Biography
Harris Doran is an award-winning filmmaker from NYC, recognized by Sundance, Berlin, and GLAAD. He earned a 2024 Film Independent Spirit Award nomination for producing "Kokomo City," which won the 2023 Sundance NEXT Innovator and Audience Awards and the Berlinale Panorama Audience Award. He wrote and directed "F^¢k 'Em R!ght B@¢k," which premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival. He was also shortlisted for the Film Independent Spirit Awards' "Someone To Watch Award" for writing and directing the feature film "Beauty Mark."
A native New Yorker, Harris trained as an actor at The Juilliard School (Group 29) and received acclaim for his work across film, theatre, and television, portraying diverse roles. In 2000, he was nominated for an LA Ovation Award for his role as "The Artful Dodger" in "Oliver" at DeafWest Theatre in Los Angeles. While in LA, he guest-starred on "Any Day Now" and "Malcolm In The Middle." In 2004, he starred in the Paris-shot film "Two Plus One" and played "Claude" in the Broadway concert of "Hair" alongside Jennifer Hudson, Laura Benanti, and Billy Porter. In 2006, he filmed the rockumentary "Exposing The Order Of The Serpentine" for Spike TV and guest-starred on NBC's "The Black Donnellys." His portrayal of "The Emcee" in "Cabaret" at Pittsburgh Public Theater (2007) led to his role as "Mozart" in their production of "Amadeus," earning praise from the Pittsburgh Post Gazette as one of the year's best performances. He won both the NYMF Award and Talkin' Broadway Award for Best Actor for his role as "Jerry" in "Love Jerry" (2008). In 2009, he played "Freddy" in "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels" opposite Joe Piscopo at Gateway Playhouse, Long Island. He received acclaim for "Myles" in "It Must Be Him" (2010), written by Emmy winner Kenny Solms and starring Peter Scolari. In 2011, he starred as "Marc" in the world premiere of "I'm Connecticut," written by "The Simpsons" writer/producer Mike Reiss, reprising the role in 2013. Harris regularly appears in web series "Real Actors Read" and "Montauk Boys," and guest-starred on CBS' "Person Of Interest" (2013), "Elementary" (2014), and led the pilot of Lifetime's "I Love You, But I Lied" (2014). Backstage Magazine named him one of the "Backstage 30 - actors on the verge of breaking out" (2014).
His film credits include starring as "Eugene" in "My Best Day" (2012 Sundance premiere), for which he won Best Acting Ensemble at the Ashland Independent Film Festival. The film released theatrically in 2013 and is available on iTunes and Netflix. He played "Spot" in "Junction" alongside Michael O'Keefe, Anthony Rapp, and David Zayas, winning Best Supporting Actor at the Long Island International Film Expo and Best Ensemble Cast at the ReelHeART International Film Festival. "Junction" is available on Amazon and Redbox. He starred as "Jack Wright" in "Coach Of The Year" (2012) and held supporting roles in "A Cry From Within" (2013) and "'79 Parts" starring Eric Roberts (2013). Harris led Djuna Wahlrab's "We're Doing Fine" (2013) and John Jaquish's "The Mutineer" (2014).
Harris made his writer/director debut with the short film "The Story of Milo & Annie" (2014), starring Academy Award nominee Cathy Moriarty, which won Best Narrative Short at the Indie Memphis Film Festival. He authored musicals "Salvage," "Wasp Woman," and "Bleeding Love," with the latter premiering in Denmark (2015). His screenplay "Atticus Brown Is Still Here" was a finalist at Sundance, Tribeca, and Hamptons Sloan (2014). "In The Wake" was a semifinalist at the Austin Film Festival (2014), and "COG" won the Write Movies Screenwriting Competition (2014) and was a quarterfinalist for the Academy Nicholl Fellowship (2014). Harris wrote for Lifetime's "I Love You, But I Lied" (2015) and was sole writer of the sitcom "Reenact" for the online network TWST (2016). He wrote and directed "This Movie Will Get Into Sundance" (2016) and his multi-award-winning feature "Beauty Mark" (2017) premiered in the US competition at the LA Film Festival to critical acclaim, earning him a Film Independent Spirit Awards "Someone To Watch Award" shortlist.
In 2018, Harris wrote, conceived, and produced the political concert "Broadway Blue Wave for New York," directed by Rachel Chavkin, musical directed by Mary-Mitchell Campbell, and produced alongside Kristy Cates, featuring Ashlie Atkinson, Laura Benanti, Steven Boyer, Kathleen Chalfant, Edie Falco, Annie Golden, Javier Muñoz, MJ Rodriguez, and Daphne Rubin-Vega.
His feature film "Atticus Brown Is Still Here," a sci-fi coming-of-age story, was developed at the Screenwriters Colony on Nantucket (2018) under mentors Mary Harron, John C. Walsh, Jon Silk, and Josephine Decker.
In 2019, Harris produced and directed the "Know Your Rights" educational video series for the New York Transgender Advocacy Group.
He directed and edited the musical podcast "Bleeding Love" (2020), for which he also wrote lyrics, starring Annie Golden, Rebecca Naomi Jones, Marc Kudisch, Sarah Stiles, Taylor Trensch, and Tony Vincent. Released on the Broadway Podcast Network, it became one of the top-performing arts podcasts in the U.S. He directed the staged reading of "Wasp Woman" (2020), for which he wrote the book and lyrics with music by Arthur Lafrentz Bacon, presented by the Professional Conservatory of Musical Theatre at NYFA, and wrote and directed the satirical web series "The Ivanka Diaries" (2020), starring Paten Hughes.
He wrote, directed, and adapted the film/theatre hybrid "I See You and You See Me" (2021) for Queens Theatre, which premiered on PBS/WNET. He edited the podcast movie "Ghostwriter" (2021), starring Kate Mara and Adam Scott for C13Features and Best Case Studios (#1 Fiction Podcast on Apple Podcasts), and directed Michael Mitnik's play "Fidelity" for the 24 Hour Plays (2021).
In 2022, Harris served as production designer for Seth Green's pilot "White Horse Tavern" and directed Niloufar Nourbakhsh's opera "We, the Innumerable," presented by National Sawdust and the Center for Contemporary Opera.
He wrote and directed "F^¢k 'Em R!ght B@¢k" (2022), which premiered in competition at Sundance (Grand Jury Prize nomination) and won multiple awards including the Audience Award for Narrative Short at Indie Memphis, Jury Award for Comedic Storytelling at Florida Film Festival, Best Ensemble Cast at Tallgrass Film Festival, Best Pride Short at deadCenter Film Festival, Special Jury Mention at Milwaukee Film Festival, Jury Award for Best Narrative Short at Over-the-Rhine Film Festival, and Best Comedy at Aspen Shortsfest, making it Oscar-qualifying.
Harris directed Mario Correa's play "Betrothed" (2022) starring Tim Daly, Amy Hargreaves, David Hull, and Louisa Jacobson for the 24 Hour Plays on Broadway.
He produced the short film "Brenda and Billy (and the Pothos Plant)" (2023), premiering at the 2023 Tribeca Film Festival.
As a performer, Harris appears on "Sondheim Unplugged: The NYC Sessions Volume III" (2023), which earned a 2024 Grammy nomination for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album.
Harris produced "Kokomo City" (2023), winner of Sundance Film Festival NEXT Innovator and Audience Awards, the Berlinale Panorama Audience Award, and recipient of a Film Independent Spirit Award nomination.
He wrote and directed the short film "8 Minutes 20 Seconds" (2024).
Harris is an adjunct professor at Columbia University, teaching "Directing the Actor" in the Film MFA program.
12 wins and 7 nominations
