Marcus Cohlan grew up in Chappaqua NY, a suburb of New York City. His parents divorced when he was six, but always maintained a close relationship with each other and encouraged his artistic pursuits

When Marcus was 7 years old, his mom took him to see Home Alone, and after seeing the movie, Marcus knew he wanted to become an actor. He took to the stage eagerly by participating in acting workshops and performing in summer camp productions. He scored entrance to his high school’s selective drama program, Theater Repertory and there, Marcus both acted in school productions, and directed and produced short plays, including Nina Beeber’s one act Misreadings and the first act of Tracy Lett’s dark thriller, Killer Joe.

Marcus went on to attend Northwestern University in Evanston, IL where he studied filmmaking. At Northwestern, Marcus hit a home run when he unleashed his documentary short, Rushed. The film exposed the inner workings of the sorority recruitment process and the gender politics of the Greek system. The film is clearly controversial and Marcus often gets Facebook messages from girls attending southern schools sometimes praising, often lambasting the film. Rushed has won several awards including Best Adult Documentary from the New Castle Community Television Film Festival and an Honorable Mention from the Northwestern Student Film Festival. The film recently sold to Current TV, a cable network based out of San Francisco.

Marcus also directed and produced two narrative short films, a meta-campy thriller Fast As You Can, which is currently on the festival circuit. The film won the Festival Director award at its World Premiere at the Trail Dance Film Festival in Duncan, Oklahoma. Fast As You Can recently aired on PBS on February 9th, 2008 throughout the New York Metropolitan region after winning WNET Channel 13’s Reel Shorts Contest as part of the Independent Lens Series. His other short is a drama called 684 Brewster, which was shot on Super 16mm and is due to be completed in early 2008.

Marcus currently lives in Los Angeles where he is pursuing a career as a filmmaker and an actor. He broke out in his Los Angeles stage debut in Larry Shue’s play, The Nerd, as the character of Axel Hammond.  In his free time, Marcus enjoys bartending for friends, Curb Your Enthusiasm, travel, the New York Times, Indian food, and following the trajectory of Zach Braff’s career, which he greatly admires.