Mark Howett is a proud Noongar man.

Mark Howett, originally from Busselton, Western Australia is proud to live on Noongar Boodjar.

He went on work experience as a 15-year-old in 1979 to the National Theatre, Perth, with dreams of becoming an Actor. After two weeks, he joined the theatre family working as a Lighting Technician. He was later awarded a scholarship by the Department of Culture and the Arts to study Theatre Design, specialising in Lighting Design under the tutelage of Jennifer Tipton at the School of Drama, Yale University.

On his return he joined Opera Australia as a Lighting Realiser, recreating award-winning international lighting designs. This is where Mark met the legendary director Jim Sharman who gave him his major break as the lighting designer on The Rake’s Progress for Opera Australia in 1993.

Mark is an award-winning creative, who has worked not only as a Lighting Designer but also as a Video and Set Designer for international productions in theatre, film, dance and opera.

In 2016 he was appointed as Artistic Director of Ochre Contemporary Dance Company, Perth.

Mark has worked with leading names of international theatre including Directors Rufus Norris, Neil Armfield, Stephen Page, Francesca Zambello, Gale Edwards, Cate Blanchett and Arlene Phillips.

In 2004, Mark became a founding member of Splintergroup which evolved into The Farm. Between the Gold Coast in Australia and Berlin Germany, The Farm is a collective of like-minded dance and theatre art practitioners. Their dance-theatre works have toured internationally from Italy to Australia.

Mark regularly works with Western Australian performing arts companies The Black Swan State Theatre Company and Co:3 Australia as a Lighting Designer. Mark lit the Helpmann-nominated, 2017 Perth Festival season of Boorna Waanginy (Trees Speak) and the 2019 Sydney Festival run of Spinifex Gum. Mark was the Assistant Director, Set, and Lighting Designer for Natives Go Wild (2019) - a vibrant physical theatre work about the dark truths of P.T. Barnum's circus shows.

Mark was the Coordinator and Teacher of the lighting course at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA), and continues to teach at the National Institute of Dramatic Art and at Edith Cowan University. Mark is a Peer Assessor for the Australia Council for the Arts.