Mark Alexander Herz was born September 24 1976 in the city of Orange California and was raised in Los Angeles. His father was a professional soccer player from Germany, and his mother a hairstylist from Poland.

Mark learned both foreign languages quite fluently from years of schooling and frequent summer European travels . He was constantly filming family events and travels with the camcorder as a child. He lived for two years in southern Germany where he played soccer trying to follow in his father's footsteps.