Today's Actor

Hill Harper, the Americanfilm, television and stage actor, and author. An alumnus of Harvard Law School, his portrayal ofDr. Sheldon Hawkes on the CBS drama television series CSI: NY has earned him the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actor in a Drama Series for three consecutive years (2008–2010).
arper broke into both film and television in 1993, doing recurring work on the Fox series Married...with Children and making his film debut in the short Confessions of a Dog. He had his first substantial role in a feature in Spike Lee's Get on the Bus (1996), which cast him as a UCLA film student riding a bus to the Million Man March in Washington, D.C. He went on to further demonstrate his versatility in such films as Lee'sHe Got Game (1998) and Christopher Scott Cherot's Hav Plenty (1998), the latter of which featured him as an egotistical pop-soul singer. His profile subsequently rose on both the mainstream and independent film circuits, thanks to roles in films ranging from Beloved (film) (1998) to the independent romantic comedy Loving Jezebel (1999) to The Skulls (2000), an entry into the teen thriller genre. Harper did some of his most acclaimed work in Jordan Walker Pearlman's The Visit (2000), an independent drama in which he starred as a prisoner dying of AIDS who tries to put his life back together. His best-known role to date is that of coroner-turned-crime-scene-investigator Sheldon Hawkes on the American TV show CSI: NY, the third spin-off from the very successful CSI: Crime Scene Investigation franchise. He portrayed Leshem in the Syfy original movie Stonehenge Apocalypse.

Harper is the author of three books: Letters to a Young Brother, published in 2006, Letters to a Young Sister: DeFINE Your Destiny, published in 2008 and The Conversation, published in 2009.

In January 2008, he participated in "Yes We Can", a music video supporting Barack Obama, produced by Will.I.Am. Harper is a member of the Obama for America National Finance Committee.

As of October 2009, Hill has made several contributions to political candidates, exclusively to Democrats.

In the Fall of 2008, Harper was initiated as a brother of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity with his line brothers Dr. Naim Akbar of Florida State University and former NFL player LeMarcus Newman.

Harper endorsed the 10,000 Bookbags back to school backpack campaign to help local disadvantaged children with Urban Change Ministries founder Pastor Jay Cameron of the Life Center and R&B singer Ginuwine.

Harper stated that he is a fiscal conservative when he appeared on the Hannity Show on September 10, 2009.