Mark Lesly

Mark Lesly grew up in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York, where he discovered two important passions, Taekwondo and acting. While studying acting at New York University, an open-casting call looking for short, fair-haired, physically fit young men in their late teens or early 20s aired on WNEW radio, he was immediately cast as a Ducky Boy. Not willing to leave college, he missed out on possible opportunities that might have been offered him by the movie's cinematographer, Michael Chapman, who was impressed with him. Instead, he apprenticed with The Bond Street Theatre Coalition, then formed his own street theater company, Questers & Jesters, with J. David Brimmer and Beverly Branum, performed Shakespeare, wrote, produced and acted in his own plays and paid his bills by becoming a Taekwondo teacher. A student of the legendary Grand Master Dong Keun Park, he founded the NYU Sport Taekwondo Club, which he has coached and managed for three decades. Mark was the USA Taekwondo Forms Champion for 4th Degree Black Belts and higher in 1996 after winning the Silver Medal in 1995, at different times he has served as the Northeast Regional Director for the National Collegiate Taekwondo Association, as Vice President of the National Association of State Taekwondo Organizations and as Vice President of the NJ State Taekwondo Association. He was a Member of the Board of the East Coast Taekwondo Conference from its founding in 1991 until he retired from the position in 2004, he is an 8th Degree Black Belt, certified by the World Taekwondo Headquarters in South Korea, and recently received his 9th Dan from the Jidokwan, one of the original Kwans of Taekwondo. He has trained over one hundred students to the rank of Black Belt and beyond, including Master Albert Lee (6th Degree), who coached the NYU Team for 8 years and continues to run Mark's old Taekwondo school in New York City, the NY Jidokwan Center, and Master Andre Chi (5th Degree). After serving on the Bernie Goetz jury, his acting skills made him a natural for talks shows, most notably Larry King and Phil Donahue's. He also wrote a book based on his experience as a juror and explains how the jury came to its decision. Goetz cites Lesly's book on Goetz' eccentric website, as the source of accurate information about the incident. Lesly formerly taught 7th & 8th Grade language arts at Queen City Academy Charter School in Plainfield, 6th Grade at the John L. Costley Middle School in East Orange, 11th & 12th Grade at The Great Falls Academy HS in Paterson, and is now teaching 6th & 8th Grade at Yeshiva Ktana in Passaic. He is certified both as a K-12 Language Arts and K-12 Theater Teacher in New Jersey.