Topic: Mark Burnett

Mark Burnett (born 17 July 1960) is a British television producer, based in the USA. He currently is the producer of five network television series with seven hours of network programming including: The Voice, Survivor, The Apprentice (U.S. TV series), Shark Tank, and Expedition Impossible. He also also produced Oprah's All-Stars and Martha (TV series). His show Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? has recently been syndicated. Mark Burnett has also produced the MTV Movie Awards since 2007 and People's Choice Awards since 2010. In 2011 Mark Burnett will produce the 63rd annual primetime Emmy Awards.

Mark Burnett was born on July 17, 1960 in the east end of London, England, the only child of two Ford Motors factory workers. He was raised in Dagenham, Essex. At the age of seventeen, he enlisted in the British Army, and became a Section Commander in the Parachute Regiment. From 1978-1982 he served with the Parachute Regiment in Northern Ireland and the Falklands War, where many of his fellow soldiers died in the advance on Port Stanley.

In October 1982, Burnett decided to leave Britain for the United States where he met up with a friend, Nick Hill, who had also immigrated from Britain a few years earlier and was working as a nanny and chauffeur. Hill knew of an open position for a live-in nanny position with the Jaeger family in Beverly Hills, the interview for which was that night. Though he had no experience in that field, Burnett took the opportunity, and because of his military background, the Jaegers, realizing the advantage of having a nanny and security at the same time, hired him. After a year of working for the Jaegers, he moved on to another family in Malibu, taking care of two boys for $250 a week. He was eventually given a position in the insurance office owned by Burt, the father of the two boys.