Mark Sommerville
Mark Sommerville (March 5, 1991) is a content creator and entrepreneur based in Los Angeles, CA. Sommerville creates content and new business ventures, documenting the journey on social media. Previously, Sommerville was the creative director for filmmaker, illusionist, and Internet celebrity Zach King at his Los Angeles-based film studio - King Studio. He helped grow King’s brand and channels from 1 million followers to over 100 million worldwide.[1]
Early life and education
Sommerville was born and raised Wheaton, IL. He grew up in a musical family and learned guitar. Sommerville played guitar and sang in various groups from middle school through college. This led him into the creative arts and to his interest in music production skills such as recording, producing, and mixing.
Sommerville studied Business, Economics, and Music at Wheaton College in Wheaton, IL.
Career
During his time in college, Sommerville started his own music production company “The Wave Shop.” He mixed records for artists around the world such including Bebe Cool, James & FJ, and more. He produced records for artists such as Tyler Sjostrom (What We Say We Are, Bones Hold Me Up), Kevin Marble (What Are You Afraid Of?), and more. Sommerville also published music production tutorials on YouTube during this time.
Sommerville’s interest in music production soon led him into the field of sound design for film and online video. Through a mutual friend, Sommerville was connected to YouTuber Zach King in 2013. He started sound designing for King in 2013, their first collaboration together was The Cliche RC Action Chase. Sommerville would go on to sound designing for King for many of his successful YouTube videos and Vine videos.
After moving out to Los Angeles, Sommerville began collaboration more on the creative development and writing with King. As King’s popularity was taking off on the social media app Vine, Sommerville became one of the founding members of King’s team, writing creative for the videos, branded content, and often doing the sound design.
Sommerville eventually became creative director at King Studio, writing branded content for Fortune 500 companies such as Apple, Alphabet Inc. (Formerly Google), The Walt Disney Company, Amazon, and more. In addition to writing video content, Sommerville also co-authored 3 middle grade novels with King for HarperCollins, wrote keynote speeches, and co-created a filmmaking course for Apple stores worldwide. In his final year at King Studios, Sommerville wrote a TED Talk for TED 2021 in Monterey, CA.
Sommerville and King worked together for 9 years, building the brand and growing the channels from 1 million followers to over 100 million worldwide.
In January of 2021, Sommerville left King Studio to enter his “spaghetti season” - where he claims to be “tossing ideas at the wall until something sticks.” Sommerville has been posting daily videos on TikTok and Instagram while testing new entrepreneurial ventures online.[2]
Personal life
Sommerville moved to Los Angeles, CA in 2014. He married Jamie Sommerville in 2015.
