Mark Kurzem grew up in Melbourne, Australia. He read Anthropology at the University of Oxford, where he was a Commonwealth Scholar, and also studied at Melbourne, Jochi and Tokyo universities where he was a Monbusho Research Scholar. He has worked in the fields of political research, international relations, teaching and film-making in Japan, Australia and the U.K. In 2002 he co-produced and wrote a documentary about his fathers life, also titled The Mascot, which was the subject of international attention. He lives in Oxford.