Mark Speight

Mark Warwick Fordham Speight was an English television presenter, best known as the host of childrens art programme SMart. Speight grew up in Tettenhall, Wolverhampton, and left school atto become a cartoonist. He took a degree in commercial and graphic art and, while working in television set construction, heard of auditions for a new childrens art programme. Speight was successful in his audition and became one of the first presenters of SMart, working on it foryears.

Speight was born in Seisdon, Staffordshire, and grew up in Tettenhall, Wolverhampton. Speight had two siblings, TinaLouise Richmond , and Jason Speight. His father, Oliver Warwick Speight, is a property developer, and his mother, Jacqueline Fordham Speight , was an art teacher. Jacqueline died onSeptember 2008, aged 62, from a stroke allegedly brought on by the stress of her sons death. Speight attended the independent school Tettenhall College for a year, before moving to state comprehensive Regis School, now known as Kings C.E. School, also in Tettenhall, at the age of 12. Speight stated in an interview he was a slow learner at school, with a short attention span, and art was a way for him to communicate. He said he did very badly because he was a victim of bullying, and the daily ordeal for two years forced him to become the class joker. Speight left agedand went on to attend Bilston Art School, where he took a degree in commercial and graphic art.

Source: Wikipedia