Mark Staufer

Finally, Staufer was sent to Mt. Roskill Grammar School in Auckland, where he met future actor, Russell Crowe. Crowe took the newcomer under his wing and the two became fast and close friends. At MRGS they formed a band together along with a classmate, Dave Franklin, called '’Dave Decent & the Interrogatives'’ (later changed to Dave Deceit & the Interrogatives), with Staufer playing bass, Crowe singing and playing guitar and the eponymous Franklin on the drums. Staufer and Crowe also became editors of the school paper, The Phoenix, and took the opportunity to write favourable reviews of their band's performances. The two forged a friendship and a professional relationship that would last throughout their adult lives.

In 2014, he briefly re-teamed up with Mark Kennedy to host a breakfast show on The Sound, however this show was dropped after five weeks due to their style not fitting The Sound's format.

The story is narrated by the protagonist, Henry Amadeus Meat, a wayward print journalist from Auckland who stumbles into a mystery when he is assigned to report on the controversial and highly publicised deaths of human research subjects at a dream research clinic in Los Angeles. When he begins to learn about the development of a covert dream technology involving voyages to the afterlife, Meat is propelled into a chain of events where green eyed vixens and anonymous phone calls lead him deeper into the heart of a secret he labels "The Grand Deception." While writing The Numinous Place, Staufer also developed and wrote a screenplay with Crowe about US comedian Bill Hicks who died of pancreatic cancer at age 32. Staufer travelled the US, speaking to the late comedians' family and friends to research the script. The biopic, Love, Laughter & Truth, will begin production in 2013 with Crowe making his directorial debut.

In 2003, Staufer and his wife moved to the Greek island of Ithaca, "hoping some of Homer's magic would rub off" on his first screenplay. A few months later, the couple travelled to Los Angeles with the finished script, which was roundly rejected and criticised. Staufer says he threw the script away and devoted himself to learning craft of screenwriting properly. While honing his skills, he worked on a motorcycle horror movie with Eli Roth (Hostel) and an adaptation of the John Fowles' classic The Magus with producer Mark Gordon (Saving Private Ryan) and a number of projects with Russell Crowe, including Dolce's Inferno, a spec script by Staufer.

In 2002 Staufer began gathering evidence and researching for the book, The Numinous Place. The Numinous Place has been described as a supernatural thriller, and a cosmic detective story, written on a transmedia storytelling platform, including video and audio clips, graphic novel sections, and other visual and audio elements.

After two years on the air, Staufer sought to expand his horizons by moving to Sydney, Australia in 1995 where he began working as a director/producer at the Foxtel network and as a presenter on a controversial show called Sex/Life on Channel 10. There he met and worked with producer/director Sarah Backhouse whom he married in 1996. In 1998, the couple decided to move to the UK.

Mark Staufer (born 3 November 1963) is a New Zealand native. He is the author and curator of The Numinous Place and a screenwriter, most notably of Love, Laughter and Truth, a biopic about US comedian Bill Hicks, which he developed with Oscar Award-winning actor, Russell Crowe.