Hill Harper: has acting down to a science

Jet, Nov 1, 2004

Hill Harper may be the new guy on the crime-show scene, but he's poised to be king of the hill on the CBS drama "CSI: NY" (Wednesdays at 10 p.m. ET/PT), which follows in the forensic footsteps of "CSI: Miami" and "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation."

Harper stars as Dr. Sheldon Hawkes, a surgeon who abandoned his career after the traumatic loss of two patients and now works as a coroner, on the spinoff show about investigators who use high-tech science to solve crimes in New York. However, the role is hardly his first foray into prime time.

Harper recently played an FBI operative on the series "The Handler," which earned him a 2004 Golden Satellite Award nomination, and he received an NAACP Image Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor for "City of Angels." Harper also boasts guest credits on the TV shows "Soul Food." "The Sopranos," "ER," "NYPD Blue" and "The Fresh Prince of Bel Air."

His credits also extend to the big screen. The versatile actor stars in the new independent film Love, Sex and Eating the Bones, the upcoming HBO movie Lackawanna Blues, and his performance as an HIV-positive death row inmate in the film The Visit earned him a Best Actor nomination by the Independent Spirit Awards. Harper also has appeared in the films America Brown, Loving Jezebel, The Nephew, In Too Deep, Beloved, He Got Game, Get on the Bus, Zooman, Full Court Press and One Red Rose, which he also co-wrote.

A native of Iowa City, IA, Harper graduated magna cum laude from Brown University, earned a law degree from Harvard Law School and a masters in public administration from the Kennedy School of Government. An accomplished stage actor, Harper is a full-time member of Boston's Black Folk's Theater Company, one of the nation's oldest and most respected African-American traveling theater troupes.