Mark Wahlberg is an American actor, rapper and producer of film and television. Mark Wahlberg was known in his earlier years as Marky Mark and became famous in his 1991 debut as a rap musician with the band Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch. Mark Wahlberg has appeared in numerous films, including Boogie Nights and The Departed for which he was nominated an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.

Wahlberg is the youngest of nine children, with siblings Arthur, Jim, Paul, Robert, Tracey, Michelle, Debbie and Donnie. He is of Swedish, Irish, and French Canadian ancestry. His mother, Alma Elaine, was a bank clerk and nurse`s aide, and his father, Donald Edward, was a Teamster who worked as a delivery driver.

His parents divorced in 1982. Wahlberg attended Copley Square High School, but never graduated. As a teenager, Wahlberg stole cars, abused drugs and alcohol, and got into fights.