William Jackson Harper

William Fitzgerald Harper, known professionally as William Jackson Harper, is an American actor and playwright. He is best recognized for his portrayal of Chidi Anagonye in the NBC comedy series The Good Place, a performance that earned him a nomination for a Primetime Emmy Award.

Harper was born on February 8, 1980, in Dallas, Texas, and raised in Garland, Texas, where he attended Lakeview Centennial High School. He later graduated from the College of Santa Fe in 2003. Upon registering with the Actors' Equity Association, he chose the stage name William Jackson Harper because most variations of his birth name were unavailable and he felt his original middle name was too long. He selected Jackson to honor his mother's maiden name.

He began his professional theatrical career in New York, making his stage debut in a 2006 production of Full Bloom. Over the following years, he performed in plays such as Ruined, Measure for Measure, Titus Andronicus, and the musical The Total Bent. As a playwright, he wrote We Live Here in 2010 and Travisville in 2018. From 2009 to 2011, Harper was a main cast member on the PBS Kids Go! series The Electric Company. He made his Broadway acting debut in 2014 portraying civil rights activist Stokely Carmichael in All the Way.

Harper gained widespread public recognition with his starring role as Chidi Anagonye on NBC's The Good Place, which ran from 2016 to 2020. During the show's run, he continued taking stage roles, including the lead in After the Blast in 2017. His film work expanded with supporting appearances in the drama Paterson in 2016 and the feature They Remain in 2018. In 2019, he appeared in two major films, playing Josh in the horror movie Midsommar and James Ross in the legal thriller Dark Waters.

Following his breakthrough on television, Harper took on leading and supporting roles across various screen projects. He performed in the Amazon limited series The Underground Railroad, earning a Critics' Choice Television Award nomination, and starred in the second season of the HBO Max comedy series Love Life in 2021. He went on to star in the 2022 comedy mystery series The Resort and played Quaz in the Marvel Cinematic Universe movie Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania in 2023.

Harper has maintained an active career in theater alongside his screen work. In 2023, he starred as Kenneth in the Off-Broadway play Primary Trust, winning an Obie Award for Outstanding Performance. He returned to Broadway in 2024 to portray Astrov in a revival of Uncle Vanya, securing a Tony Award nomination for Best Actor in a Play. In January 2026, it was announced that he had been cast in the FX limited series Cry Wolf.