Mark Leon Cowden

Mark Leon Cowden (born March 10, 1975) is an American film maker, television paranormal investigator, author and former musician. He began a professional career in music in his late teens before moving to the United Kingdom in his mid 20's to begin working in film and television.

Early life
Originally from Muskogee, Oklahoma, Cowden had an interest in music from early childhood. He attended many different public schools across the United States before his family returned to Oklahoma where he graduated from Fort Gibson High School in 1993.

Music career
Immediately after graduating high school, Cowden began performing and touring in the role of lead vocals with various bands across the Southwestern United States before moving to Seattle, Washington at the tail end of the grunge era. The end of the 90's brought what many recording artists in the Northwestern United States believed to be, the official end of the Seattle Grunge Movement. With the turn of the new millennium, Mark relocated to the United Kingdom where he fronted electronic industrial band "Fragile Human Organs" (FHO) who achieved cult status with their vast internet following. Releasing all of their recordings independently without the backing of any record company proved to be a success with the new internet download revolution resulting in their song "Lapis Lazuli" becoming a top 100 download in Australia. MP3.com (Australia) released five tracks from "Fragile Human Organs", all of which received various awards from the site as a result of the number of downloads the songs achieved. Users of the site compared the band to such heavy weights as "Tool" and "Nine Inch Nails" while Cowden received the award of "Best Male Vocals" four times.

Film and television
In 2006, following his departure from "Fragile Human Organs", Mark was offered a directorial role for an episode of BBC Blast. In this role, a young rock band would get the opportunity to produce a music video from start to finish with Cowden, who would also direct the bands video, as their mentor. Cowden would have five days to take the band through the whole video making process from pre-production through to the final edit with a film crew of children who would also have to be trained for their individual roles during this time. The video was planned and shot at the famous Armagh Prison in Northern Ireland while the whole process was filmed and documented by a BBC camera crew.

Cowden began production work in 2007 on the horror film "Freakdog", directed by Paddy Breathnach (Shrooms). Mark filmed and edited the "making-of" featurette which was released worldwide by Starz Entertainment, as part of the DVD package. Included in the featurette was documentary footage including interviews with Arielle Kebbel, Sarah Carter and other cast members. Following the release of "Freakdog", Cowden filmed and directed the making-of featurettes for Cherrybomb starring Rupert Grint and Robert Sheehan and "Ghost Machine" starring Sean Faris (Never Back Down), Rachael Taylor (Transformers) and Luke Ford (The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor). Both featurettes, included in the DVD package, were also released worldwide.

Cowden appeared as a regular cast member of the BBC production, "Northern Ireland's Greatest Haunts". In his role as audio/visual specialists, Cowden monitored apparent "haunted" locations with closed-circuit television camera's and audio recording equipment resulting in the documentation of, what some consider to be, among the best examples of paranormal phenomena ever to be recorded on television. Northern Ireland's Greatest Haunts ran for two seasons on the BBC and aired across the United Kingdom and Ireland. Mark L. Cowden also appeared in two episodes of the Italian paranormal television show, 'Mistero' which is hosted by Italian rock musician, Enrico Ruggeri. 'Mistero' airs nationwide in Italy on Italia 1.

Spirit Voices
In June 2011, Mark L. Cowden released his first book entitled "Spirit Voices; The First Live Conversation Between Worlds". Published and released worldwide by Anomalist Books, Spirit Voices documents Cowden's work in the field of paranormal research along with offering the reader an insight into Cowden's own personal journey of self enlightenment. Covering topics such as "A Moral Dilemma" which talks about the religious taboo of delving into paranormal research through to the general stereotypes of the textbook paranormal investigation team, ending with an account of what many people believe, is the first ever documented case of a live conversation between a living person and a non living person, recorded with television cameras rolling. Throughout the book, Cowden gives hints into his own psychic intuition and how he has managed to not only develop, but combine this ability with the advances of modern technology in order to bridge the gap between this life and the next. "Spirit Voices; The First Live Conversation Between Worlds" has received positive reviews from many key figures in journalism, broadcasting and anomalist research. In a recent article written by best selling author Nick Redfern, he writes, "Spirit Voices shows the sheer extent to which people can find themselves propelled to new levels of thought, understanding and appreciation of the mysteries of this world and beyond when they address the controversial question that each and every one of us want answering: What happens to us when we die?" Micah A. Hanks, author of the book "Magic, Mysticism and the Molecule", states in his review of Spirit Voices, that the book may very well be one of the more important books available in regards to its subject matter.