Hi, I’m Chris ~ I’m a Portland based artist, actor, director, and coach with a unique focus: personal development through embodied acting and theatre making.
Acting skills awaken our instrument and allow us to experience a wide range of the human condition. Actors explore a variety of world views and discover what motives us; how and why we take action. Theatre opens the door to voluntary play and witnessed creative expression. It’s fun and meaningful to perform.
I’m interested in stories that wrestle with unique conflicts and offer possibility for universal resonance. I value honesty, courage, risk taking, collaboration, community, compassion, humility, and respect. I’ve always been a seeker… curious about the unknown, our relationships with consciousness, each other, and our environment. I’m drawn to the spirit and transformative power of live theatre.
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Bio: Chris Harder (AEA, SAG/AFTRA) is a two-time Drammy Award winner and twice Regional Arts and Culture Council grant recipient. He is a faculty member of The Actors Conservatory, an accredited two year actor training program in Portland, OR.
He was a Resident Artist with Artists Repertory Theatre (2014-2022), as a theatre ambassador, performing in numerous productions, new play development and in education outreach.
He was an original member of the Sowelu Theater Ensemble (1998 – 2004) acting and working in all areas of production, training in weekly ensemble workshops, studying Meisner Technique with Barry Hunt (via William Esper,) Viewpoints (Kim Weild & SITI Co) and practicing physical awareness and movement techniques.
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Through Sowelu Prison Outreach Chris led residencies with adults at Coffee Creek Correctional Facility and Columbia River Correctional Institution. He was an ongoing mentor with The Haven Project for five years where he guided young writers through the process of play writing. He continued this process with Playwrite Inc. and Sojourn Afield and has taught acting and developed original plays through Oregon Children’s Theatre, Portland Center Stage, The Young players and many Oregon / Washington Public Schools. At Artists Repertory Theatre Chris was an Actor To Go, and the Interim Director of Education (2007).
Chris has performed in numerous plays, readings and workshops. Theaters include Portland Center Stage, Artists Repertory Theatre, Third Rail Rep, Portland Playhouse, Portland Experimental Theatre Ensemble, Portland Shakespeare Project, Hand2Mouth, CoHo Productions, Shaking The Tree, Sojourn Theatre, Profile Theatre, Stark Raving, Eggshell Productions, Well Arts Institute and Portland Civic Theatre Guild. Chris developed and self-produced two original solo shows (The Centering and Fishing For My Father) and has toured to the Edmonton and Boulder International Fringe Festivals.
In Film / TV Credits include; Restless, Extraordinary Measures, Music Within, Rid of Me, Everyman’s War, Grimm, Leverage, The Librarians, The Girl in the Woods, Recovery, Thieves, Safe Inside and This Vast and Mysterious Ocean.
For more than ten years he developed routines and performed as Comedy Magician, Clown and Emcee, performing at over a thousand parties and events. He is a certified Comedy Stage Hypnotist having trained in Las Vegas with Geof Ronning and performs at Fairs, Festivals, School Fundraisers, and Grad Night events.
Chris is originally from Racine, Wisconsin, he holds a BA in Dramatic Arts from the University of Wisconsin -Parkside and trained at Shakespeare and Company in Lenox, MA.
Chris is married to actress Val Landrum, he is an avid fly fisherman and lives in Portland, OR.