Mark Hildreth
Mark Hildreth is an actor, born 1978.
Five Barbie films, five different princes. Between 2002 and 2009 Mark Hildreth voiced Stefan in Barbie as Rapunzel, Prince Daniel in Barbie of Swan Lake, King Dominick in Barbie as The Princess & the Pauper, Aidan in Barbie and the Magic of Pegasus and Prince Louis in Barbie and the Three Musketeers. That is either a punchline or a career, and in the Vancouver animation industry it is emphatically a career.
He trained at the National Theatre School of Canada, and his stage credits include Hamlet, Bertram in All's Well That Ends Well and Richard of Gloucester in Richard III. The classical grounding is not wasted on the voice work: the princes and the villains alike are delivered with an unironic commitment that cheaper performers would not bother with, which is a large part of why those films still hold up for the children watching them.
The screen career runs on the same track. He was Joshua in the remake of V, a part that requires him to be sincere and suspect in every scene at once, and Pastor Tom Hale in the ABC drama Resurrection. Elsewhere: the Red King in Planet Hulk, Chert in The Dragon Prince, Arrakore in LEGO Ninjago: Dragons Rising, Scowl in Transformers: Robots in Disguise, Jasper in Legend of Earthsea, Agent Dolan in American Pastoral, and the title role in Action Man. Very little of this is prestige work and almost all of it is competent, which is the actual job description for most working actors.
Movies (13)
- Barbie as The Princess & the Pauper (2004)
- Barbie of Swan Lake (2003)
- Barbie as Rapunzel (2002)
- Barbie and the Three Musketeers (2009)
- Barbie and the Magic of Pegasus (2005)
- Planet Hulk (2010)
- American Pastoral (2016)
- Escaping the Madhouse: The Nellie Bly Story (2019)
- They (2002)
- End of the World (2013)
- My Scene Goes Hollywood: The Movie (2005)
- After the Promise (1987)
- No Night Is Too Long (2002)
TV (21)
- LEGO Ninjago: Dragons Rising (2023)
- The Dragon Prince (2018)
- V (2009)
- Resurrection (2014)
- Transformers: Robots In Disguise (2015)
- Being Erica (2009)
- The Odyssey (1992)
- Night Visions (2001)
- Gadget & the Gadgetinis (2002)
- Class of the Titans (2006)
- UC: Undercover (2001)
- The New Adventures of He-Man (1990)
- Action Man (1995)
- Legend of Earthsea (2004)
- Stargate Infinity (2002)
- Hope Island (1999)
- King Arthur & the Knights of Justice (1992)
- Level 9 (2000)
- The Hollow (2018)
- Sabrina's Secret Life (2003)
- Action Man (2000)
Where to start with Mark Hildreth
V is the best live-action showcase, a science fiction series that never quite lived up to its premise but handed Hildreth the most interesting part in it. Joshua's loyalties are the show's engine, and the performance has to stay ambiguous without going blank.
For the voice work, The Dragon Prince is the highest-quality animation available here and the easiest recommendation. Planet Hulk is the pulpiest, a straight-faced adaptation of a very good comic run.
Then there are the Barbie films, which are not a joke. Barbie of Swan Lake is the best-made of them and Barbie as Rapunzel is the one most people remember, and both are considerably more carefully constructed than their reputation suggests. If you grew up with them, the voices are a large part of the reason.
Resurrection is the grown-up drama, and American Pastoral is the prestige credit, though the film itself is a misfire.