Kelvin Harrison Jr.

Kelvin Harrison Jr.: Biography in Details

Who is Kelvin Harrison Jr.?

Kelvin Harrison, Jr. is an American actor. He has won a Screen Actors Guild Award and has been nominated for a British Academy Film Award, a Gotham Award, and an Independent Spirit Award.

He started his career with minor appearances in the 2013 blockbusters Ender’s Game and 12 Years a Slave. His breakout performance was as Travis in the 2017 horror film It Comes at Night, and he received greater notoriety in 2019 for his roles in Luce and Waves.

He later acted in movies including The High Note (2020), The Trial of the Chicago Seven (2020), Cyrano (2021), and Elvis (2022). He plays the lead in the 2023 film Chevalier.

Kelvin Harrison Jr.: Bio, Age, Parents, Siblings, Ethnicity, Education

Harrison was born in New Orleans, Louisiana on July 23, 1994, to Shirlita and Kelvin Harrison, both artists. He grew up in the Garden District and eventually relocated to the West Bank.

He studied studio engineering and marketing before travelling to Los Angeles, California, to pursue his acting career, where he began taking lessons. Harrison is also a talented musician who primarily performs jazz and gospel on the piano, and trumpet, and sings.

His father was schooled by Ellis Marsalis and grew up alongside Harry Connick Jr. Harrison learned from Jason Marsalis, recorded with Delfeayo Marsalis, and met Wynton Marsalis.

Harrison went to Isidore Newman School,  where he was one of the few black students in his class and struggled to fit in.  He first enrolled at Loyola University New Orleans to specialize in studio engineering because his father believed he would thrive in music.

Harrison eventually switched to the University of New Orleans for cinema, to write and direct his films.

Kelvin Harrison Jr.: Professional life, Career

Harrison appeared in the 2012 film Ender’s Game based on the 1985 novel.

Harrison praises Davis for encouraging him to take acting more seriously. He later played a minor role in 12 Years a Slave. Harrison would later feature in an episode of WGN America’s Underground and the 2016 remake of Roots, both of which were shot in his home state of Louisiana. That same year, he played a minor role in Nate Parker’s The Birth of a Nation.

Harrison was initially hesitant to appear in Roots, in part because it would be his fourth depiction of a slave, and he had negative memories of watching the original as a boy. In reflection, Harrison saw how dissimilar the projects were.

In the meanwhile, Harrison secured a supporting part on Fox miniseries Shots Fired and a recurring role as Touie Dacey on Crackle’s StartUp.

Harrison began the year with a minor supporting role in Dee Rees’ Mudbound, a Netflix acquisition that premiered to critical acclaim at the Sundance Film Festival.  Later that year, he portrayed Travis in Trey Edward Shults’ 2017 psychological horror film It Comes at Night.

Harrison gained acclaim for his portrayal, earning a nomination for Breakthrough Actor at the Gotham Awards that year. He has attributed the part with motivating him to pursue his acting career.

Assassination Nation and Monsters and Men both came out in the same year, while Monster signed a distribution contract with Netflix in 2021. He followed up with supporting roles in the dramas Jinn and JT LeRoy.

In 2019, Harrison starred in two Sundance Film Festival premieres: social drama Luce and psychological thriller The Wolf Hour, both starring Naomi Watts. Harrison, who starred with Octavia Spencer and Tim Roth in Julius Onah’s Luce, won critical acclaim for his portrayal of an all-star high school athlete and excellent public speaker born in war-torn Eritrea and raised in America. Harrison later starred as Jesse in Nabil Elderkin’s directorial debut Gully.

Harrison’s big break of the year came with Waves, which opened to critical acclaim at the Telluride Film Festival on August 30, 2019, and reunited him with It Comes at Night writer and director Trey Edward Shults.

Harrison stars as Tyler Williams, a popular high school senior and competitive wrestler whose life is turned upside down after sustaining a career-ending injury. Shults revealed that he wrote and adapted the character for Harrison because he wanted to work with him again following their prior cooperation.  Harrison’s performance in the film gained acclaim, with many critics drawing comparisons and contrasts to his portrayal in Luce.

According to IndieWire’s Eric Kohn, the two performances cemented his status as ‘the definitive face of unhappy teenage life’.

The picture is important for increasing his worldwide recognition, resulting in a BAFTA Rising Star Award nomination. He wrapped up the year with a supporting role as singer Teddy Greene in the first season of Epix’s Godfather of Harlem, with Forest Whitaker.

In the first half of 2020, Harrison took on more lighthearted and comic roles, beginning with his studio debut in a tiny supporting role in Stella Meghie’s romantic comedy The Photograph. for the male lead in Nisha Ganatra’s musical comedy-drama The High Note.  In the latter, Harrison plays David Cliff, a singer-songwriter who falls for Dakota Johnson’s Maggie.

To prepare for the film and its soundtrack, Harrison worked with a vocal coach for 45 minutes every day to broaden his range and took guitar lessons. He ended the year portraying revolutionary socialist Fred Hampton in Aaron Sorkin’s biographical ensemble courtroom drama The Trial of the Chicago 7. It premiered in select cinemas on September 25, 2020, and became available digitally on Netflix on October 16.

The film received six Academy Award nominations, and Harrison and the rest of the ensemble won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Ensemble Performance in a Motion Picture.

Harrison played Christian in Joe Wright’s Cyrano, a musical film adaptation of Erica Schmidt’s Off-Broadway production, which was based on Edmond Rostand’s Cyrano de Bergerac, written in 1897.

Harrison played the iconic blues guitarist B.B. King in Baz Luhrmann’s 2022 biopic Elvis, which is about rock and roll king Elvis Presley. He then acted in Stephen Williams’ 2022 film Chevalier, as Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges, an 18th-century Black French violin virtuoso and classical composer.

Upcoming Projects

Harrison will provide the voice of young Scar in Mufasa: The Lion King, Barry Jenkins’ follow-up to The Lion King, which will be released in August 2021.  Harrison will play artist Jean-Michel Basquiat in Samo Lives, a biopic that would reunite him with Luce director Julius Onah, according to reports from January 2022.

Kelvin Harrison Jr.: Net worth, Salary

Kelvin Harrison Jr.’s net worth is between $3-5 Million. Besides his annual salary, weekly earnings are missing.

Kelvin Harrison Jr. Rumors, Controversy

Kelvin has never been part of any controversial matter or rumours till now. Additionally, The star has been preoccupied with her professional and private life.

Kelvin Harrison Jr.: Body features, Height, Weight

His height, weight and body measurements are missing. Additionally, he has a fair skin complexion with dark brown hair and brown pairs of beautiful eyes.

Social media

He is not active on any social networking sites as of 2024 his Instagram, Twitter and Facebook accounts are missing. If there is any detailed info provided about his social sites then it’ll be updated soon.

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Kelvin Harrison Jr.'s Birthday Dates