Mark Robert Michael Wahlberg (born June 5, 1971), former stage name Marky Mark, is an American actor, businessman, and former rapper. His work as a leading man spans the comedy, drama, and action genres. He has received multiple accolades, including a BAFTA Award, and nominations for two Academy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, nine Primetime Emmy Awards, and three Screen Actors Guild Awards.
Wahlberg was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1971. Since he was 15, he has experienced numerous legal issues. In the 1990s, Wahlberg was a member of the music group Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch, with whom he released the albums Music for the People (1991) and You Gotta Believe (1992). Wahlberg made his screen debut in Renaissance Man (1994) and had his first starring role in Fear (1996). He received critical praise for his performance as porn actor Dirk Diggler in Boogie Nights (1997).
In the early 2000s, he ventured into big-budget action movies, such as The Perfect Storm (2000), Planet of the Apes (2001), and The Italian Job (2003). He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for playing a police officer in the crime drama The Departed (2006). He was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor for the sports drama biopic The Fighter (2010), in which he starred as Micky Ward. In the 2010s, he landed successful comedy roles with The Other Guys (2010), Ted (2012), Ted 2 (2015), Daddy's Home (2015), and Daddy's Home 2 (2017). He also became the protagonist in two films in the Transformers live-action film franchise, Transformers: Age of Extinction and Transformers: The Last Knight. He was the world's highest-paid actor in 2017.
Wahlberg served as executive producer of five HBO series: the comedy-drama Entourage (2004–2011), the period crime drama Boardwalk Empire (2010–2014), the comedy-dramas How to Make It in America (2010–2011) and Ballers (2015–2019), and the documentary McMillions (2020). He is co-owner of the Wahlburgers chain and co-starred in the reality TV series about it. He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2010.
Early life and family
Mark Robert Michael Wahlberg was born on June 5, 1971, in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. He is the youngest of nine children, including actor Robert and singer/actor Donnie. His mother, Alma Elaine (née Donnelly; 1942–2021), was a bank clerk and a nurse's aide, and his father, Donald Edmond Wahlberg Sr. (1930–2008), was a delivery driver and U.S. Army veteran of the Korean War. Wahlberg's parents divorced in 1982; afterward, he divided his time between them.
Wahlberg is of Swedish descent through his father, and of Irish descent through his paternal grandmother. His mother was of Irish, English and French-Canadian ancestry. On his mother's side of the family, he is distantly related to author Nathaniel Hawthorne. Wahlberg was raised Catholic, and attended Copley Square High School on Newbury Street in Boston. By age 13, he had developed an addiction to cocaine and other substances; he did not receive his high school diploma until June 2013, at the age of 42.
