As a kid growing up on the South Side of Chicago, Harrison White always dreamed of being a performer.
"I remember singing at my Head Start graduation and seeing the tears of joy streaming down my mother's face. I didn't even know I could sing," said White. This started off a lifelong love of performing that was solidified when White was cast in the musical "Raisin" while still in grade school. Performing permeated White's life from then on. White sang in church and did community theater and during high school he joined the drama club and started the dance team ( he was the captain ).
Although White's family started off middle-class, they ended up in living in the projects following his parent's divorce; however, he said this didn't define him or his family. "My mother had morals and brought us up a certain way including how we looked when we left the house. She didn't want us to look poor," said White.
White first realized he was gay when he was a child and, although he grew up in a very religious family, he said that didn't deter him from being out at an early age. "It was a very hard time for me compounded by the fact that the reason why my parents divorced was my father was also gay," said White. At first, White's family had a hard time accepting his sexual orientation but now White says they accept him and husband Patrick Killian wholeheartedly.
They have been together for 11 years and were one of the 18,000 couples who got married in the summer of 2008 prior to the passage of Proposition 8. White met Killian—the key hairstylist on the TV show Scandal—while he was in Norfolk, Virginia, doing a show. They had a long-distance relationship for a year; then, Killian moved to California.
White got involved with Crystal Chappell's Open Book Productions through his husband. Killian and Chappell were working on the daytime soap Days of Our Lives at the same time. While Chappell was getting her hair and makeup done, she was talking about needing another actor for her LGBT Web series Venice. "Patrick told her that I was an actor and asked her if there was a role for me," White said. "Crystal asked if I had anything online and Patrick gave her my information. After looking at my work, Crystal went back to Patrick and told him if I wanted the job I was hired."
Since then, White has appeared in all four seasons of the show and is slated to return for the fifth season. White has also appeared in Chappell's The Grove: The Series pilot movie. "The best part of working with Open Book Productions is the freedom and trust we've developed over the years," said White. "I feel very thankful, fortunate and honored to be a part of these groundbreaking Web series because I've done work that is very important for our [LGBT] community. I'm in awe of the whole experience. I love working with Crystal, Jessica Leccia and the rest of the cast and crew. The fans have been great and the yearly fan events are really cool. I love my lesbian sisters," said White.
This past September, White returned to Chicago for the Reeling Film Festival screening of his latest film, Waiting in the Wings: A Musical. White said that it was thrilling to return to his hometown and be received in such a welcoming way.
Growing up, White had teachers who believed in him and told him he could achieve anything in life. He also has a spiritual background that has kept him rooted. "I feel very fortunate that I was able to dream big and see a lot of my dreams come to fruition. That is what Chicago was for me," said White.
A graduate of Englewood High School and Northern Illinois University ( NIU ), White was also a founding member of the Chicago Youth Preparatory Company. He spent seven years with the company training and performing all over Chicago. "We went to places where other performers wouldn't go like prisons or the poor areas of the city. The core of my training came from my there and then I went to NIU to enhance my training," said White.
White received his acting degree from NIU and immediately went to New York City. He spent the next seven years doing commercials, a B-movie and Broadway and off-Broadway shows. During dry spells, White passed out flyers, waited tables and traded stocks and bonds at the New York Stock Exchange. White ended up in Los Angeles when one of the shows he did on Broadway went on a national tour. Since then, White has worked as a performer at Universal Studios Hollywood theme park, had a co-starring role in a musical opposite Gladys Knight, was a member of the LA and Broadway company of The Lion King and performed in a West End—in London—production of Smokey Joe's Cafe before landing at Open Book Productions.
White's favorite guest-starring role was on the TV show Rizzoli and Isles. "I played a janitor who got killed which was fun since I've never gotten killed on TV before," White said. "I was very happy that the character got to speak before he was killed. I had never laid on a slab table before so that was cool and interesting to me. The ladies, Sasha [Alexander] and Angie [Harmon], were lovely."
As for upcoming projects, White is working on two ideas now and is currently in the writing process for both projects.
See www.mrharrisonwhite.com for more information .
