Marcus Heath was born in the US and in the Wolsey Theatre, Ipswich programme he describes himself as "a furious scribbler on the Negro experience and his musical Bakerloo to Paradise broke box office records during it's [sic] run at The Connaught Theatre, Worthing." He also says he "owes much of his professional advance to the generous influences of American novelist, the late, great Richard Wright, his mentor and life-long family friend who shepherded his training in Paris and directed his path to Allan Schneider, The Living Theatre of New York, and his first West End appearance in Connection at the Duke of York's Theatre, London." For the early part of his career, he was credited as Mark Heath.