FORA.tv Speaker - Mark Ruffalo

Mark Ruffalo is one of Hollywood’s most sought-after actors, easily moving between stage and screen and working with the industry’s top directors. Mr. Ruffalo has earned nominations for an Academy Award, Screen Actors Guild Award, BAFTA Award and Independent Spirit Award for his performance as Paul in “The Kids Are All Right.”

He also received the Best Supporting Actor award from the New York Film Critics Circle. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2010 and opened to rave reviews in July. Mr. Ruffalo’s directorial debut, “Sympathy for Delicious,” also premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2010 and went on to win the Special Jury Prize for dramatic film. The independent film stars Orlando Bloom, Laura Linney, Juliette Lewis and Mr. Ruffalo in a story about a Los Angeles DJ who finds that he has the power to heal.

Mr. Ruffalo recently signed on to play Bruce Banner, (The Incredible Hulk), in Marvel Enterprises’s “The Avengers,” scheduled for release in 2012. In 2010, he was seen starring in “Shutter Island,” and in 2009, he starred in “The Brothers Bloom” and made an appearance in the big-screen adaptation of “Where the Wild Things Are.”

In 2007, Mr. Ruffalo appeared in the Phoenix Pictures film “Zodiac” as the infamous Detective Dave Toschi, who devoted his career to tracking down the Zodiac killer.

In 2006, he made his Tony Award-nominated Broadway debut in the Lincoln Center Theater’s revival of Clifford Odets’s “Awake and Sing!” In 2004, starred in “13 going on 30” and appeared in “Collateral,” “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” and “We Don’t Live Here Anymore.”

In 2003, he was seen opposite Meg Ryan in Jane Campion’s film “In The Cut” and earned critical recognition in 2000 for his role “You Can Count on Me.”

His other credits include “Blindness,” “Just Like Heaven,” “Reservation Road,” “All the King’s Men,” “What Doesn’t Kill You,” “My Life Without Me,” “The Last Castle,” “Windtalkers,” “XX/XY,” “Committed,” “Ride With the Devil,” “Studio 54,” “Safe Men,” “The Last Big Thing,” “Fish in the Bathtub” and “Life/Drawing.”

Mr. Ruffalo’s acting roots lie in the theater, where he first gained attention starring in the off- Broadway production of -“This is Our Youth,” for which he won a Lucille Award for Best Actor.

 He has won several awards for other performances, including a Dramalogue Award and the Theater World Award. In 2000, Mr. Ruffalo was seen in the Off- Broadway production “The Moment When,” a play by Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winner James Lapine.

Having trained with Joanne Linville at the distinguished Stella Adler Conservatory, Mr. Ruffalo made his theater debut in “Avenue A” at The Cast Theater. A writer, director and producer, Mr. Ruffalo co-wrote the screenplay for the independent film "The Destiny of Marty Fine," which was the first runner-up in the 1995 Slamdance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.

Additionally, he has directed several plays and one-acts. In 2000, he directed Timothy McNeil’s original play “Margaret” at the Hudson Backstage Theatre in Los Angeles.