2020 STARS Hall of Fame

Hill Harper

Actor, Youth Advocate & NY Times Best-Selling Author

Bella Vista High School

Hill Harper is a humanitarian, an award-winning actor, best-selling author, entrepreneur, health and wellness ambassador/educator and philanthropist. Harper is perhaps most recognizable for his starring role in the CBS hit television drama CSI: NY where he played eccentric Dr. Sheldon Hawkes from 2004 to 2013 for which Harper won three NAACP Image Awards for Best Lead Actor in a Drama Series. Subsequently, Harper returned to CBS starring in Covert Affairs, the fast-paced drama Limitless, and Showtime’s award-winning drama Homeland. Harper will rejoin the cast of ABC’s #1 television drama, The Good Doctor, for it’s 4th season, hosts How It Really Happened with Hill Harper on HLN and star in podcast Legal Wars. In theaters, Harper can be seen in Concussion, All Eyez on Me and Warner Bros. Pictures film A Sun Is Also A Star starring Yara Shahidi.

In addition to his performing career, Harper has authored four New York Times bestsellers: Letters to a Young Brother, Letters to a Young Sister, The Conversation, and The Wealth Cure which chronicled his diagnosis with thyroid cancer and his journey to health. Letters to a Young Brother won several awards and was named “Best Book for Young Adults” by the American Library Association in 2007. Harper has been recognized with seven NAACP Image Awards, four of them for his writing. His latest book, Letters to an Incarcerated Brother, which speaks to the current mass incarceration crisis, was released to critical acclaim and was nominated for several awards.

Harper is the founder of the Manifest Your Destiny Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to empowering underserved youth through mentorship, scholarship and grant programs.

Harper was born in Iowa City, IA, the son of two doctors – his father, a psychiatrist and his mother, an anesthesiologist. He graduated magna cum laude from Brown University with a Bachelor of Arts degree and was named Valedictorian of his department. Harper then graduated with a J.D. (cum laude) from Harvard Law School, as well as with a Master’s Degree in Public Administration, with honors, from the Kennedy School of Government. He holds honorary doctoral degrees from Howard University, Winston-Salem State University, Cheyney University, Le-Moyne Owen College, Westfield State College, Dillard University and Tougaloo College.

Amongst his other titles, Harper is a successful businessman and entrepreneur. He is co-owner of the award-winning New Orleans hotel, International House, a successful coffee franchise in downtown Detroit called The Roasting Plant and The Architect & Co. - a health and wellness company - that manufactures natural skin and hair products sold on Amazon. Harper also owns several commercial and residential rental properties in Los Angeles and Newark, NJ.

Harper served on the President's Cancer Panel having been appointed by President Obama in 2011 and has been named Honorary Co-Chair of Redevelopment of Black Wall Street by Greenwood Chamber of Commerce. Harper travels worldwide as a motivational speaker, addressing current affairs and life-awakening topics to a wide array of audiences of youth, adults, couples, and business leaders. In 2004 and 2014, People Magazine named him one of their Sexiest Men Alive...he anticipates being named again in 2024.