After studying acting at New York's prestigious Tisch School of the Arts, he chalked up a catalogue of Shakespeare roles off-Broadway before making his Broadway debut in two shows by Kander and Ebb, as Billy Flynn in Chicago and as Emcee in Sam Mendes's production of Cabaret; it was Mendes, in fact, who recommended him to Six Feet Under creator Alan Ball.
This time around, it's Tom Ford's turn in the emcee's spotlight, in a track on Jay-Z's forthcoming album, "Magna Carta Holy Grail".
Born in Raleigh, North Carolina, he first appeared on Broadway in 1999 as The Emcee in Sam Mendes's production of Cabaret and then took the title role in Hedwig and the Angry Inch in 2014.
Inspired by then iO board member Zak Rosen, our first GET VERSED featured David Blair as emcee in one of his last public appearances.
Transgressive as Hedwig's subject matter might be, musicals are familiar terrain for Harris: he has been in several Sondheim shows, played the Emcee in Cabaret, and shown off his pipes in everything from Glee to Joss Whedon's web series Dr Horrible's Sing-Along Blog.
He appeared on stage as the Emcee in Cabaret and in several Stephen Sondheim shows, and performed musical numbers in How I Met Your Mother, Glee and – most deliriously – in the cartoon series Batman: The Brave and the Bold.
Recently, his knack was on display in the one-man The Sucker Emcee, in which he appeared.
He is currently appearing in a sell-out Broadway production of Cabaret in the role of Emcee, and he has been nominated for an Emmy for his part as a political strategist in the upmarket US TV drama The Good Wife.
Alan Cumming Cabaret (1998) Rarely do two actors become associated with a single role, but Alan Cumming both subverted and surpassed expectations when he opened on Broadway in 1998 in Cabaret by eclipsing memories of the legendary Joel Grey, the original Emcee in the John Kander/Fred Ebb musical about the rise of the Third Reich.
It became evident in what is now called "Fiascogate," in which the emcee famously muddled a verse of A Tribe Called Quest's signature song "Electric Relaxation" during a 2007 VH1's Hip-Hop Honors performance.
His statements were not offhand remarks, but rather should be seen as representative of the Kochs, as he was hailed as their "grand strategist" by emcee Kevin Gentry in the proceedings and sits on the boards of several of their organizations.
