Mark Lesly

Background

Mark Lesly grew up in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York, where he discovered two important passions of his life, Taekwondo and acting.

Education

Instead, he apprenticed with The Bond Street Theatre Coalition, then formed his own street theater company, Questers & Jesters, with J. David Brimmer and Beverly Branum, performed Shakespeare (Kings County Shakespeare Company, Actors Classical Troupe), wrote, produced and acted in his own plays (Clockworks Theatre) and paid his bills by becoming a Taekwondo teacher.

Career

He later served on the Bernie Goetz jury and wrote a book about it called Subway Gunman. While studying acting at New York University, an open-casting call looking for short, fair-haired, physically fit young men in their late teens or early 20s aired on WNEW radio. He was immediately cast as a Ducky Boy and was the focus of the most memorable of the gang"s scenes.

Not willing to leave college, he missed out on possible opportunities that might have been offered him by the movie"s cinematographer, Michael Chapman, who was impressed with his brief but precise scenes.

Mark has returned as the New York University Head Coach for the 2013-2014 season in order to transition the Team to its new coaching staff from West Side Taekwondo. At different times he has served as the Northeast Regional Director for the National Collegiate Taekwondo Association, as Vice President of the National Association of State Taekwondo Organizations and as Vice President of the New Jersey State Taekwondo Association.

He is currently a 7th Degree Black Belt, certified by the World Taekwondo Headquarters (Kukkiwon) in South of Korea. He has trained over one hundred students to the rank of Black Belt and beyond, including Master Albert Lee (5th Degree), who coached the New York University Team for the past 8 years and continues to run Mark"s old Taekwondo school in New York City, the New York Jidokwan Center.

After serving on the Bernie Goetz jury, his acting skills made him a natural for talks shows, most notably Larry King and Philosophy Donahue"son

He also wrote a book based on his experience as a juror and explains how the jury came to its decision. Goetz cites Lesly"s book on Goetz" eccentric website, as the source of accurate information about the incident. Lesly formerly taught 7th & 8th Grade language arts at Queen City Academy Charter School in Plainfield, New Jersey and 6th Grade at the John L. Costley Middle School in East Orange.

He is certified both as a K-12 Language Arts and K-12 Theater Teacher in New Jersey.

Achievements

• A student of the legendary Grand Master Dong Keun Park (undefeated Korean Champion and Head Coach of the United States of America Olympic Taekwondo Team at the Barcelona Olympics in 1992), he founded and coached New York University"s Taekwondo team, which he managed for over two decades. Mark was the United States of America Taekwondo Forms Champion for 4th Degree Black Belts and higher in 1996 after winning the Silver Medal in 1995.

Membership

He was a Member of the Board of the East Coast Taekwondo Conference (formerly known as the Ivy/Northeast Collegiate Taekwondo League) from its founding in 1991 until he retired from the position in 2004.