diff --git a/core/src/main/scala/spark/SparkContext.scala b/core/src/main/scala/spark/SparkContext.scala
index 538e057926..d7bd832e52 100644
--- a/core/src/main/scala/spark/SparkContext.scala
+++ b/core/src/main/scala/spark/SparkContext.scala
@@ -34,6 +34,8 @@ import org.apache.mesos.{Scheduler, MesosNativeLibrary}
 
 import spark.broadcast._
 
+import spark.deploy.LocalSparkCluster
+
 import spark.partial.ApproximateEvaluator
 import spark.partial.PartialResult
 
@@ -81,9 +83,11 @@ class SparkContext(
     val LOCAL_N_REGEX = """local\[([0-9]+)\]""".r
     // Regular expression for local[N, maxRetries], used in tests with failing tasks
     val LOCAL_N_FAILURES_REGEX = """local\[([0-9]+),([0-9]+)\]""".r
+    // Regular expression for simulating a Spark cluster of [N, cores, memory] locally
+    val SPARK_LOCALCLUSTER_REGEX = """local-cluster\[([0-9]+)\,([0-9]+),([0-9]+)]""".r
     // Regular expression for connecting to Spark deploy clusters
     val SPARK_REGEX = """(spark://.*)""".r
-
+    
     master match {
       case "local" => 
         new LocalScheduler(1, 0)
@@ -99,6 +103,17 @@ class SparkContext(
         val backend = new SparkDeploySchedulerBackend(scheduler, this, sparkUrl, frameworkName)
         scheduler.initialize(backend)
         scheduler
+      
+      case SPARK_LOCALCLUSTER_REGEX(numSlaves, coresPerSlave, memoryPerlave) =>
+        val scheduler = new ClusterScheduler(this)
+        val localCluster = new LocalSparkCluster(numSlaves.toInt, coresPerSlave.toInt, memoryPerlave.toInt)
+        val sparkUrl = localCluster.start()
+        val backend = new SparkDeploySchedulerBackend(scheduler, this, sparkUrl, frameworkName)
+        scheduler.initialize(backend)
+        backend.shutdownHook = (backend: SparkDeploySchedulerBackend) => {
+          localCluster.stop()
+        }
+        scheduler
 
       case _ =>
         MesosNativeLibrary.load()
diff --git a/core/src/main/scala/spark/deploy/LocalSparkCluster.scala b/core/src/main/scala/spark/deploy/LocalSparkCluster.scala
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..da74df4dcf
--- /dev/null
+++ b/core/src/main/scala/spark/deploy/LocalSparkCluster.scala
@@ -0,0 +1,68 @@
+package spark.deploy
+
+import akka.actor.{ActorRef, Props, Actor, ActorSystem, Terminated}
+
+import spark.deploy.worker.Worker
+import spark.deploy.master.Master
+import spark.util.AkkaUtils
+import spark.{Logging, Utils}
+
+import scala.collection.mutable.ArrayBuffer
+
+class LocalSparkCluster(numSlaves : Int, coresPerSlave : Int, 
+  memoryPerSlave : Int) extends Logging {
+  
+  val threadPool = Utils.newDaemonFixedThreadPool(numSlaves + 1)
+  val localIpAddress = Utils.localIpAddress
+  
+  var masterActor : ActorRef = _
+  var masterActorSystem : ActorSystem = _
+  var masterPort : Int = _
+  var masterUrl : String = _
+  
+  val slaveActorSystems = ArrayBuffer[ActorSystem]()
+  val slaveActors = ArrayBuffer[ActorRef]()
+  
+  def start() : String = {
+
+    logInfo("Starting a local Spark cluster with " + numSlaves + " slaves.")
+
+    /* Start the Master */
+    val (masterActorSystem, masterPort) = AkkaUtils.createActorSystem("sparkMaster", localIpAddress, 0)
+    masterUrl = "spark://" + localIpAddress + ":" + masterPort
+    threadPool.execute(new Runnable {
+      def run() {
+        val actor = masterActorSystem.actorOf(
+          Props(new Master(localIpAddress, masterPort, 8080)), name = "Master")
+        masterActor = actor
+        masterActorSystem.awaitTermination()
+      }
+    })
+
+    /* Start the Slaves */
+    (1 to numSlaves).foreach { slaveNum =>
+      val (actorSystem, boundPort) = 
+        AkkaUtils.createActorSystem("sparkWorker" + slaveNum, localIpAddress, 0)
+      slaveActorSystems += actorSystem
+      threadPool.execute(new Runnable {
+        def run() {  
+          val actor = actorSystem.actorOf(
+            Props(new Worker(localIpAddress, boundPort, 8080 + slaveNum, coresPerSlave, memoryPerSlave, masterUrl)),
+            name = "Worker")
+          slaveActors += actor
+          actorSystem.awaitTermination()
+        }
+      })
+    }
+
+    return masterUrl
+  }
+
+  def stop() {
+    logInfo("Shutting down local Spark cluster.")
+    masterActorSystem.shutdown()
+    slaveActorSystems.foreach(_.shutdown())
+  }
+  
+  
+}
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/core/src/main/scala/spark/deploy/worker/ExecutorRunner.scala b/core/src/main/scala/spark/deploy/worker/ExecutorRunner.scala
index 3e24380810..393f4a3ee6 100644
--- a/core/src/main/scala/spark/deploy/worker/ExecutorRunner.scala
+++ b/core/src/main/scala/spark/deploy/worker/ExecutorRunner.scala
@@ -35,6 +35,19 @@ class ExecutorRunner(
       override def run() { fetchAndRunExecutor() }
     }
     workerThread.start()
+
+    // Shutdown hook that kills actors on shutdown.
+    Runtime.getRuntime.addShutdownHook(
+      new Thread() { 
+        override def run() {
+          if(process != null) {
+            logInfo("Shutdown Hook killing process.")
+            process.destroy()
+            process.waitFor()
+          }  
+        }
+    })
+
   }
 
   /** Stop this executor runner, including killing the process it launched */
@@ -131,6 +144,9 @@ class ExecutorRunner(
       }
       env.put("SPARK_CORES", cores.toString)
       env.put("SPARK_MEMORY", memory.toString)
+      // In case we are running this from within the Spark Shell
+      // so we are not creating a parent process.
+      env.put("SPARK_LAUNCH_WITH_SCALA", "0")
       process = builder.start()
 
       // Redirect its stdout and stderr to files
diff --git a/core/src/main/scala/spark/scheduler/cluster/SparkDeploySchedulerBackend.scala b/core/src/main/scala/spark/scheduler/cluster/SparkDeploySchedulerBackend.scala
index 0bd2d15479..ec3ff38d5c 100644
--- a/core/src/main/scala/spark/scheduler/cluster/SparkDeploySchedulerBackend.scala
+++ b/core/src/main/scala/spark/scheduler/cluster/SparkDeploySchedulerBackend.scala
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@ class SparkDeploySchedulerBackend(
 
   var client: Client = null
   var stopping = false
+  var shutdownHook : (SparkDeploySchedulerBackend) => Unit = _
 
   val maxCores = System.getProperty("spark.cores.max", Int.MaxValue.toString).toInt
 
@@ -61,6 +62,9 @@ class SparkDeploySchedulerBackend(
     stopping = true;
     super.stop()
     client.stop()
+    if (shutdownHook != null) {
+      shutdownHook(this)
+    }
   }
 
   def connected(jobId: String) {