Mark Meer Profile “The Man Behind the Mask”
You probably know Mark from his voice. If you played any version of Mass Effect, you’ve heard him as Commander Shepard. “I should go” was never intended as a catchphrase but it became one anyway because he’s just that good. And you’ve heard his voice in dozens of other video games; you’ve seen him as a key player in D&D actual plays like The Black Dice Society, and maybe if you’re very lucky you’ve caught him on stage at a convention panel, or in one of the many improv shows or theatrical plays he loves. What you probably don’t know is that long before anyone thought of Commander Shepard, Mark was a ten-year-old kid growing up in a small town on the Canadian prairie, where his rural school had no drama class or art program, but that was okay, because Mark had a copy of Dungeons & Dragons.
How a Forever DM Is Made
Mark is a person who has spent most of his life inside stories, starting at about age twelve, when he first started DMing adventures for his friends. When acting and improv came later, he already knew how to craft a narrative for an audience, live and on the fly in real time. The voice acting career that would eventually make him one of the most recognizable performers in the field was built on a foundation that started with a Players Handbook and a set of dice.
Any Forever DM will recognize this situation. D&D has a way of making you into a Dungeon Master before you feel totally ready, sometimes out of sheer necessity (somebody has to run this adventure!), sometimes out of a deep love of crafting stories, and the people who discover that they are good at it never seem to leave the role behind.
In 2010 he created a live improv D&D show called Improvised Dungeons & Dragons at Rapid Fire Theatre in Edmonton, he played every NPC and monster the players encountered, improvising the whole thing. He later took that show to festivals in England, theatres in many states, and conventions like Dragon Con.
Ravenloft, The Black Dice Society, and the Things That Last
It’s no secret that Mark has a special affinity for Ravenloft, D&D’s signature horror setting. His Ravenloft campaigns at D&D in a Castle are legendary for their depth and scale: it’s a setting that intentionally puts capable, confident adventurers into situations where they are often at a severe disadvantage, and Mark makes full use of this in his stories. His Darklords are not merely puzzles to be solved, they are experiences to be survived: the Mists take you where they decide to, and his deep knowledge about the setting makes every journey there feel completely compelling.
Mark was a core cast member for the full run of The Black Dice Society, an official D&D actual play set in Ravenloft and helmed by his fellow DM B. Dave Walters. For 60 episodes he played Brother Uriah Macawber, bringing us along for a story about a good man trying to survive in a bad world. He made every choice that Brother Uriah had to face feel like it had real weight that he had to live with after every decision. He not only starred as Brother Uriah Macawber, but he also played NPC villain Azalin Rex and the archmage Firan Zal’honan - a true triple threat.
Theatrical D&D: Mark at the Castle
Mark describes his DMing style for D&D in a Castle as “a theatrical gaming experience where roleplaying is prominent.” It’s accurate, but it undersells the very specific thing he brings to all his tables: he makes every creature and character he portrays at the table feel real.
He does this through a combination of technical skill, training, experience, and a natural gift. Voice acting teaches that the difference between memorable and forgettable characters is not volume or accent, but rather finding the one thing that is true about a person and building outward from there.
At his D&D in a Castle table, players notice the effect quickly: every character, every creature Mark portrays seems to have a distinct inner life that makes them feel alive. Merchants have their own particular preoccupations, the innkeeper has a history you can sense and that she’ll explain if you ask, and the antagonist (when you finally reach them), has their own reasons for their decisions that may not be justifications, but they are coherent. That makes the big confrontation matter more because it feels genuine.
Agents of the Kargat
We’ve been honored to have Mark as a guest Dungeon Master at D&D in a Castle since 2019. His upcoming campaign at the Winter UK 2027 event is Agents of the Kargat, an espionage and intrigue adventure where the players take on the roles of secret servants of the Lich-King Azalin Rex. It’s exactly the kind of campaign you would design if you were a Ravenloft obsessive who’d spent years thinking about what that world looks like from the inside.
Mark has described D&D as the creative outlet that preceded everything else in his career. The voice acting, improv, convention appearances, award-winning comedy series, all of it came after he first held a d20 when he was ten years old and telling great stories for his friends in a small town.
He’s still doing this today…the town has just gotten much larger, and it includes a castle.
Mark Meer runs Agents of the Kargat at D&D in a Castle's Winter UK 2027 events at Walworth Castle, February 14–18 and 19–23, 2027. Mark also runs Aboard the Leatherback for a D&D Weekends this November 26-29, 2026 in Vancouver BC, Canada. Learn more about Mark and browse his upcoming events here.