norah Jones, Carl Bradshaw and many great musicians including The Congos and MGMT, premiered at the 2009 Los Angeles Film Festival, where it was awarded the Juror’s Prize for Best Narrative Feature. Through his participation in the project, Mark’s talents have been exposed to thousands of people around the world, at film festivals and in a limited theatrical release in North America, Canada, The UK, Australia and New Zealand.
Since his experience working on “Wah Do Dem”, Mark has worked on a few other Jamaican productions including “Dry Land Tourists” and he is currently continuing his collaboration with Ben Chace, charting out a new story for the potential follow-up to “Wah Do Dem”, centering around the character of “Juvi”.
