The accomplished film, television and stage actor is professionally known as Hill Harper. He is best known in the CBS hit drama series CSI: NY playing the role of Dr. Sheldon Hawkes, a reclusive coroner who walked away from a promising surgical career after the traumatic loss of two patients.

Born as Frank Harper on May 17, 1966 in Iowa City, IA, Hill Harper is the son of Harry Harper, a psychiatrist, and Marilyn Hill, one of the first black practicing anesthesiologists in the United States. He started acting at the age of seven. He graduated from Bella Vista High School in 1984. He then attended Brown University and graduated as cum laude. He is an alumnus of Harvard Law School with a J.D., cum laude and a Master of Public Administration from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. While at Harvard, he was a full-time member of Boston’s Black Folks Theater Company, one of the oldest and most acclaimed theater troupes in the country. He also befriend the now President Barrack Obama when they met in the basketball court. They became good friends during their first year as law students.

Despite having a J.D. and M.P.A., he chose to use neither and move to Los Angeles to pursue his acting career. His film and television break came in 1993 when he did a recurring work on the Fox series Married… with Children and had his movie debut in the short film Confessions of a Dog. He had his first substantial role as a feature in Get on the Bus (1996) by Spike Lee. His versatility in film continued with Hav Plenty (1997) by Christopher Scott Cherot and Lee’s He Got Game (1998). He had roles in both the mainstream and independent film circuits such as Beloved (1998), Loving Jezebel (1999), The Skulls (2000) and The Visit (2000) by Jordan Walker-Pearlman. Before he landed in CSI: NY, he co-starred in The Handler (2003) along with Emmy nominee Joe Pantoliano that earned him a 2005 Golden Satellite Award nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series. He won this award for three consecutive years (2008-2010) in his role in CSI: NY. He also starred in the 2010 Syfy original movie Stonehenge Apocalypse. His performance in the CBS series City of Angels earned him the NAACP Image Awards with a nomination as Best Supporting Actor.

Hill Harper is an author of several books. These include Letters to a Young Brother: MANifest Your Destiny (2006), Letters to a Young Sister: DeFINE Your Destiny (2008), How Men and Women Can Build Loving, Trusting Relationships (2010) and The Wealth Cure: Putting Money in Its Place (2011). While writing the fourth book, he was diagnosed with a thyroid cancer but later on given a clean bill of health after treatment.