Harry Connick, Jr.'s career has exemplified excellence across multiple platforms in the entertainment world over the past three decades. He has received Grammy and Emmy awards as well as Tony nominations for his live and recorded musical performances, his achievements in film and television and his appearances on Broadway as both an actor and a composer. Connick continues to establish himself as a best-selling musician, singer, composer, and a legendary live performer with millions of recordings sold around the world.
The foundation of Connick's art is the music of his native New Orleans, where he began performing as a pianist and vocalist at the age of five. Highlights of his music career include several multi-platinum recordings such as "When Harry Met Sally," "Blue Light, Red Light (Someone's There)", "When My Heart Finds Christmas," "Come By Me, and "Only You." His debut album on legendary Verve Records, his new label home, titled True Love: A Celebration of Cole Porter was released in October 2019.
Connick has appeared in 20 films including Dolphin Tale with Morgan Freeman, Hope Floats with Sandra Bullock, P.S. I Love You with Hilary Swank, Bug with Ashley Judd, and Copycat with Sigourney Weaver, and on television (American Idol, Will & Grace, South Pacific and his Emmy Award winning concert specials). He recently hosted the CBS Special UNITED WE SING: A GRAMMY® TRIBUTE TO THE UNSUNG HEROES, honoring essential workers in the pandemic. In the fall of 2016, he launched Harry, a national daytime television show featuring his touring band, which earned 11 Daytime Emmy nominations in its two seasons, including two nominations for best host, and a Critics' Choice nomination for best talk show. On Broadway, Connick received Tony nominations as both a lead actor in The Pajama Game and as a composer/lyricist for Thou Shalt Not. He last performed on Broadway in December of 2019 in Harry Connick, Jr.- A Celebration of Cole Porter honoring one of America's most respected songwriters, Cole Porter. The companion album True Love: A Celebration of Cole Porter was nominated for a Best Traditional Pop Album Grammy in December of 2020.
Despite his busy career, Connick has always found the time to be charitable and has done some of his most important work in his efforts to help New Orleans after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. He, along with friend Branford Marsalis, conceived of "Musicians' Village," and its centerpiece the Ellis Marsalis Center. Musicians' Village provides homes for Katrina-displaced musicians while the Center uses music as its focal point of a holistic strategy to deliver a broad range of services to underserved children, youth and musicians from neighborhoods battling poverty and social injustice.
Connick's honors, including a star on the celebrated Hollywood Walk of Fame as part of the 2019 class of Honorees, induction into the Hollywood Bowl Hall of Fame, Honorary Doctorates from Tulane and Loyola Universities and the Jefferson Award for Public Service, have not led Harry Connick, Jr. to slow his creative pace; they only confirm his determination to apply his talents in ways that prove inspirational to other artists and publicly spirited citizens.