Somewhat of an autodidact, mparker17 taught himself BASIC-A programming at age 13 and C++ at age 14. Although he started with HTML when he was 15, he didn't get a chance to publish a real website until three years later, when he made a website for Brady's Meat and Deli, a small butcher shop that he still works for on his days off.

His programming experience includes writing internal web applications with Java and JSP, ECMAScript (more commonly known as JavaScript), HTML, CSS, ColdFusion and Oracle-SQL for Environment Canada, writing Delphi/Pascal for Versabanq Innovations, writing UNIX-BASH scripts to make his workflow more efficient, and a little bit of C#. mparker17 started working as a contractor at PeaceWorks Technology Solutions in April 2009 before becoming a full-time employee in July 2009. In June 2012, he started working at Myplanet Digital as a Drupal Developer, and started working with OpenConcept Consulting in October 2013. In February 2015, he started co-ordinating the bi-weekly Drupal Core Updates blog post, and became an Acquia Certified Developer. In September 2015, he joined Digital Echidna; and in February 2020, he joined Consensus Enterprises.

In his spare time, mparker17 likes to teach himself new programming languages, read and help other people learn to use computers. He's also an active member of Drupal.org, and a personal member of the Drupal Association.