Harper was born in Iowa City, Iowa, the son of Henry Harper, a psychiatrist, and Marilyn Hill, who was one of the first black practicing anesthesiologists in the United States. Acting since the age of 7, Harper graduated magna cum laude from Brown University (A.B. 1988) and also graduated with a J.D. from Harvard Law School and a Master of Public Administration from the Kennedy School of Government Read more...

Harper broke into both film and television in 1993, doing recurring work on the Fox series Married...with Children and making his film debut in the short Confessions of a Dog. He had his first substantial role in a feature in Spike Lee's Get on the Bus (1996), which cast him as a UCLA film student riding a bus to the Million Man March in Washington, D.C. He went on to further demonstrate his versatility Read more...

Born Francis E. Harper, he adopted the name Hill Harper as tribute to both his maternal and paternal ancestors.

Harper is a good friend of actress Gabrielle Union and presidential hopeful, Barack Obama.[citation needed] Recently, Harper has been spotted with noted socialite Deidra Jones exiting the exclusive lounge, the "Warehouse."

In January, 2008, he participated in Yes We Can, a Read more...