Kelvin Harrison Jr.
Birthdate: Jul 23, 1994
Birthplace: New Orleans, Louisiana, USA
Kelvin Harrison Jr. is an acclaimed Black American actor of remarkable range and depth. He consistently elicits strong critical reviews for his striking performances. Harrison launched his film career with a small role in Steve McQueen’s Oscar-winning drama 12 Years a Slave (2013) and then appeared in another American slave drama, The Birth of a Nation (2016), directed by and starring Nate Parker.
Harrison’s next important feature role was his first with director/writer Trey Edwards Shultz in the psychological horror movie, It Comes at Night (2017), with Joel Edgerton, Christopher Abbott, Carmen Ejogo, and Riley Keough, for which Harrison earned a nomination for breakthrough actor from the Gotham Awards. Harrison landed his first co-starring role in director/writer Reinaldo Marcus Green’s cop drama, Monsters and Men (2018), starring John David Washington, Anthony Ramos, Chante Adams, and Cara Buono, and premiering at the Sundance Film Festival before a release by Neon.
Kelvin Harrison Jr. appeared in director/writer Sam Levinson’s wild Assassination Nation (2018), with Odessa Young, Sukiyaki Waterhouse, Hari Nef, Colman Domingo, Joel McHale, and Bella Thorne, premiering at the Sundance Film Festival, but losing money for lead producer Bron Studios and US distributor Neon with a poor $2.9 million gross. Harrison landed his first starring role in the Anthony Mandler-directed legal drama based on Walter Dean Myers’ novel, Monsters (2018), with Jennifer Ehle, Tim Blake Nelson, Nas, ASAP Rocky, John David Washington, Jennifer Hudson, and Jeffrey Wright, and which premiered to strong reviews at the Sundance Film Festival.
Harrison began his 2019 year with two movies premiering in the Sundance Film Festival and co-starring Naomi Watts—director/co-writer/producer Julius Onah’s charged moral drama, Luce (2019), with Octavia Spencer and Tim Roth and grossing $2.3 million for Neon, as well as director/writer Alastair Banks Griffin’s paranoid New York drama, The Wolf Hour (2019), with Emory Cohen, Jennifer Ehle and Jeremy Bobb, and released by Brainstorm Media. Harrison starred in debut director Nabil Elderkin’s drama, Gully (2019), co-starring Charlie Plummer, Jacob Latimore, Jonathan Majors, Amber Heard, and Terrence Howard, and released by Paramount Pictures after premiering at the Tribeca Film Festival.
Kelvin Harrison Jr. reunited with director/writer/producer Trey Edwards Shults’s acclaimed family drama, Waves (2019), with Taylor Russell, Sterling K. Brown, Renee Elise Goldsberry, Alexa Demie, and Lucas Hedges, launching at the Telluride Film Festival and released by A24/Focus Features/Universal Pictures. Harrison played support in Stella Meghie’s romantic drama, The Photograph (2020), and then co-starred in the similarly light
Harrison Nissan Ganatra’s musical comedy-drama, The High Note (2020), with Dakota Johnson, Trace Ellis Ross, Zoe Chao, Bill Pullman, Eddie Izzard, and Ice Cube, but losing money for Focus Features ($2.5 million gross on a $20 million budget).
Harrison portrayed Fred Hampton in Aaron Sorkin’s drama, The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020), co-starring the ensemble of Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Sachs Baron Cohen, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Michael Keaton, Frank Langella, John Carroll Lynch, Eddie Redmayne, Mark Ryland, Ben Shenkman, and Jeremy Strong, earning six Oscar nominations, and released theatrically and on streaming by Netflix. Harrison appeared opposite Peter Dinklage’s Cyrano de Bergerac in the Joe Wright-directed Cyrano (2021), based on the 2018 musical by Erica Schmidt, Aaron Dessner, Bryce Dessner, Matt Berninger and Carin Besser, co-starring Haley Bennett and Ben Mendelsohn, and proving a big commercial loser for UA Releasing and Universal Pictures ($6.4 million returns against a $30 million budget) after premiering in the Telluride Film Festival.
Kelvin Harrison Jr. portrayed B.B. King in Baz Luhrmann’s lavish biopic, Elvis (2022), starring Austin Butler as Elvis with Tom Hanks, Olivia DeJonge, Helen Thomson, Richard Roxburgh, and Kodi Smit-McPhee, and after premiering in the Cannes Film Festival, grossed a potent $289 million worldwide for distributors Warner Bros and Universal Pictures. Harrison then starred in the title role in the Stephen Williams-directed historical drama, Chevalier (2022), with Samara Weaving, Lucy Boynton, Marton Csokas, Minnie Drive,r and Ronkẹ Adékoluẹjo, and released by Searchlight Pictures after premiering at the Toronto Film Festival.
Harrison took on his first voice role under Barry Jenkins’ direction in Disney’s prequel animated adventure, Mufasa: The Lion King (2024), with the voice cast of Aaron Pierre (in the title role), Tiffany Boone, Mads Mikkelsen, Thandiwe Newton, and Blue Ivy Carter, with songs by Lin-Manuel Miranda. Harrison then co-starred with Janelle Monae, Tim Meadows, Brian Tyree Henry, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Halle Bailey, Jaboukie Young-White, and Missy Elliott in director Michel Gondry’s Atlantis (2025), based on the early years of musician Pharrell Williams, and released by Universal Pictures.
Harrison was featured in director/writer Geremy Jasper’s musical drama, O’Dessa (date to be announced), co-starring Kelly Macdonald, Sadie Sink, and Regina Hall, and produced by the Department of Motion Pictures/Embassy Films/RT Features. Harrison portrayed artist Jean-Michel Basquiat and served as an executive producer in Samo Lives (date to be announced), reuniting with his Luce director, Julius Onah, and co-written by Peter Glanz and Onah, and backed by the production company Fifth Season.
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Personal Details
Kelvin Harrison Jr. was born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana, by his parents, Shirlita and Kelvin Harrison (both musicians), sisters, and brother. Harrison attended and graduated from Isidore Newman School and then studied studio engineering at Loyola University New Orleans before transferring to the University of New Orleans, where he studied filmmaking when he changed his career goals from music to film. Harrison’s height is 5’ 7”.
Filmography
actor
Upcoming (2)
Previous (16)
- 2024 | Mufasa: The Lion KingasTaka
Mufasa: The Lion King
Mufasa, a cub lost and alone, meets a sympathetic lion named Taka, the heir to a royal bloodline. The chance meeting sets in motion an expansive journey of a group of misfits searching for their destiny.
- 2023 |
- 2023 |
- 2022 |
- 2022 |
- 2021 |
- 2020 | The High NoteasDavid Cliff
The High Note
A superstar singer and her overworked personal assistant are presented with a choice that could alter the course of their respective careers.
- 2020 |
- 2019 | The Wolf Houras Freddie
- 2019 |
- 2019 |
- 2018 | Jinnas Tahir
- 2018 | Monsters and MenasZyrick
Monsters and Men
The aftermath of a police killing of a black man, told through the eyes of the bystander who filmed the act, an African-American police officer and a high-school baseball phenom inspired to take a stand.
- 2018 | Assassination NationasMason
Assassination Nation
After a malicious data hack exposes the secrets of the perpetually American town of Salem, chaos descends and four girls must fight to survive, while coping with the hack themselves.
- 2017 | It Comes at NightasTravis
It Comes at Night
Secure within a desolate home as an unnatural threat terrorizes the world, a man has established a tenuous domestic order with his wife and son. Then a desperate young family arrives seeking refuge.
- 2014 | Samo Livesas Jean-Michel Basquiat
Some Facts About Kelvin Harrison Jr.
Jazz Heritage: Kelvin Harrison Jr. grew up in a family atmosphere rich with jazz music, with his father working with Ellis Marsalis, while Harrison studied with Jason Marsalis and recorded with Delfeayo Marsalis.
Mentor: Harrison has cited Viola Davis as a key mentor who urged him to take a more serious plunge into the art of acting.
