Kelvin Harrison Jr. | |
---|---|
Born | New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S. | July 23, 1994
Occupation | Actor |
Years active | 2013–present |
Kelvin Harrison Jr. (born July 23, 1994 [1] ) is an American actor. He is the recipient of such accolades as a Screen Actors Guild Award and nominations for a British Academy Film Award, Gotham Award, an Independent Spirit Award.
He began his career with small roles in the 2013 films Ender's Game and 12 Years a Slave . His breakthrough performance came as Travis in the 2017 horror film It Comes at Night , and in 2019 he gained wider recognition for his work in Luce and Waves . He then appeared in films such as The High Note (2020), The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020), Cyrano (2021) and Elvis (2022). He plays the starring role in the 2022 film Chevalier .
Harrison was born on July 23, 1994 in New Orleans, Louisiana, to musicians Shirlita and Kelvin Harrison. [1] He grew up in the Garden District and later moved to The Westbank. [2] He studied studio engineering and marketing, before moving to Los Angeles, California to pursue acting, where he began taking acting classes. [2] He is also a skilled musician, mainly playing jazz and gospel on the piano, trumpet, as well as singing. His father was trained by Ellis Marsalis and grew up with Harry Connick Jr. Harrison studied under Jason Marsalis, recorded with Delfeayo Marsalis, and met Wynton Marsalis. [3] [4]
Harrison attended Isidore Newman School, [5] where he was one of the few black students in his class and struggled to fit in. [6] He originally went to Loyola University New Orleans to major in studio engineering as his father felt he would excel in music. Harrison ultimately transferred to the University of New Orleans for film, with the goal of writing and directing his own films. [7]
In 2012, Harrison was cast in Ender's Game , based on the 1985 novel. He was upgraded to day-player and interacted with actors such as Viola Davis, Harrison Ford, and Ben Kingsley. Harrison credits Davis with making him take acting more seriously. He then had a small role in 12 Years a Slave . [7] Harrison would later appear in an episode of WGN America's Underground and the 2016 remake of Roots , both of which were produced in his home state of Louisiana. That same year, the actor had a small role in Nate Parker's The Birth of a Nation . Harrison was initially hesitant to participate in Roots, in part because it would be his fourth portrayal of a slave, and he did not have fond memories of watching the original as a child. In retrospect, Harrison realized just how different the projects were. [1] In the meantime, Harrison landed a supporting role on Fox miniseries Shots Fired [8] as well as a recurring role as Touie Dacey on Crackle's StartUp [9]
Harrison began the year with a small supporting role in the Netflix acquired Dee Rees' Mudbound , which opened at the Sundance Film Festival to critical acclaim. [10] Later that year, he played the role of Travis in Trey Edward Shults' 2017 psychological horror film It Comes at Night . [11] The film focuses on a family hiding in a forest as the Earth is taken over by a highly contagious disease. The film had its premiere at the Overlook Film Festival at Timberline Lodge in Oregon on April 29, 2017 and was theatrically released on June 9, 2017 in the United States by A24, was received positively by critics [12] and grossed over $19 million worldwide. [13] Harrison received praise for his performance, getting nominated for Breakthrough Actor at the Gotham Awards that year. [14] He has credited the role for giving him a reason to continue his acting career. [8]
In 2018, Harrison notably starred in three films that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, which were Monsters and Men , Assassination Nation & Monster . [15] In Reinaldo Marcus Green's Monsters and Men, he portrays Zyrick, a gifted teenage baseball player that becomes politically awakened after seeing a video of a man murdered by the police. In Sam Levinson's Assassination Nation he has a smaller role as Mason, a friend of the female protagonists and in Anthony Mandler's Monster, based on the Walter Dean Myers novel of the same name, [16] Harrison plays Steve Harmon, a seventeen-year-old honour student whose world comes crashing down around him when he is charged with felony murder. Assassination Nation and Monsters and Men both got releases in the same year while Monster acquired a distribution deal with Netflix in 2021. [17] He followed these up with supporting roles in the dramas Jinn [18] and JT LeRoy . [19]
2019 saw Harrison starring in two films that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, social thriller Luce [20] and psychological thriller The Wolf Hour , [21] both starring Naomi Watts. For his titular role in Julius Onah's Luce alongside Octavia Spencer and Tim Roth, Harrison received critical acclaim as the all-star high school athlete and accomplished public speaker born in war-torn Eritrea adopted in the United States. Justin Chang of the Los Angeles Times wrote, "Harrison's performance, at once slippery and surgically precise, compounds that ambiguity in ingenious fashion. He exhibits a quality that might have seemed like mere self-consciousness in a different actor's hands. [22] Harrison was nominated for Best Male Lead at the Independent Spirit Awards for his performance in the film. [23]
Harrison later played Jesse in Nabil Elderkin's directorial debut Gully . [24] The film had its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival on April 27, 2019 [25] and eventually found a national theatrical release on June 4, 2021. [26] Harrison's major breakthrough of the year came with Waves , which premiered to critical acclaim at the Telluride Film Festival on August 30, 2019 and found him reuniting with It Comes at Night writer & director Trey Edward Shults. [27] In the film, Harrison plays Tyler Williams, a popular high school senior and competitive wrestler whose life goes into disarray after suffering a career-ending injury. Shults stated that he wrote and tailored the role for Harrison, wanting to work with him again after their previous collaboration. [28] Harrison's performance in the film received rave reviews, with many critics favorably comparing and contrasting it to his performance in Luce. [29] [30] IndieWire's Eric Kohn stated that the two performances pushed him forward as 'the preeminent face of disgruntled teenage life'. [31] The film is notable for widening his international exposure, leading to a BAFTA Rising Star Award nomination. [32] He capped off the year with a supporting performance as musician Teddy Greene in the first season of Epix's Godfather of Harlem alongside Forest Whitaker. [33]
The first half of 2020 saw Harrison venturing into more lighthearted and comedic roles, ranging from his studio debut in a smaller supporting role in Stella Meghie's romance film The Photograph [34] to the male lead in Nisha Ganatra's musical comedy-drama The High Note . [35] In the latter Harrison plays David Cliff, a singer-songwriter who acts as the love interest to Dakota Johnson's Maggie. To prepare for the film and its soundtrack, Harrison worked with a vocal coach for 45 minutes a day, to expand his range, and took guitar lessons. [36] He ended the year with a portrayal of revolutionary socialist Fred Hampton in Aaron Sorkin's biographical ensemble courtroom drama The Trial of the Chicago 7 , [37] It was released in selected theaters on September 25, 2020, and began streaming digitally on Netflix on October 16. [38] The film was nominated for six Academy Awards [39] and Harrison and the rest of the cast won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture. [40]
In 2021, Harrison portrayed Christian in Joe Wright's Cyrano , a musical film adaptation of the Off-Broadway play by Erica Schmidt, itself based on the 1897 Edmond Rostand play Cyrano de Bergerac. [41] Harrison was slated to appear in the second season of HBO's Euphoria , which would have reunited him with Assassination Nation director Sam Levinson, [42] but dropped out due to conflicting schedules attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic. [43]
Harrison portrayed the legendary blues guitarist B.B. King in Baz Luhrmann's 2022 biopic Elvis , about rock and roll icon Elvis Presley. [44] He then starred in the 2022 film Chevalier , directed by Stephen Williams, in which he portrayed Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges, the 18th-century Black French violin virtuoso and classical composer. [45]
Upcoming projects
In August 2021, it was announced that Harrison will star in Mufasa: The Lion King , Barry Jenkins's follow-up to The Lion King , as the voice of young Scar. [46] In January 2022, it was reported that Harrison will portray the artist Jean-Michel Basquiat in Samo Lives, a biopic that will reunite him with Luce director Julius Onah. [47]
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
2013 | 12 Years a Slave | Victim 2 | |
Ender's Game | Salamandar | Uncredited | |
2014 | Deluge | Kareem | Short film |
The Flight of the Bumblebee | James | ||
2015 | A Sort of Homecoming | Eliot | |
Dancer and the Dame | Kenny Basset | ||
2016 | The Birth of a Nation | Simon | |
2017 | Mudbound | Weeks | |
It Comes at Night | Travis | ||
2018 | Monsters and Men | Zyrick ("Zee") | |
Assassination Nation | Mason | ||
Monster | Steve Harmon | ||
Jinn [48] | Tahir | ||
JT LeRoy | Sean | ||
2019 | Luce | Luce Edgar | |
The Wolf Hour [49] | Freddie | ||
Gully | Jesse | ||
Bolden | Frankie Duson | ||
Waves | Tyler Williams | ||
2020 | The Photograph | Andy Morrison | |
The High Note | David Cliff | ||
The Trial of the Chicago 7 | Fred Hampton | ||
2021 | Cyrano | Christian | |
2022 | Elvis | B.B. King | |
Chevalier | Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges | ||
2024 | Mufasa: The Lion King | Taka (voice) | Post-production |
2025 | Golden | Pharrell Williams | Post-production |
TBA | O'Dessa [50] | Post-production |
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
2015 | Into the Badlands | Jolyon | Episode: "Chapter V: Snake Creeps Down" |
2016 | Underground | Teenage Runaway | Episode: "The White Whale" |
2016 | Chicago P.D. | Michael Ellis | Episode: "Justice" |
2016 | Roots | Winslow | Episode: "Part 4" |
2016 | Shots Fired | Joey Campbell | 3 episodes |
2016–2017 | StartUp | Touie Dacey | 12 episodes |
2017 | NCIS: New Orleans | Cadet Lieutenant Commander Max Cabral | Episode: "The Last Stand" |
2019 | Godfather of Harlem | Teddy Greene | Main role (season 1) |
2024 | Genius | Martin Luther King Jr. | Season 4 |
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
2016 | "One Bad Night" | Main character | by Hayley Kiyoko |
Year | Award | Category | Work | Result |
---|---|---|---|---|
2017 | Gotham Independent Film Award | Breakthrough Actor | It Comes at Night | Nominated |
2019 | Hollywood Critics Association Film Awards | Best Breakthrough Performance | Waves | Won |
British Academy Film Awards | Rising Star Award | Waves | Nominated | |
Independent Spirit Awards | Best Male Lead | Luce | Nominated | |
2021 | Screen Actors Guild Awards | Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture | The Trial of the Chicago 7 | Won |
Roadside Attractions, LLC is an American production company and film distributor based in Los Angeles, California, founded on July 27, 2000, by Howard Cohen and Eric d'Arbeloff. Lionsgate Films bought a portion of Roadside in 2007, and has majorly served as the arthouse division for the studio since then.
Julius Onah is a Nigerian-American film director, screenwriter and producer. He has directed the films The Girl Is in Trouble (2015), The Cloverfield Paradox (2018), Luce (2019), and the upcoming Captain America: Brave New World (2025).
Lucas Hedges is an American actor. A son of filmmaker Peter Hedges, he studied theater at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. Hedges began his acting career with a supporting role in Wes Anderson's comedy-drama Moonrise Kingdom (2012). He had his breakthrough in 2016 playing a sardonic teenager in Kenneth Lonergan's drama Manchester by the Sea, which earned him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, among other accolades. Hedges then starred as an aggressive youth in an off-Broadway production of Yen and had supporting roles in the coming-of-age film Lady Bird and the drama Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri in 2017.
Waves is a 2019 American psychological drama film written, produced and directed by Trey Edward Shults. Along with Shults, it was produced by Kevin Turen and James Wilson. It stars Kelvin Harrison Jr., Taylor Russell, Lucas Hedges, Alexa Demie, Renée Elise Goldsberry, and Sterling K. Brown. It traces the emotional journey of a suburban American family as they navigate love, forgiveness and coming together in the wake of a tragic loss.
Justin Kelly is an American film director, screenwriter and film editor. He came to prominence as director and writer of Sundance Film Festival 2015 select I Am Michael, starring James Franco and Zachary Quinto. He then wrote and directed King Cobra, which premiered at the 2016 Tribeca Film Festival starring Christian Slater and James Franco, followed by Sony Pictures 2018 release Welcome the Stranger starring Riley Keough and Caleb Landry Jones, and most recently JT LeRoy (2018) starring Kristen Stewart and Laura Dern.
Donat Patrick Kack-Brice, known professionally as Patrick Brice, is an American film director, actor, screenwriter and cinematographer. He is known for directing Creep (2014), The Overnight (2015), Creep 2 (2017), Corporate Animals (2019) and There's Someone Inside Your House (2021).
Yahya Abdul-Mateen II is an American actor. He is best known for his roles as Black Manta in the superhero films Aquaman (2018) and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (2023), Bobby Seale in the Netflix historical legal drama The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020), and Morpheus / Agent Smith in The Matrix Resurrections (2021). For his portrayal of Cal Abar / Doctor Manhattan in the HBO limited series Watchmen (2019), he won a Primetime Emmy Award. He also starred in episodes of The Handmaid's Tale (2018) and Black Mirror (2019).
Trey Edward Shults is an American film director, producer, writer, and actor. He is best known as the director and writer of the drama Krisha (2015), the psychological horror film It Comes at Night (2017), and the drama Waves (2019).
Jack Dylan Grazer is an American actor. He is known for his roles as Eddie Kaspbrak in the horror film It (2017) and its 2019 sequel, Freddy Freeman in the DC Extended Universe film Shazam! (2019) and its 2023 sequel, and voicing Alberto Scorfano in the Pixar animated film Luca (2021). The Hollywood Reporter named him one of the top 30 stars under age 18 in 2018.
Barry Keoghan is an Irish actor. His accolades include a BAFTA Award, along with nominations for an Academy Award and two Golden Globe Awards. In 2020, he was listed at number 27 on The Irish Times list of Ireland's greatest film actors.
Brandon Micheal Hall is an American actor. On television, he starred as the lead of the ABC sitcom The Mayor (2017) and the CBS comedy-drama God Friended Me (2018–2020). Hall also appeared as a series regular on the TBS / HBO Max dark comedy Search Party (2016–2022).
Monster is a 2018 American legal drama film directed by Anthony Mandler, from a screenplay by Radha Blank, Cole Wiley, and Janece Shaffer, based on the novel of the same name by Walter Dean Myers. It stars Kelvin Harrison Jr., Jennifer Ehle, Tim Blake Nelson, Nas, ASAP Rocky, Paul Ben-Victor, John David Washington, Jennifer Hudson, and Jeffrey Wright. Wright, Nas, and John Legend also serve as executive producers on the film.
Troop Zero is a 2019 American comedy-drama film directed by Bert & Bertie, from a screenplay by Lucy Alibar and inspired by Alibar's 2010 play Christmas and Jubilee Behold The Meteor Shower. The film stars Viola Davis, Mckenna Grace, Jim Gaffigan, Mike Epps, Charlie Shotwell, and Allison Janney.
Luce is a 2019 American social thriller drama film directed, co-produced, and co-written by Julius Onah. It stars Naomi Watts, Octavia Spencer, Kelvin Harrison Jr., and Tim Roth. The film was based on the play of the same name by J.C. Lee, and tells the story of a couple forced to reconsider their marriage and their family after an extremely disturbing essay written by their adopted son is brought to their attention by his teacher (Spencer).
The Photograph is a 2020 American romantic drama film written and directed by Stella Meghie. It follows the estranged daughter of a famous photographer who falls in love with the journalist who is investigating her late mother's life. Chelsea Peretti, Lil Rel Howery and Courtney B. Vance also star.
Topic Studios is an American film production company owned by First Look Media. The company is known for producing films Leave No Trace (2018), Luce (2019), The Climb (2019), The Mauritanian (2021). The company also produces television shows including Love Fraud (2020) and 100 Foot Wave (2021).
The Wolf Hour is a 2019 psychological thriller film written and directed by Alistair Banks Griffin. It stars Naomi Watts, Emory Cohen, Jennifer Ehle, Kelvin Harrison Jr., Jeremy Bobb and Brennan Brown.
Lovie Simone Oppong is an American actress, best known for her role as Zora Greenleaf in drama series Greenleaf.
Violet Elizabeth McGraw is an American child actress. She began acting at the age of five, with her debut credited role being a recurring role in the 2016 television series Love as Nina, and her first feature film being in 2018's Ready Player One. In 2019 she was nominated for an OFTA Television Award for Best Ensemble in a Motion Picture or Limited Series for The Haunting of Hill House. She is also known for her role as Cady in the 2022 horror film M3GAN.