Mark Ryder in "Borgia"

Mark Ryder (born 1989) is an actor from Northern Ireland and was educated at Methodist College Belfast.

He is most noted for his television role as Cesare Borgia in the historical drama series Borgia.

Borgia(also known as Borgia: Faith and Fear) is a French-German-Italian-Czech historical drama television series created by Tom Fontana. The show recounts the Borgia family's rise to power and subsequent domination of the Papal States during the Renaissance.

Borgia debuted in Italy via Sky Italia on 10 July 2011, and in North America via Netflix on 2 October 2011(season 2 released on 1 May 2013). It was since renewed for a second season, which premiered on Canal+ on March 18, 2013 Season 3 is currently in Pre-Production, and will be the end of the series.

 Plot

It was the age of Leonardo, Michelangelo and Machiavelli; an age of enlightened creativity and prolific intellectual achievement. But it was also the age of rampant lawlessness, incessant war and unspeakable depravity. At the heart of the world order was the Vatican, the arbiter of conflicts between kingdoms and empires. And at the center of the Vatican was a man whose quest for power would propel him to seek the ultimate prize, the Holy See of Rome. He was a man whose name would become synonymous with ruthlessness, and whose reign as pope would be remembered as the most infamous chapter of the history of the Catholic church – Rodrigo Borgia.

His four children – Juan, a prideful, lazy, unscrupulous sexual predator; Cesare, a young man torn between a faith that was not his calling and his dark violent nature; Lucrezia, a young girl discovering the secret power that a woman's sexuality holds; and Goffredo, an innocent child who would come of age in a family riven by conflict – would provide Rodrigo with a challenge as great as the political maneuvering of his political and religious rivals.

The series chronicles the rise to power of this Spanish Cardinal and his clan, who would seek to establish a dynasty that would hold sway over the entire world. Though a man of faith, Rodrigo was also in thrall to the pleasures of the flesh. Not only did he have to deal with the plotting and conspiracies of his fellow cardinals

and the representatives of the great powers, but he was locked in a struggle to contain the bitter sibling rivalries that threatened to tear his family apart. The series shows the lives of the Borgia as a cauldron of intrigue, violence, murder, lust, politics, faith, incest, betrayal, and redemption. The series depicts medieval forms of execution, including the wheel and the saw.