Hill Harper: Renaissance Man
Hill Harper wears a lot of hats: he’s an actor, a four-time New York Times best-selling author, a motivational speaker, an entrepreneur, a humanitarian, a political activist, a health advocate and cancer survivor, and in his spare time, a coffee shop owner and hotelier. (Oh, and he was voted one of People magazine’s Sexiest Men Alive in 2004 and 2014, which is a kudo not many can claim.)
His most important job and life’s work by far is being a single dad to son Pierce, age 9, whom he adopted in 2015. “Adopting Pierce was the greatest decision of my life. There are so many children in foster care and seeking adoption, if you’ve ever even had an intuition to do it, it was put on your heart for a reason.” Pierce, by the way, is named after Hill’s good friend, Pierce Brosnan, whom you may recognize as the ’90s era James Bond from movies like “GoldenEye” and “Tomorrow Never Dies.” Or as ’80s heartthrob Remington Steele, depending on your generation.
“I did a movie with Pierce called ‘The Nephew,’” says Hill. “I love that movie, and Pierce Brosnan is one of the classiest, most gentle, wonderful souls in the world. Just a great guy. And I always said to myself, if I ever have a son, I want him to be like Pierce Brosnan.”
Hill’s CV reads like a very exciting and inspiring novella where he hobnobs with celebrities like Prince and Dave Chappelle while using his public platform to invest in and uplift his community.
His 2007 book, “Letters to a Young Brother: Manifest Your Destiny,” was lauded by critics as “a book that will change lives,” and won the Best Book for Young Adults award from the American Library Association. “I really felt strongly about that book,” says Hill, “because I felt like I was speaking to a community of folks who didn’t have male role models and fathers at home.” “Letters to an Incarcerated Brother” and “Letters to a Young Sister” quickly followed to similar acclaim.
In 2011, after a brush with thyroid cancer, Hill was appointed by then-president Barack Obama to the President’s Cancer Panel, where he and the other appointees worked with the National Institutes of Health on cancer policy.
He’s the founder of Manifest Your Destiny Foundation, a nonprofit that empowers underserved youth through scholarships, grants and mentorships. And in 2021 Hill launched a fintech app called the Black Wall Street to give Black- and Latinx-owned businesses a way to engage in peer-to-peer payment for and access to cryptocurrency trading.
And those are just the highlights.
After graduating from Brown (magna cum laude and as valedictorian of his department), he then went to Harvard Law School for his post-baccalaureate work. While there, Hill was a member of Boston’s Black Folks Theater Co., one of the nation’s oldest and most lauded Black theater troupes. After earning a JD/MPA, a combined law degree and master’s in public administration, cum laude, he wondered where he could have the most positive impact. Where was his heart leading him? Where is his source of joy? The answer was acting.
Hill’s big break was in 1993 when he scored a recurring role on “Married… with Children,” one of the longest-running sitcoms in history. And while that was exciting, because it was such a huge show at the time, what stands out from his early acting career are the two movies he filmed with Spike Lee. “I was hired for ‘Get on the Bus,’ and then Spike hired me immediately after that to work with Denzel Washington on ‘He Got Game,’” says Hill. “I credit Spike with a lot—that was a really great help to the beginning of my career.”
What came next was two decades of success as an actor, including nine seasons as Dr. Sheldon Hawkes on “CSI: NY” (2004–14) and six seasons as Dr. Marcus Andrews on “The Good Doctor” (2017–23). Hill is based in Detroit, but it was during covid, when filming “The Good Doctor” in Vancouver, BC, that he discovered the Pacific Northwest.
These days Hill is keeping busy with his many businesses, including A Frame, a company he cofounded with business partner Ari Bloom, that focuses on launching high-end personal care product lines created by celebrities and sold at extremely accessible price points. And of course, ASA, his gorgeous new bar in Mercer Island’s central business district (see page 22).
Has everything always gone smoothly and successfully for Hill? No, of course there have been hurdles and stumbling blocks and projects that didn’t pan out as expected, but that hasn’t stopped him from trying again. “People call me a risk taker and I don’t see it that way. I say to my son all the time, obstacles are opportunities. It’s just about reframing. I try to follow my heart and my intuition, and my ideals. And if I can do that, then it’s not taking a risk, it’s following my heart.”