Jared Harris

Jared Francis Harris is an English actor recognized for his extensive work across film, television, and theatre. Born in Hammersmith, London, on 24 August 1961, he is the son of Irish actor Richard Harris and Welsh socialite Elizabeth Rees-Williams. His family includes his brothers, actor Jamie Harris and director Damian Harris, as well as his maternal grandfather, politician David Rees-Williams, 1st Baron Ogmore. Harris received his early education at Ladycross School and Downside School before attending Duke University, where he directed the unfinished feature Darkmoor and graduated with a drama degree in 1984. He subsequently trained as an actor at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, graduating in 1989.

Harris began his professional acting career performing in Shakespearean theatrical productions at London's Royal Shakespeare Theatre and New York's The Public Theater. He made his feature acting debut in the 1989 British comedy film The Rachel Papers. Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, he took on diverse screen roles, including appearances in Far and Away, The Last of the Mohicans, Natural Born Killers, Dead Man, Happiness, Lost in Space, How to Kill Your Neighbor's Dog, and Resident Evil: Apocalypse. He also portrayed notable real-life figures, playing Andy Warhol in I Shot Andy Warhol, John Lennon in the television film Two of Us, and King Henry VIII in the BBC adaptation of The Other Boleyn Girl.

Harris established a prominent presence on television with a recurring role as David Robert Jones in the science fiction series Fringe, followed by recurring and main roles in The Riches and To the Ends of the Earth. He achieved broad critical recognition for his performance as Lane Pryce in the period drama Mad Men, which earned him a nomination for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series. He later returned to the series to direct a seventh-season episode. He subsequently played King George VI in the historical drama The Crown, earning a British Academy Television Award nomination.

His lead roles in miniseries earned further critical success. For playing Captain Francis Crozier in the supernatural drama series The Terror, Harris received the Royal Canadian Geographical Society's Louie Kamookak Medal. In 2019, he starred as Valery Legasov in Chernobyl, winning the British Academy Television Award for Best Actor and earning nominations for a Primetime Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award.

His other major screen projects include supporting and featured roles in films such as The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, Lincoln, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Certain Women, Allied, Morbius, Reawakening, A House of Dynamite, and The Brink of War. On television, he played Anderson Dawes in The Expanse and began starring as Hari Seldon in the science fiction series Foundation in 2021.

Harris was married to Jacqueline Goldenberg from 1989 until their divorce, and later to actress Emilia Fox from 2005 until their divorce was finalized in 2010. In November 2013, he married lighting designer and television presenter Allegra Riggio. He resides in Los Angeles.