Harris Doran
Harris Doran (he/him) is a NYC-based writer/director whose debut feature film BEAUTY MARK earned the 'Breakout Performance' Jury Prize for lead actress at its LA Film Festival premiere, Best Ultra lndie Film Award at the Woodstock Film Festival, Audience Award Best Feature Film at Austin Film Festival and for which he was shortlisted for the Film Independent Spirit Awards' Someone to Watch Award. Harris wrote, directed and adapted the film/theatre hybrid I SEE YOU AND YOU SEE ME for Queens Theatre which premiered on PBS/WNET. Harris's writer/director debut short THE STORY OF MILO & ANNIE featuring Alysia Reiner and Academy Award nominee Cathy Moriarty won the lndie Memphis Film Festival and he produced the short film PHOTO OP which won best LGBTQ short in SENE. He wrote/directed the satirical webseries "The lvanka Diaries” as well as the narrative/doc THIS MOVIE WILL GET INTO SUNDANCE. He has written the screenplays ATTICUS BROWN IS STILL HERE (Sundance, Tribeca and Hamptons Sloan grant finalist, developed at the Nantucket Screenwriters Colony), COG (Academy Nicholl Fellowship quarterfinalist), IN THE WAKE (Austin semifinalist), TONE-DEAF, SECOND ACTS, and AN UNOFFICIAL OF MICE & MEN REMAKE. Harris conceived and wrote the script for the political concert BROADWAY BLUE WAVE FOR NY directed by Tony Winner Rachel Chavkin, starring Taylor Shilling, Edie Falco, Laura Benanti and Cynthia Nixon, and created the "Know Your Rights" series for New York Transgender Advocacy Group. He wrote the stage musicals WASP WOMAN, SALVAGE, and BLEEDING LOVE which was released as a podcast musical, which he directed and edited, and was one of the top Performing Arts podcasts in the country. Harris has written for the TV series "I Love You, But I Lied" for Lifetime, the sitcom "Reenact" for TWST. He is in post-production for his short film F^¢K '€M R!GHT B@¢K, and pre-production on his next feature ATTICUS BROWN IS STILL HERE. Harris is on the Alumni Advisory Committee of the Nantucket Screenwriters Colony. Harris trained as an actor at The Juilliard School, has been an acting coach for 15 years, and is an adjunct professor in the MFA Film Department at Columbia University where he teaches both Directing the Actor, and Acting for Screenwriters & Directors. Harris is a political activist who helped flip the NY State Senate in 2018.
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A native New Yorker, born and raised in Flushing, Queens, Harris Doran (pronounced like Duran Duran) was an acting major at The High School of Performing Arts (The FAME School) before being accepted to the Juilliard School.
Harris went on to receive rave reviews for his work in theatre, playing a wide variety of roles. In 2000 he received an LA Ovation Award Nomination for playing "The Artful Dodger" in OLIVER at the DeafWest Theatre in Los Angeles. While in LA he shot guest spots on the television shows ANY DAY NOW and MALCOLM IN THE MIDDLE. Then in 2004, he starred in the film TWO PLUS ONE, which was shot entirely on location in Paris, France, as well as starring as "Claude" in the Broadway concert of HAIR, alongside Jennifer Hudson, Bill Porter, Laura Benanti, and Ana Gasteyer. In 2006 he shot the mockumentary EXPOSING THE ORDER OF THE SERPENTINE for Spike TV as well as a guest spot on NBC’s THE BLACK DONNELLYS. After receiving praise for his role as "The Emcee" in CABARET at the Pittsburgh Public Theater (2007), Harris was asked back to play "Mozart" in their production of AMADEUS, earning him notice from the Pittsburgh Post Gazette as one of the best performances of the year. After this he starred as "Jerry" in LOVE JERRY (2008), for which he won both a NYMF Award for Best Actor and the Talkin’ Broadway Award for Best Actor. In 2009, Harris played the role of "Freddy" in DIRTY ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS, opposite Joe Piscopo at the Gateway Playhouse in Long Island, NY. The following year he received glowing reviews for playing "Myles" in IT MUST BE HIM (2010), which was written by the Emmy Award winning writer Kenny Solms, and starred three-time Emmy Award nominee Peter Scolari. In 2011, he starred as "Marc" alongside Jerry Adler and Joyce DeWitt in the world premiere of I’M CONNECTICUT, written by THE SIMPSONS writer/producer Mike Reiss. He reprised his role along with Adler in the 2013 production. Harris is a regular on the webseries REAL ACTORS READ and MONTAUK BOYS and shot spots on CBS' PERSON OF INTEREST (2013), CBS' ELEMENTARY (2014), and one of the leads of the pilot episode of the new Lifetime series I LOVE YOU, BUT I LIED (2014). Harris was named by Backstage Magazine as one of the "Backstage 30 - actors on the verge of breaking out" (2014).
Harris’ film projects include starring as "Eugene" in the feature film MY BEST DAY, which premiered at The Sundance Film Festival (2012), for which he won a Jury award for Best Acting Ensemble at the Ashland Independent Film Festival. The film had its theatrical release (2013) and is now available on iTunes and Netflix; as well as "Spot" in the feature film JUNCTION, along with Michael O’Keefe, Anthony Rapp and David Zayas for which Harris won the Best Supporting Actor award at The Long Island International Film Expo and Best Ensemble Cast at the ReelHeART International Film Festival - JUNCTION is available for purchase on Amazon and rental on Redbox. He shot the starring role of "Jack Wright" in the feature film COACH OF THE YEAR (2012) as well as supporting roles in the feature films A CRY FROM WITHIN (2013) and '79 PARTS starring Eric Roberts (2013). Harris shot the lead roles of Djuna Wahlrab's feature WE'RE DOING FINE (2013) and John Jaquish's feature THE MUTINEER (2014).
Harris made his writer/director debut short film THE STORY OF MILO & ANNIE (2014) starring Academy Award Nominee Cathy Moriarty (RAGING BULL) and Alysia Reiner (ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK) which won Best Narrative Short in the Indie Memphis Film Festival. He has written the musicals SALVAGE, WASP WOMAN and BLEEDING LOVE which recently had its world premiere production (2015) in Denmark. His screenplay ATTICUS BROWN IS STILL HERE is in development and was a Sundance, Tribeca and Hamptons Sloan finalist (2014), his screenplay IN THE WAKE was a semifinalist for the Austin Film Festival (2014) and his screenplay COG was named the winner of the Write Movies Screenwriting Competition (2014) and was a quarterfinalist for the Oscars® Academy Nicholl Fellowship (2014). Harris is a writer on the tv show I LOVE YOU, BUT I LIED (2015) for Lifetime and is the sole writer of the sit-com REENACT for the new online network TWST (2016). He wrote and directed the film THIS MOVIE WILL GET INTO SUNDANCE (2016) and his multi-award winning writer/director debut feature film BEAUTY MARK (2017) premiered as a US competition film in the LA Film Festival to rave reviews and for which Harris was shortlisted for the Independent Spirit Awards' Someone To Watch Award.
Harris wrote, conceived and produced the political concert BROADWAY BLUE WAVE FOR NEW YORK (2018) directed by Rachel Chavkin, musical directed by Mary-Mitchell Campbell, produced along with Kristy Cates, starring Ashlie Atkinson, Laura Benanti, Steven Boyer, Kathleen Chalfant, Edie Falco, Annie Golden, Dequina Moore, Javier Muñoz, Julia Murney, Cynthia Nixon, MJ Rodriguez, Daphne Rubin-Vega, Caesar Samayoa, Lianah Sta Ana, Tony Yazbek.
Harris's feature film ATTICUS BROWN IS STILL HERE, a sci-fi, coming of age story was developed at the Screenwriters Colony on Nantucket (2018) under the mentorship of Mary Harron, John C. Walsh, Jon Silk and Josephine Decker.
Harris produced and directed the KNOW YOUR RIGHTS educational video series for New York Transgender Advocacy Group (2019).
Harris directed the staged reading of WASP WOMAN (2020), for which he write book and lyrics, music by Arthur Lafrentz Bacon, presented by the Professional Conservatory of Musical Theatre at NYFA. Harris 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, which was released on the Broadway Podcast Network and became one of the top performing arts podcasts in the U.S.
Harris wrote and directed the satirical webseries THE IVANKA DIARIES (2020) starring Paten Hughes. He wrote, directed and adapted the social distance filmed theatre piece I SEE YOU AND YOU SEE ME (2021) for the Queens Theatre which premiered on PBS/WNET. He is currently in post-production on his short film F^¢K '€M R!GHT B@¢K (2022).
Harris is an adjunct professor at Columbia University where he teaches "Acting for Screenwriters and Directors" and "Directing the Actor" in the 's Film MFA program.