User:Mark James Van Woert

Markus James was born Mark James Van Woert early 1971 in Owosso, Michigan. Later his family moved to the upper portion of the lower peninsula to a small town named Alpena.

Sometime in 1998 while serving in the military the world got its first taste of Markus with the inception and extreme popularity of his horror/sci-fi film news and gossip website entitled HorrorManiacs.com.

During its four year run the site was noticed and given honors by such organizations as Paramount Pictures, Troma Entertainment, and Newline Cinema. It was one of the first independent run websites to be offered the opportunity by Hollywood production companies to promote their main stream horror films with licensed swag like movie posters, DVDs and VHS tapes.

At the peak of its popularity the site received a minimum of 8,500 unique visits daily, and employed four freelance writer/film reviewers. The website was up on the latest news, gossip and housed thousands of film reviews which help pave the way for Markus as a legitimate Film Critic... aka "The b-Critic.

The website's popularity also gave Markus the opportunity to conducted numerous personal interviews with such stars as Debbie Rochon, Robert Z'Dar, and Bruce Campbell, and not to mention many popular Indie and mainstream film directors.

In late 2000 Markus was hired by the then Cracked Magazine owner and publisher Dick Kulpa as Cracked's official webmaster. From there Markus moved up the corporate ladder to Promotions Editor, then to Contributing Editor, while during the same time moonlighting as a contributing writer. In early 2005 Cracked Magazine was sold and the old regime retired.

Markus also teamed with Kulpa on many other popular projects. Like being a freelance writer (under an alias) and a contributing webmaster for the ever popular tabloid - Weekly World News. Which during the same time Kulpa held the reigns as senior editor and creative consultant.

Later Markus went on to design, host and maintain several other popular websites that include official movie sites like Nowhere Man, The Fullmoon Fan Club and Death Defying Acts. Plus a few official celebrity websites like DebbieRochon.com, a site for artist and publisher Dick Kulpa, and in late 2005 for actress Felissa Rose. Which led Markus to be labeled with a new tagline - "Webmaster to the Stars!"

In mid 2006 Markus kicked off his acting career with two new films, Voices from the Graves (Starring Robert Z'Dar, Fred 'The Hammer' Williamson, and Joe Estevez) and Debbie Rochon Confidential (from Troma.)

Currently Markus involved in writing numerous scripts, for TV and films. Which include a few show episodes that will premiere late 2009 on NBC, and the SciFi Channel.

In addition to this, Markus was hired by his close friend actor Sonny Shroyer (Enos Strate from the Dukes of Hazzard TV series) as his agent in March 2008.