“Mark Leiren-Young is a playwright, author, screenwriter, novelist, journalist, editor, podcaster, producer, director, documentarian, comedy performer, satirist, memoirist, university lecturer, occasional actor and full-time environmentalist.” -David Lennam, Yam Magazine.


Mark has been dubbed "Canada’s greenest writer." Many of his projects feature a green theme, such as his award-winning films, The Green Film (a comedy short about going green), and his feature "The Green Chain," (starring Tricia Helfer and August Schellenberg). And now, his newest book, "Greener Than Thou."

Mark wrote and directed the award-winning documentary, The Hundred-Year-Old Whale, and hosts the Skaana podcast - which features stories about orcas, oceans, eco-ethics and the environment.

As half of the popular comedy duo "Local Anxiety" he released the 2009 CD "Greenpieces," and cuts from the satirical album have been featured on CBC Radio and NPR and are available on Spotify and YouTube.

Leiren-Young's first full-time journalism job was at "The Williams Lake Tribune," a small newspaper in Williams Lake, British Columbia. He turned these experiences into a comic memoir, Never Shoot A Stampede Queen, which won the 2009 Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour.

His news and feature writing, humour pieces, reviews and columns have appeared in a host of publications in Canada and the U.S., including Time, Maclean's and The Utne Reader.

Mark also has extensive television writing credits, with over 100 hours of produced work. His love of comic books inspires his work on a number of animated series, including ReBoot and Beast Wars: Transformers. He also has many credits writing for drama series, and credits include PSI Factor: Chronicles of the Paranormal and Blood Ties.

Mark's plays have been produced around the world. His latest play, Playing Shylock, starring Saul Rubinek, makes its American debut at the Polonsky Shakespeare Centre in New York in October, 2025.

His most popular play, "Shylock," about the tensions surrounding theatre's most famous Jewish character. Shylock has been produced around the world and is published by Anvil Press.