Chris Harcum is an award-winning actor, playwright, filmmaker, and a founding member of Elephant Run District. Member of SAG-AFTRA, Actors’ Equity, and the Dramatists Guild. His award-winning short comedy films include The Big Pivot, Coney Island Promise, and Beyond & Above.
Mission: To deep dive into our human mess, to seek answers to life’s imponderables, and to crack people up.
Type: Smart, morally perplexed, and irreverent. Good guy who turns out to be a bad guy or a bad guy who turns out to be a good guy?
Strengths: Able to work and play with people from various backgrounds and training, inject comedy into drama and reality into comedy, make smart choices with hard-to-define characters, and give life to uncomfortable stories.
His short film The Save is screening at the Chain NYC Film Festival on Aug. 14 at 8 p.m. and the Richmond International Film Festival on Sept. 26 at 4:30 p.m.
Recent credits include his appearances in the short film Seeds for All, which was Executive Produced by Spike Lee, Wipeout, written by Jeryl Brunner and presented by Jesse Eisenberg and Anna Strout, and the Emmy Award-winning web series Hot Angry Mom. He received a Broadway World nomination for his performance as the Duke of York in Richard II in Central Park and delighted audiences in Idaho with his physical comedy work in the role of Robert in Boeing-Boeing at Liberty Theatre Co. He can be heard playing the role of the German solider Ludwig in Peter Stass and Blerime Topalli’s audio drama In a Dark Wood.
As a solo performer, he has created and performed American Badass, American Gun Show, Anhedonia Road, Gotham Standards, Green, Mahamudra, The Preservationist, Some Kind of Pink Breakfast, Things You Don’t Know, and Weight and Weightlessness. His solo performance American Gun Show received 5-star reviews in the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and he was named NYTTheatre’s Person of the Year for his work on Green.
His full-length plays include Martin Denton, Martin Denton, Rabbit Island, The Hypochondriac, and The Devil in Ms. Spelvin. He was a contributor to Jon Gracey and Viv Egan’s guide to the Edinburgh Fringe titled Cracking the Fringe. His work on Martin Denton, Martin Denton is profiled in Martin Denton’s Indie Theater Guy. His writing has also appeared in the New York Times and the Brooklyn Rail.
In addition to acting in classical pieces by Shakespeare, Moliere, Chekhov, and Pirandello, Chris has worked as an actor and playwright with a number of cutting-edge and downtown NYC venues and companies including 59E59, Irondale Center, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Transport Group, FringeNYC, TOSOS, American Bard, The Brick, The Cell, The Chain, The Living Theatre, Culture Project, Peculiar Works Project, The Tank, People’s Improv Theater, Manhattan Theatre Source, Frigid New York, Metropolitan Playhouse, the Wild Project, and many others. He is one half of the long-form improv duo Pedro & Chris, who appeared in the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and on Manhattan Neighborhood Network.
Chris received his M.F.A. in Acting from the University of Virginia and B.F.A. in Acting from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He received certificates in training from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts Theatre Arts Program, the Second City Conservatory, and the Second City Film School.
Chris Harcum 