Mark Aaron Cantu (born October 4, 1978) was raised in San Antonio, Texas, United States by his parents, Arturo and Alicia Cantu. From a young age, Mark was both extremely outgoing and creative, and taught by his father about all things creative. Growing up on the South Side of San Antonio, which had a notorious reputation for gangs and crime, Mark was only interested in the arts. In 1986, entertainer Perry Como arrived in San Antonio to film an ABC-TV Christmas Special, which also featured Angie Dickinson and George Strait, among others. As the production filmed at Mission San Jose (the church where Mark attended as a child), he was asked to participate with many other children in the production. While filming a sequence at the Mission, Mark managed to get on camera for the first time to a national audience, albeit for a few seconds in the final broadcast. He is seen as the child breaking a pinata in slow motion, as it fades into another section of the program. Throughout school, Mark also performed in several plays and won acting award s during his final high school years. However, his first professional acting job was through the Institute of Mexican Culture in San Antonio, where he worked in 1996 with international playwright, Felipe Santander. Mark also became involved in a popular stage show called Big, Bad and Beautiful. The show ran from 1998-2003 at the world renowned Jump-Start Performance Company, and also toured Houston, Texas; Chicago, Illinois; and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. During this time, Mark was enrolled in the Fine Arts program at Texas State University-San Marcos. Known for their drama department's excellent development program, Mark auditioned but felt favoritism throughout the department during auditions. So he decided to strike out on his own and develop short films on his own. Turning to a short film medium, Mark wrote and directed almost all of his early work, including the horror-comedy Infested! (1998), The Library Policeman (1999), and the action sequel Bandit: Library Policeman 2. Returning to San Antonio after completing most of his course work in 2002, Cantu officially created Live Wire Films, Ltd. as an independent film company in San Antonio. Over the next few years, as Mark attempted to focus on his development of projects, he lost both parents to cancer: his father, Arturo, in 2003, and his mother, Alicia, in 2005. He admits this caused him to lose focus over the next couple of years, despite working on another project. Crazy Thing Called Love premiered at the Alamo Drafthouse in San Antonio in May 2006. The film, however, was not a completed work that Cantu was proud of or happy with. Taking some time off, he spent a week in London, England, to re-focus his goals, and upon returning he decided if he was going to be a director, he needed to take the business seriously. The Devil's Project was in the middle of post-production and re-shoots when he got the call from director Bryan Ortiz about his film project, which would become the thriller Echo. Cantu admittedly had been kicking the idea of a serial killer vs. mob hitman idea around for quite some time with co-story author Jennifer Ayala. But, never truly happy with their work on the story, he shelved it until Ortiz called him saying he had been given the chance to direct a zombie comedy, but also needed a double-bill film to debut next to it for his producer at the time. Cantu stated all he had was the idea for ECHO (which jokingly was only known as "Serial Assassin" at the time), and Ortiz said it was perfect. With help from friends and family, Cantu managed to shoot a proof-of-concept trailer for the producer in order to secure financial backing. The trailer went over well, and introduced Cantu to his future leading man, Jason Lee Boyson. After a few months of quick development, Echo was completed as a feature-length screenplay. Echo finally debut ed to a cinematic audience at the Alamo Drafthouse in San Antonio on August 2nd, 2008, but experienced major technical difficulties during its initial screening. Cantu is currently still residing in San Antonio and prepping Echo for a major run at film festivals, both independent and horror-based. He is developing several projects under the Live Wire Films banner, including the superhero comedy Now Hiring, and the horror-short Alone, to be directed by his brother, Michael Cantu.

Mark's middle name, Aaron, comes from his father's love of Elvis Aaron Presley.An admittedly huge Tony Scott fan, Cantu first became aware of Tony Scott by name after seeing the video for "Shakedown" from Beverly Hills Cop 2. Prior to that, Cantu had been a lover of his films without knowing who the director was.Admits he is not a fan of Stanley Kubrick.A huge fan of 1982's Flash Gordon film, he claims that if he could ever get to make a huge, Hollywood FX film, his number one choice would be Flash Gordon.His first memory of a film in theatres as a child was Return of the Jedi.As a child, with his brother Michael, they would ask their parents to leave them at the local cinema to watch films. Immediately after, his brother and he would start to critique the films while waiting for their ride.Has a fear of snakes, quicksand and losing limbs.Once played Robert "Bobby" DeNiro during a production of Waltzing De Niro.Once stated that performing as John Williamson in Glengarry Glen Ross, and as Felix Ungar in The Odd Couple, during two student productions were highlights of his acting career on stage.Made home movies with his brother Michael as director when they were children.Admits to never watching The Exorcist all the way through until he was 17.Has a birthmark on his left hand.Won his first screenplay award in 2001 for his crime-drama Straw Men.Also a talented artist, he storyboards almost every project that he has filmed.Served as storyboard artist and production designer for a short stint on the Austin-filmed independent sci-fi Dioskilos, in late 2001.