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Harry Shearer
Musician, Actor, Author & Activist
Harry Shearer is a comic personality who takes "hyphenate" to new levels. First and foremost an actor, he is also an author, director, satirist, 2007 Grammy nominated musician, radio host, playwright, multi-media artist, regular contributor to THE HUFFINGTON POST and record label owner. For twenty years the Los Angeles native has enjoyed enormous success and planted the fruits of his talents in the heads of millions worldwide thanks to his voice work for THE SIMPSONS and THE SIMPSONS MOVIE. Shearer plays a stable of characters: most notably Mr. Burns, Smithers, Ned Flanders, Rev. Lovejoy and Scratchy. Shearer’s new bitingly poignant musical satire of the Bush administration’s leading figures, SONGS OF THE BUSHMEN is scheduled for release July 7th. The CD is a follow-up to SONGS POINTED AND POINTLESS which was nominated for a 2007 Grammy Award in the Best Comedy Album category.
In June,2008 The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce awarded Harry a Star on THE HOLLYWOOD WALK OF FAME. The legendary honor in the radio category acknowledges his wide body of work and specifically LE SHOW, his weekly one hour satirical sand-box that has aired for 21 years on public radio outlets worldwide.
In July, 2007, Shearer plunged into the on-line video universe when the Harry Shearer Channel became a cornerstone of My Damn Channel (www.MyDamnChannel.com), an entertainment studio and new media platform specifically created to empower artists to co-produce, distribute and monetize original, episodic video content. Each week a new political or pop culture satire written by and featuring Shearer is unveiled.
In October 2006, Shearer released his first novel, NOT ENOUGH INDIANS (Justin, Charles & Company). The book takes a darkly comic look at the proliferation of Native American gaming and what happens to the fictional town of Gammage, New York, when it transforms into the sovereign nation of the long lost Filaquonsett tribe.
In November 2006, movie audiences saw Shearer’s collaboration with Christopher Guest and friends from A MIGHTY WIND, in the feature film, FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION. The film was a hilarious depiction of independent filmmaking and how the "buzz" about a potential award nomination affects the lives of three actors played by Parker Posey, Catherine O'Hara and Shearer.
In the summer of 2006, Shearer and his wife, singer/songwriter Judith Owen took their comical commentary on American culture to Scotland for the Edinburgh Festival in THIS IS SO NOT ABOUT THE SIMPSONS – AMERICAN VOYEURS. This multi media theatrical experience takes American culture and politics head on through original song intertwined with live feed news footage.
In 2005, Shearer and Owen launched Courgette Records (which is English for zucchini - a nod to the infamous airport scene from THIS IS SPINAL TAP). The label is distributed by Warner Music Group's Alternative Distribution Alliance. Courgette’s debut release was Owen's critically acclaimed LOST AND FOUND and the follow-up, HERE. Other releases include a compilation DVD of Shearer’s comedy sketches from SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE and HBO’s - NOW YOU SEE IT and DROPPING SHEARER ANCHORS, a comedy CD about the sudden disappearance of a generation of network TV News anchors.
A child of Hollywood, Shearer made guest appearances on a variety of A-list television series while still in his teens. Credits include THE JACK BENNY PROGRAM, GENERAL ELECTRIC THEATRE and ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS.
Shearer attended UCLA as a political science major, where he edited and wrote for the school humor magazine. He pursued graduate work at Harvard University and served a political internship in Sacramento before turning to freelance journalism, most notably covering the Watts riots for Newsweek.
In 1968, Shearer auditioned for a satirical news team at KRLA-AM called The Credibility Gap. The crew developed a fanatical following, engaging in guerilla comedy actions like alternative live running commentaries to the annual Rose Parade in Pasadena. The classic Gap lineup including Shearer, future bandmate Michael McKean, David Lander, and Richard Beebe began to play local clubs and eventually recorded a number of hilarious - and now scarce - albums, including A GREAT GIFT IDEA, THE BRONZE AGE OF RADIO and FLOATS.
In the early 1980s, he and friends Michael McKean and Christopher Guest, along with director Rob Reiner, began to incubate an idea for a fake documentary about an aging heavy metal band. The resulting movie, THIS IS SPINAL TAP, became the granddaddy of the mock-umentary genre and gave the world new insight into the concepts of spontaneously-combusting drummers and amps that go up to eleven. The band was reunited in July 2007, for a special performance at The Live Earth Concert at London’s Wembley Stadium.
Theatrically, Shearer has collaborated with writer Tom Leopold and composer Peter Matz to create the book and lyrics for an original musical about J. Edgar Hoover simply called J. EDGAR!: THE MUSICAL. The play premiered to sold out houses and critical raves at The Aspen Comedy Festival and is currently being developed for Broadway.
In the world of fine art, the Fullerton Museum Center presented Shearer's installation TELESTHESIA in the early 1990s, featuring video clips of various media personalities saying nothing. The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in Los Angeles presented Shearer's installation, WALL OF SILENCE THAT featured key figures from the O.J. Simpson Trial in their least soundbite-stealing moments. Most recently, FACE TIME featuring the Presidential and vice presidential candidates and the members of the mediocrity that covered them, was displayed in Washington, D.C.'s Conner Contemporary Gallery.
Shearer's film credits include REAL LIFE, THE RIGHT STUFF, PORTRAIT OF A WHITE MARRIAGE, THE FISHER KING, GODZILLA, THE TRUMAN SHOW, SMALL SOLDIERS, DICK, and A MIGHTY WIND, FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION. He has been a regular cast member on SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE twice (dates) and, in 2002, wrote and directed his first feature film, TEDDY BEARS' PICNIC.
He has won two Cable Ace Awards.
Shearer and wife Judith Owen divide their time between Los Angeles and their beloved adopted city of New Orleans.