Mark Robert Michael Wahlberg (born June 5, 1971),[1] formerly known by his stage name Marky Mark,[2] is an American actor and former rapper. For his work, he has received multiple accolades, including a BAFTA Award, and nominations for two Academy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, and nine Primetime Emmy Awards.
Wahlberg was born in Boston. As a youth, he took part in a number of violent and racially motivated attacks. He gained fame as a member of the hip hop group Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch in the 1990s, with whom he released the albums Music for the People (1991) and You Gotta Believe (1992).
Mark Robert Michael Wahlberg was born on June 5, 1971, in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. He is the youngest of nine children,[3] 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 U.S. Army veteran of the Korean War. After his parents divorced in 1982, he divided his time between them.[4]
Wahlberg’s father was of Swedish and Irish descent. His mother was of Irish, English and French-Canadian ancestry.[5][6][7] On his mother’s side of the family, he is distantly related to author Nathaniel Hawthorne.[8][9] Wahlberg was raised Catholic,[10][11] and attended Copley Square High School on Newbury Street in Boston.
