Actors - Sam Harris

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	Actors - Sam Harris

Sam Harris is an American pop and musical theatre singer. He was born Samuel Kent Harris, on 4 June, 1961, in Cushing, Oklahoma.

Harris was the biggest winner of the first Star Search competition in 1984 and no other contestant beat his record in the history of the show. He has released several critically acclaimed albums, two of which went Gold.

Tony Award nominated, Harris subsequently moved into musical theatre, starring in Broadway productions of Grease, The Life, Cabaret, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, The Jazz Singer
and more.

Sam Harris has run the gamut from singer/songwriter to stage/film/television actor to writer/producer/director. Born in Oklahoma, Sam performed in his first play when he was five and was known to jump on any makeshift stage, be it a wooden crate or a dining room table, and belt out a tune.

He left home at the age of 15 to pursue his career, learning the ropes through regional and reperatory theatre. He finished high school through correspondence courses and then attended UCLA in Los Angeles, where he co-wrote (with Bruce H. Newberg) and starred in Hurry! Hurry! Hollywood!, the first original musical in which the theatre and music departments collaborated. He also received the Frank Sinatra Pop Singing Award where the legendary Chairman of the Board said to an enthusiastic audience, "This kid's got `it'! Sam, don't get any better till I get out of the business." It was the validation he needed to leave school for the real world.

For the next two years, Sam played "every dump and dive in LA," for a measly $25 a set. From these shows emerged his first solo stint, Out of Control, which opened with Sam singing "God Bless the Child" in a straight jacket. The show garnered a kind of cult following that Los Angeles Magazine called "Harrisites." It was this small production which caught the attention of talent scouts from an upcoming new television talent show and, at 22, dressed in an oversized tailcoat and Converse sneakers, Sam became a household name on Star Search in its premiere season. 25 million viewers tuned in week after week to follow him as he created his own pop, gospel and theatre brand of emotionally charged performances, finally winning the grand prize and the hearts of America.

His phenomenal "overnight" rise catapulted him into recording industry, where he sold over a million copies of both Sam Harris and Sam-I-Am, which he also produced. Concert tours, including a legendary performance at Carnegie Hall, replaced his Mac-n-Cheese days and the little white kid with the soulful voice was suddenly in every magazine and on every talk show.Worldwide, he headlined at the San Remo Festival, the Montreaux Festival, and played London to standing ovations and perhaps most importantly to him, he could now get a good table at Joe Allen Restaurant, New York City's premiere theatre hot spot.

Simultaneously, he created and wrote the TBS sitcom, Down to Earth with college cohort Bruce H. Newberg and became one of the first celebrities to lead the fight against AIDS at the request of Elizabeth Taylor.

Itching for the theatre once again, he starred in productions of Cabaret, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and the self-penned shows Different Hats and, most notably, Hard Copy, in which he portrayed six different characters frequenting an all night newsstand.The show was a huge success, garnering myriad awards,and Sam's writing and acting skills were now coming to the fore front.

He continued to record, this time reflecting his love of classics and Broadway songs on the critically acclaimed cds, Standard Time and Different Stages, both produced, arranged and conducted by the legendary Peter Matz. This cd was recorded the old fashioned way - live with the orchestra - and the result was two records which have appeared on numerous "best of" lists and have become classics of the genre.

Broadway called and Sam moved to New York, where he received a Drama Desk nomination for his role in Tommy Tune's Grease. Immediately following, he toured for 15 months in the Broadway National tour of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, where sales records were broken all over the country. Now a permanent resident of New York City, Sam next starred in Cy Coleman's The Life, for which he received the Drama-League Award as well as Tony, Outer Critic's Circle and Drama Desk nominations. Soon after, Sam went to work on the development of The Jazz Singer, playing the legendary Al Jolson, known as "the greatest entertainer in the world." While the Broadway production was thwarted, Sam was clearly in a new league when the New York Times remarked, "Who else could play this role? Sam Harris is the only performer today whose charisma and raw magnetism is absolutely Jolson-esque."

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Actors - Sam Harris

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