Mark Dawidziak has been a theater, film and television critic for more than thirty-five years. He has been the TV critic at the Cleveland Plain Dealer since July of 1999. His many books include the horror novel Grave Secrets, The Bedside, Bathtub & Armchair Companion to Dracula, the literary biography Jim Tully: American Writer, Irish Rover, Hollywood Brawler (with Paul J. Bauer) and two acclaimed histories of landmark TV series: The Columbo Phile: A Casebook and The Night Stalker Companion. A member of the editorial board of Rod Serling Books, he penned the foreword to the 2015 reissue of Rod Serling's first book, Patterns. He has edited three collections of works by Twilight Zone contributor Richard Matheson. His many books on Mark Twain include Mark My Words: Mark Twain On Writing, Horton Foote's The Shape of the River: The Lost Teleplay About Mark Twain, Mark Twain's Guide to Diet, Exercise, Beauty, Fashion, Investment, Romance, Health and Happiness, Mark Twain in Ohio, and Mark Twain for Cat Lovers. A recognized Mark Twain scholar, he has been playing the great American writer on stage for more than thirty-five years.

Dawidziak and his wife, actress Sara Showman, founded the Largely Literary Theater Company in 2002 to promote literacy, literature, and live theater. Their repertoire includes: Twain By Two; The Tell-Tale Play, a two-act collection of poems and stories by Edgar Allan Poe; and Shades of Blue and Gray: Ghosts of the Civil War. A journalism graduate of George Washington University and an adjunct professor at Kent State University, he was born in Huntington, New York. He lives in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, with his wife and their daughter, Rebecca "Becky" Claire.