Mark Leon Cowden is an American film maker, television paranormal investigator, author and former musician. He began a professional career in music in his late teens before moving to the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 in his mid 20's to begin working in film and television.

Early life

Originally from Muskogee

Muskogee, Oklahoma

Muskogee is a city in Muskogee County, Oklahoma, United States. It is the county seat of Muskogee County, and home to Bacone College. The population was 38,310 at the 2000 census, making it the eleventh-largest city in Oklahoma....

, Oklahoma, Cowden had an interest in music from early childhood. He attended many different public schools across the United States before his family returned to Oklahoma where he graduated from Fort Gibson High School

Fort Gibson High School

Fort Gibson Public Schools is located in the small town of Fort Gibson, Oklahoma. The school mascot is the tiger.Teddy Lehman attended Fort Gibson High School and graduated in 2000. Filmmaker and author, Mark L. Cowden, also graduated from Fort Gibson High School in 1993.There was a school...

 in 1993.

Music career

Immediately after graduating high school, Cowden began performing and touring in the role of lead vocals with various bands across the Southwestern United States

Southwestern United States

The Southwestern United States is a region defined in different ways by different sources. Broad definitions include nearly a quarter of the United States, including Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas and Utah...

 before moving to Seattle

Seattle, Washington

Seattle is the county seat of King County, Washington. With 608,660 residents as of the 2010 Census, Seattle is the largest city in the Northwestern United States. The Seattle metropolitan area of about 3.4 million inhabitants is the 15th largest metropolitan area in the country...

, Washington at the tail end of the grunge era. The end of the 90's

1990s

File:1990s decade montage.png|From left, clockwise: The Hubble Space Telescope floats in space after it was taken up in 1990; American F-16s and F-15s fly over burning oil fields and the USA Lexie in Operation Desert Storm, also known as the 1991 Gulf War; The signing of the Oslo Accords on...

 brought what many recording artists in the Northwestern United States

Northwestern United States

The Northwestern United States comprise the northwestern states up to the western Great Plains regions of the United States, and consistently include the states of Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, to which part of southeast Alaska is also sometimes included...

 believed to be, the official end of the Seattle Grunge Movement. With the turn of the new millennium, Mark relocated to the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 where he fronted electronic industrial

Industrial music

Industrial music is a style of experimental music that draws on transgressive and provocative themes. The term was coined in the mid-1970s with the founding of Industrial Records by the band Throbbing Gristle, and the creation of the slogan "industrial music for industrial people". In general, the...

 band "Fragile Human Organs" (FHO) who achieved cult status with their vast internet

Internet

The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...

 following. Releasing all of their recordings independently without the backing of any record company proved to be a success with the new internet download

Music download

A music download is the transferral of music from an Internet-facing computer or website to a user's local computer. This term encompasses both legal downloads and downloads of copyright material without permission or payment...

 revolution resulting in their song "Lapis Lazuli" becoming a top 100 download in Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

. MP3.com

MP3.com

MP3.com is a web site operated by CNET Networks providing information about digital music and artists, songs, services, community, and technologies. It is probably better known for its original incarnation, as a legal, free music-sharing service, popular with independent musicians for promoting...

 (Australia) released five tracks from "Fragile Human Organs", all of which received various awards from the site as a result of the number of downloads the songs achieved. Users of the site compared the band to such heavy weights as "Tool

Tool (band)

Tool is an American rock band from Los Angeles, California. Formed in 1990, the group's line-up has included drummer Danny Carey, guitarist Adam Jones, and vocalist Maynard James Keenan. Since 1995, Justin Chancellor has been the band's bassist, replacing their original bassist Paul D'Amour...

" and "Nine Inch Nails

Nine Inch Nails

Nine Inch Nails is an American industrial rock project, founded in 1988 by Trent Reznor in Cleveland, Ohio. As its main producer, singer, songwriter, and instrumentalist, Reznor is the only official member of Nine Inch Nails and remains solely responsible for its direction...

" while Cowden received the award of "Best Male Vocals" four times.

Fragile Human Organs discography

Year	Title	Type	Release
2003	A Demonstration By	ep	Indie
2004	Lapis Lazuli	single	Indie
2004	Fairytale Farewell	single	internet download
2004	The Gift	single	internet download
2004	Blister	single	internet download
2004	Breach	single	internet download

Film and television

In 2006, following his departure from "Fragile Human Organs", Mark was offered a directorial role for an episode of BBC Blast. In this role, a young rock band would get the opportunity to produce a music video from start to finish with Cowden, who would also direct the bands video, as their mentor. Cowden would have five days to take the band through the whole video making process from pre-production through to the final edit with a film crew of children who would also have to be trained for their individual roles during this time. The video was planned and shot at the famous Armagh Prison in Northern Ireland while the whole process was filmed and documented by a BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

 camera crew.

Cowden began production work in 2007 on the horror film "Freakdog

Freakdog

Freakdog is a 2008 horror film by Paddy Breathnach, that originally went under the title Red Mist.-Plot:The film circles around four medical students who, while out partying one night, spike the drink of a unknowing and loner colleague nicknamed 'Freakdog'; it turned out to be a very powerful...

", directed by Paddy Breathnach

Paddy Breathnach

Paddy Breathnach is an award-winning Irish film director and producer. He directed Man About Dog, Blow Dry and Shrooms. He was also involved in the production of The Mighty Celt and Ape....

 (Shrooms

Shrooms (film)

Shrooms is a 2007 horror film about a group of American students and their Irish guide who are stalked by a serial killer while out in the woods looking for psilocybin mushrooms...

). Mark filmed and edited the "making-of

Making-of

In cinema, a making-of, also known as behind-the-scenes, is a documentary film that features the production of a film or television program...

" featurette

Featurette

Featurette is a term used in the American film industry to designate a film whose length is approximately three quarters of a reel, or about 20–44 minutes in running time - thus midway between a short subject and a feature film; thus it is a "small feature"...

 which was released worldwide by Starz Entertainment, as part of the DVD package. Included in the featurette was documentary footage including interviews with Arielle Kebbel

Arielle Kebbel

Arielle Caroline Kebbel is an American model and actress. Arielle is perhaps best known for her roles in films such as American Pie Presents: Band Camp, John Tucker Must Die, Vampires Suck, and Aquamarine, as well as TV series including The Vampire Diaries, Gilmore Girls, and Life Unexpected, on...

, Sarah Carter

Sarah Carter

Sarah Carter is a Canadian actress, best known for her role in the TNT drama Falling Skies.-Biography:Carter was born in Toronto, Canada and raised in Winnipeg, Manitoba. She attended Balmoral Hall School where she was a dedicated dancer and took part in various school plays including ‘’The Wizard...

 and other cast members. Following the release of "Freakdog", Cowden filmed and directed the making-of featurettes for Cherrybomb starring Rupert Grint

Rupert Grint

Rupert Alexander Lloyd Grint is an English actor, who rose to prominence playing Ron Weasley, one of the three main characters in the Harry Potter film series. Grint was cast as Ron at the age of 11, having previously acted only in school plays and at his local theatre group...

 and Robert Sheehan and "Ghost Machine

Ghost Machine (film)

Ghost Machine is a British science fiction, directed by Chris Hartwill and based on a screenplay by writer Sven Hughes and Malachi Smyth. It stars Rachael Taylor, Sean Faris and Luke Ford.-Plot:...

" starring Sean Faris

Sean Faris

Sean Hardy Faris is an American model and actor. He is well known for his roles as Jake Tyler in Never Back Down, Kyo Kusanagi in The King of Fighters, and Rick Penning in Forever Strong.-Life and career:...

 (Never Back Down

Never Back Down

Never Back Down is a 2008 action film starring Sean Faris, Amber Heard, Cam Gigandet, and Djimon Hounsou. It was theatrically released on March 14, 2008. The film's respective tagline is "Win or lose.....

), Rachael Taylor

Rachael Taylor

Rachael Taylor is an Australian actress and model. She made her leading role debut in the short-lived Australian program headLand. She then made the transition to Hollywood, appearing in the films Transformers, Shutter, and Splinterheads.-Personal life:Taylor was born in Launceston, Tasmania, the...

 (Transformers

Transformers

A transformer is a device that transfers electrical energy from one circuit to another by magnetic coupling.Transformer may also refer to:* ASUS Eee Pad Transformer, an Android 3.2 Honeycomb tablet computer manufacturer by Asus...

) and Luke Ford

Luke Ford

Luke Ford is an American writer, blogger, and former pornography gossip columnist known for his disclosures and traditionalist Jewish religious views.-Personal:Ford moved to California in 1977...

 (The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor is a 2008 American action adventure film and sequel to The Mummy and The Mummy Returns . The film stars Brendan Fraser, Maria Bello, John Hannah, Luke Ford, and Jet Li, and was released on August 1, 2008 in the United States...

). Both featurettes, included in the DVD package, were also released worldwide.

Cowden appeared as a regular cast member of the BBC production, "Northern Ireland's Greatest Haunts". In his role as audio/visual specialists, Cowden monitored apparent "haunted" locations with closed-circuit television camera

Closed-circuit television camera

Closed-circuit television cameras can produce images or recordings for surveillance purposes, and can be either video cameras, or digital stills cameras...

's and audio recording equipment resulting in the documentation of, what some consider to be, among the best examples of paranormal

Paranormal

Paranormal is a general term that designates experiences that lie outside "the range of normal experience or scientific explanation" or that indicates phenomena understood to be outside of science's current ability to explain or measure...

 phenomena ever to be recorded on television. Northern Ireland's Greatest Haunts ran for two seasons on the BBC and aired across the United Kingdom and Ireland. Mark L. Cowden also appeared in two episodes of the Italian paranormal television show, 'Mistero' which is hosted by Italian rock musician, Enrico Ruggeri

Enrico Ruggeri

Enrico Ruggeri is an Italian rock singer-songwriter.-Biography:A native of Milan, Ruggeri made his debut in the 1970s with the punk band Decibel...

. 'Mistero' airs nationwide in Italy on Italia 1

Italia 1

Italia 1 is an Italian commercial television channel on the Mediaset network. It is oriented especially at young people.Italia 1 was launched in January 1982 and, originally, was owned by Rusconi; after a few months, however, due to the aggressive dumping practices of Silvio Berlusconi's rival...

.

Spirit Voices

In June of 2011, Mark L. Cowden released his first book entitled "Spirit Voices; The First Live Conversation Between Worlds". Published and released worldwide by Anomalist Books, Spirit Voices documents Cowden's work in the field of paranormal research along with offering the reader an insight into Cowden's own personal journey of self enlightenment. Covering topics such as "A Moral Dilemma" which talks about the religious taboo of delving into paranormal research through to the general stereotypes of the textbook paranormal investigation team, ending with an account of what many people believe, is the first ever documented case of a live conversation between a living person and a non living person, recorded with television cameras rolling. Throughout the book, Cowden gives hints into his own psychic intuition and how he has managed to not only develop, but combine this ability with the advances of modern technology in order to bridge the gap between this life and the next. "Spirit Voices; The First Live Conversation Between Worlds" has received positive reviews from many key figures in journalism, broadcasting and anomalist research. In a recent article written by best selling author Nick Redfern

Nick Redfern

Nicholas "Nick" Redfern born 1964 in Pelsall, Walsall, Staffordshire is a British best-selling author, Ufologist and Cryptozoologist now living in Dallas, Texas, U.S.....

, he writes, "Spirit Voices shows the sheer extent to which people can find themselves propelled to new levels of thought, understanding and appreciation of the mysteries of this world and beyond when they address the controversial question that each and every one of us want answering: What happens to us when we die?" Micah A. Hanks, author of the book "Magic, Mysticism and the Molecule", states in his review of Spirit Voices, that the book may very well be one of the more important books available in regards to its subject matter.

Filmography

Year	Film	Role	Notes
2006	BBC Blast	Director/Himself	TV Episode
2006	Nailed	Assistant Camera	DVD Release
2007	Peridot	Producer	Drama/Short
2007	Merman	Producer	Drama/Short
2006	In Cold Blood	Mechanic	BBC Crime Documentary
2007	Freakdog Freakdog Freakdog is a 2008 horror film by Paddy Breathnach, that originally went under the title Red Mist.-Plot:The film circles around four medical students who, while out partying one night, spike the drink of a unknowing and loner colleague nicknamed 'Freakdog'; it turned out to be a very powerful...	Director: Making of	DVD Release
2009	Cherrybomb Cherrybomb (film) Cherrybomb is a drama film released in the United Kingdom in 2009, starring Rupert Grint. Filming began on location in Belfast on 7 July 2008, and lasted four weeks. The film involves nudity, drinking, drugs, shop-lifting and stealing cars. It was released to DVD on 23 August 2010 in the UK...	Director: Making of	Cinema and DVD Release
2009	Ghost Machine Ghost Machine (film) Ghost Machine is a British science fiction, directed by Chris Hartwill and based on a screenplay by writer Sven Hughes and Malachi Smyth. It stars Rachael Taylor, Sean Faris and Luke Ford.-Plot:...	Director: Making of	DVD Release
2009	Northern Ireland's Greatest Haunts	Himself, Paranormal Investigator/Audio Expert	BBC Series 1, 6 episodes
2009	Mistero	Himself, Psychic Investigator/Audio Expert	Season 2 Ep. 3
2010	Northern Ireland's Greatest Haunts	Himself, Paranormal Investigator/Audio Expert	BBC Series 2, 4 episodes
2011	Mistero	Himself, Psychic Investigator/Audio Expert	Season 4 Ep. 8