Mark Farrell is a Canadian

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 comedian and writer, who honed his talent in the Yuk Yuk's comedy club in Halifax

City of Halifax

Halifax is a city in Canada, which was the capital of the province of Nova Scotia and shire town of Halifax County. It was the largest city in Atlantic Canada until it was amalgamated into Halifax Regional Municipality in 1996...

, Nova Scotia

Nova Scotia

Nova Scotia is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the most populous province in Atlantic Canada. The name of the province is Latin for "New Scotland," but "Nova Scotia" is the recognized, English-language name of the province. The provincial capital is Halifax. Nova Scotia is the...

 before moving to Toronto

Toronto

Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...

 in 1989. One of the founders of Canada's alternative comedy

Alternative comedy

Alternative comedy is a term that originated in the 1980s for a style of comedy that makes a conscious break with the mainstream comedic style of an era, and typically avoids relying on a standardised structure of a sequence of jokes with punch lines. Patton Oswalt defines it as "comedy where the...

 scene. Farrell helped lead an exodus from the Yuk Yuk's chain, along with other prominent comics such as Brent Butt

Brent Butt

Brent Butt is a Canadian stand-up comedian actor and writer. He is best known for his role as Brent Leroy on the CTV sitcom Corner Gas, which he also created. The series was an instant hit when it made its debut in 2004....

. Success eventually called, as he appeared in two Ken Finkleman

Ken Finkleman

Ken Finkleman is a Canadian television and film writer, producer and actor.In Canada, Finkleman is best known as the writer, creator and producer of the CBC Television series The Newsroom, in which he starred as television news producer George Findlay...

 series, Married Life

Married Life

Married Life was the first of a string of short run series Ken Finkleman made for CBC Television in the 1990s and 2000s. The show's four episodes were later edited into one two-hour TV movie....

and the first season of The Newsroom

The Newsroom

The Newsroom is a Canadian television comedy-drama series which ran on CBC Television in the 1996-97, 2003–04 and 2004-05 seasons. A two-hour television movie, Escape from the Newsroom, was broadcast in 2002....

.

Eventually his writing skills were noted, and as he became a writer for award-winning This Hour Has 22 Minutes

This Hour Has 22 Minutes

This Hour Has 22 Minutes is a weekly Canadian television comedy that airs on CBC Television. Launched in 1993 during Canada's 35th general election, the show focuses on Canadian politics, combining news parody, sketch comedy and satirical editorials...

, eventually moving all the way up to executive producer, until he left the show in 2010. His work on 22 Minutes led to many other writing gigs, including another job as supervising producer for the first season of Corner Gas

Corner Gas

Corner Gas is a Canadian television sitcom created by Brent Butt. The series ran for six seasons from 2004 to 2009. Re-runs still air on CTV and The Comedy Network in Canada; it formerly aired on WGN America in the United States....

, a show for which he continued to write.

He is currently an executive producer, co-creator, and writer for the show Dan for Mayor

Dan for Mayor

Dan for Mayor is a Canadian television sitcom starring Fred Ewanuick that debuted on March 1, 2010 on CTV and The Comedy Network. It premiered the same night as Hiccups, a show created by Corner Gas star Brent Butt that also features fellow Corner Gas alumna Nancy Robertson. On June 7, 2010, both...

.

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