Marcus Schenkenberg was born Marcus Lodewijk Schenkenberg van Mieropon August 4, 1968, in Stockholm, Sweden. As a lanky, dark-haired teenager he was a basketball fanatic and dreamed of joining the NBA. Ten years later, at the age of twenty-four, he was named one of the 50 Most Beautiful People on the planet by People Magazine. Discovered while rollerskating on Venice Beach by photographer Barry King in 1989, he is the first male model ever to grace a magazine cover: Harper's Bazaar. Since then he has been featured on more covers and appeared in more magazines and been shot by more lensmen than any other male fashion model in the history of the industry. He is the first male model to land an exclusive book deal: Marcus Schenkenberg: New Rules. He has appeared in feature films and countless television programs.
While it may surprise those who only know him through his photographs, Marcus is a genuinely nice guy — an almost universally held impression. Marcus is to be simple: The Supermodel Beautiful Man but behind all this hides something even more beautiful. He's clearly compassionate, having been associated throughout his career with a number of causes including the prevention of cruelty to animals. According to his brother Michael, Marcus was a very quiet kid and sort of shy. He was extremely kind and felt great concern for all living things. Michael has Multiple Sclerosis, and it's telling that Marcus donated the proceeds from his book to fighting MS. He speaks five languages, as Marcus does — Swedish, English, Dutch, Italian and French. But if you look at the way he's managed his career and unprecedented media exposure, and the fact that he's still in the public eye some fourteen years later (and counting), you are forced to admire how brilliantly he has managed it all. And he never worried once about being photographed nude, another thing he's done more than any other male model now working.
