---
name: "Kelvin Harrison Jr."
canonical: "https://film.one/person/kelvin-harrison-jr"
fi1m_id: "kelvin-harrison-jr"
imdb_id: "nm5123156"
tmdb_id: 1344361
wikidata_id: "Q29622423"
roles: ["Actor"]
born: "23 July 1994"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 4
average_fi1m_score: 72
average_as: "actor"
average_over: 4
updated: "2026-10-22T04:29:48.653903+00:00"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Kelvin Harrison Jr.

## Identity

Kelvin Harrison Jr.

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/kelvin-harrison-jr
- **Type:** Person
- **Fi1m ID:** kelvin-harrison-jr
- **IMDb ID:** nm5123156
- **TMDB ID:** 1344361
- **Wikidata ID:** Q29622423
- **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelvin_Harrison_Jr., https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q29622423, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm5123156/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/1344361

Actor. Born 23 July 1994 in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA.

## Details

- **Work:** Actor
- **Born:** 23 July 1994, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA
- **Active:** 2013–present
- **Also known as:** Kelvin Harrison, 小凯文·哈里森, Келвин Харрисон, Келвин Харрисон-младший, Келвин Харрисон-мл., Kelvin Harrison, Jr., 小凱文·哈里森, کلوین هریسون جونیور
- **Average Fi1m score:** 72, as actor, over 4 titles
- **Fi1m score by decade:** 2010s 91 (1), 2020s 66 (3)
- **Fi1m against the critics:** 72 to 70 across 4 titles
- **Score spread:** 1 at 80+, 2 at 60–79, 1 under 60
- **Lead roles:** 1 of 3 acting credits billed first or second
- **Genres:** Drama 3, History 2, Adventure 1, Animation 1, Family 1, Music 1
- **Screen time:** 9 hours of reviewed films
- **Box office:** $1,205m across 4 films with figures
- **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelvin_Harrison_Jr., https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q29622423, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm5123156/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/1344361

## Coming up

- *The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping* (2026-11-18), as Beetee Latier — [page](https://film.one/film/the-hunger-games-sunrise-on-the-reaping.md)
- *Samo Lives* (2026-12-11), as Jean-Michel Basquiat

## Streaming the US now

- **Disney+:** [*Mufasa: The Lion King*](https://film.one/film/mufasa-the-lion-king.md) (57)

For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country.

## Fi1m on Kelvin Harrison Jr.

> Kelvin Harrison Jr. plays young men trying to hold their nerve in front of someone more powerful, and does it lightly, without pushing. The films of his we have reviewed use him well and not nearly enough.

In *Mufasa: The Lion King* (2024) Kelvin Harrison Jr. is only a voice, coming out of a photoreal lion, and he is still better in it than Aaron Pierre, who has the title role. Taka is a prince who is generous, spoilt and afraid of his father in roughly equal parts, and Harrison keeps all three going at once, so that a cub showing off to his adopted brother is also listening for who else is in earshot. We did not expect to be moved by two computer-drawn cubs racing and squabbling and covering for each other, and we were, and most of that is his doing. Mads Mikkelsen gets the better villain. Harrison gets the better of the two cubs.

That is the part he keeps playing: a young man under pressure. He started with small parts in *Ender's Game* and *12 Years a Slave* (both 2013), followed by more than one slave role, something he has himself remarked on. Trey Edward Shults gave him Travis in *It Comes at Night* (2017) and Tyler in *Waves* (2019), and *Luce* (2019) put him at the centre of a film that turns on whether to believe him; critics noticed how precisely he kept the question open. Julius Onah has also directed him twice. We have not reviewed those films, and they are where his reputation was made, in independent dramas about young Black men under pressure.

Since then he has mostly played real people: Fred Hampton in *The Trial of the Chicago 7* (2020), the composer Joseph Bologne in *Chevalier* (2022), B.B. King in *Elvis* (2022). He has a background in jazz and gospel, and the musicians suit him. In *Elvis* he is elegant, and Baz Luhrmann hardly uses him: he is there to make a point about who made this music and who got paid for it, a point delivered once in song by Gary Clark Jr. and then again in dialogue. Harrison knew what he had signed up for. "It's the spirit of B.B. King and the most fun version of himself," he said of the part, and that is what he plays, in the few minutes he is given to play it.

The thing he does well is not push. Where another actor would announce Taka's fear or King's grievance, Harrison lets you catch it, and in a quiet film that reads as intelligence. In a loud one it can read as absence; he is easy to lose in a Luhrmann frame, and the film loses him. Next he plays Jean-Michel Basquiat in *Samo Lives*. A painter everyone was looking at is his kind of part, and we would like to see him given the whole of a film again.

## Biography

Kelvin Harrison Jr. is an American actor. He was born on 23 July 1994 in New Orleans, Louisiana. He began his career with small roles in the 2013 films *Ender's Game* and *12 Years a Slave*.

Harrison gained wider recognition for his performance as Travis in the 2017 horror film *It Comes at Night*. He appeared in the 2019 films *Luce* and *Waves*, followed by roles in *The Trial of the Chicago 7* (2020), *Cyrano* (2021), *Elvis* (2022) and *Chevalier* (2022). He voiced Taka in *Mufasa: The Lion King* (2024).

His accolades include a Screen Actors Guild Award and nominations for a British Academy Film Award, a Gotham Award and an Independent Spirit Award.

*Sources: imdb.com, en.wikipedia.org.*

## On Fi1m (4)

- *Mufasa: The Lion King* (2024), Fi1m 57, as Taka (voice) — [page](https://film.one/film/mufasa-the-lion-king.md)
- *Elvis* (2022), Fi1m 66, as B.B. King — [page](https://film.one/film/elvis.md)
- *Cyrano* (2021), Fi1m 75, as Christian de Neuvillette — [page](https://film.one/film/cyrano.md)
- *12 Years a Slave* (2013), Fi1m 91, as Victim 2 — [page](https://film.one/film/12-years-a-slave.md)

## Complete filmography (38)

Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page.

- *Samo Lives* (2026), as Jean-Michel Basquiat · Executive Producer
- *The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping* (2026), as Beetee Latier — coming soon, [page](https://film.one/film/the-hunger-games-sunrise-on-the-reaping.md)
- *Alpha Gang* (2026), as Alpha Three
- *Hurry Up Tomorrow* (2025), Thanks
- *O'Dessa* (2025), as Euri Dervish
- *Mufasa: The Lion King* (2024), as Taka (voice) — Fi1m 57, [page](https://film.one/film/mufasa-the-lion-king.md)
- *Chevalier* (2023), as Joseph
- *Elvis* (2022), as B.B. King — Fi1m 66, [page](https://film.one/film/elvis.md)
- *Cyrano* (2021), as Christian de Neuvillette — Fi1m 75, [page](https://film.one/film/cyrano.md)
- *Monster* (2021), as Steve Harmon
- *Gully* (2021), as Jesse
- *The Trial of the Chicago 7* (2020), as Fred Hampton
- *The High Note* (2020), as David Cliff
- *The Photograph* (2020), as Andy Morrison
- *Waves* (2019), as Tyler
- *Godfather of Harlem* (2019), series, as Teddy Greene
- *Luce* (2019), as Luce Edgar
- *Bolden* (2019), as Frankie Dusen
- *J.T. LeRoy* (2019), as Sean
- *The Wolf Hour* (2019), as Freddie
- *Monsters and Men* (2018), as Zyrick
- *Assassination Nation* (2018), as Mason
- *Jinn* (2018), as Tahir
- *Mudbound* (2017), as Weeks
- *It Comes at Night* (2017), as Travis
- *Genius* (2017), series, as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
- *Shots Fired* (2017), series, as Joey Campbell (uncredited)
- *The Birth of a Nation* (2016), as Simon
- *StartUp* (2016), series, as Toussant "Touie" Dacey
- *Roots* (2016), series, as Winslow
- *A Sort of Homecoming* (2015), as Eliot
- *Dancer and the Dame* (2015), as Kenny, Kenny Bassett
- *Deluge* (2014), as Kareem
- *Chicago P.D.* (2014), series, as Michael Ellis
- *Ender's Game* (2013), as Salamander (uncredited)
- *12 Years a Slave* (2013), as Victim 2 — Fi1m 91, [page](https://film.one/film/12-years-a-slave.md)
- *Golden*, Actor
- *Death of a Salesman*, Actor

## Gallery

- ![Kelvin Harrison Jr.](https://film.one/media/person/10269/gallery-be6fa8890bbd.png) Kelvin Harrison Jr. — AMFM STUDIOS LLC, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/49/Kelvin_Harrison_Jr._during_an_interview%2C_December_2021.png?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled)
- ![Kelvin Harrison and Aaron Pierre on Funweek.it (2024)](https://film.one/media/person/10269/gallery-a43d1beef7d6.png) Kelvin Harrison and Aaron Pierre on Funweek.it (2024) — Funweek.it, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ae/%27MLK_X%27%2C_Kelvin_Harrison_e_Aaron_Pierre_%C2%ABUna_serie_per_capire_la_storia_ancora_pi%C3%B9_a_fondo%C2%BB_%285m30s%29.png?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled)
- ![Kelvin Harrison Jr. at the premiere of Chevalier (2022)](https://film.one/media/person/10269/gallery-52dc862945c5.jpg) Kelvin Harrison Jr. at the premiere of Chevalier (2022) — GabboT, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/53/Kelvin_Harrison_Jr._on_the_Red_Carpet_for_the_2022_TIFF_Premiere_of_Chevalier_%2852358887521%29.jpg/1280px-Kelvin_Harrison_Jr._on_the_Red_Carpet_for_the_2022_TIFF_Premiere_of_Chevalier_%2852358887521%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Kelvin Harrison Jr. at the premiere of Chevalier (2022)](https://film.one/media/person/10269/gallery-063b76445060.jpg) Kelvin Harrison Jr. at the premiere of Chevalier (2022) — GabboT, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/47/Kelvin_Harrison_Jr._on_the_Red_Carpet_for_the_2022_TIFF_Premiere_of_Chevalier_%2852359198294%29.jpg/1280px-Kelvin_Harrison_Jr._on_the_Red_Carpet_for_the_2022_TIFF_Premiere_of_Chevalier_%2852359198294%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Kelvin Harrison Jr.](https://film.one/media/person/10269/gallery-a15126c2fa79.jpg) Kelvin Harrison Jr. — Image via TMDB
- ![Kelvin Harrison Jr.](https://film.one/media/person/10269/gallery-6cfdf9d13f32.jpg) Kelvin Harrison Jr. — Image via TMDB
- ![Kelvin Harrison Jr.](https://film.one/media/person/10269/gallery-bee35ab37ad3.jpg) Kelvin Harrison Jr. — Image via TMDB
- ![Kelvin Harrison Jr.](https://film.one/media/person/10269/gallery-f7534771c4b1.jpg) Kelvin Harrison Jr. — Image via TMDB
- ![Kelvin Harrison Jr.](https://film.one/media/person/10269/gallery-df2465e62636.jpg) Kelvin Harrison Jr. — Image via TMDB
- ![Kelvin Harrison Jr.](https://film.one/media/person/10269/gallery-9c8e7f9ea6e2.jpg) Kelvin Harrison Jr. — Image via TMDB

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/kelvin-harrison-jr