Monte Markham, a renowned actor, director, and filmmaker, has had a distinguished career spanning multiple mediums, including feature films, television, and Broadway. In 1992, he co-founded Perpetual Motion Films with his son Jason Markham and wife Klaire Markham, marking the beginning of a new chapter in his professional journey.
With his innovative style and high production quality, Monte and his team quickly gained recognition, producing 26 hours of programming for US News and the A&E Network. As the company grew, they expanded their scope, creating multi-hour documentaries and series programming, filming on locations around the world.
Monte has produced, directed, narrated, and appeared as an on-camera host for over 150 hours of documentary films for network television. One of his most notable achievements was launching The History Channel with the 35-hour series, The Great Ships, and 10 premiere "Epic" Biographies that inaugurated A&E's landmark Biography series. His biography on Michelangelo remains one of the best-selling titles on Amazon, with over 2,000 biographies available.
Throughout his career, Monte has traveled to every corner of the globe, filming on various commercial and military machines, from carrier landings and launches to ground zero at the World Trade Center, and even the most intimate levels of culture, peoples, and governments in China, Japan, the UK, Europe, Russia, Brazil, India, Africa, and the US.
Monte was the first Westerner to use an all-Chinese crew for his 2,000-mile journey up the Yangtze River for China's Great Dam, capturing the Dam's construction, the Great Wall, Tiananmen Square, and the Forbidden City. He also achieved unprecedented access to historical, sacred, and controversial locations while filming for The Imperial Japanese Navy, and was invited to film on board the 75-ship Grand Review with Premier Koizumi.
For The Russian Navy, Monte was the first American to film the Russian Typhoon Class Submarine, the world's largest, at its secret base in the Arctic Circle. He also produced and directed the 4-hour Royal Navy with Prince Andrew as host and Prince Phillip at Greenwich, filming on locations at Windsor, Portsmouth, and throughout the UK.
After years of non-stop world-wide production, Monte decided to wind down his aggressive production schedule in 2009 and resume his acting career, finding a whole new world of opportunity.
