BIO
Woody Harrelson’s rare mix of intensity and charisma consistently surprises and delights audiences and critics alike in both mainstream and independent projects. Most recently Harrelson’s performance in Martin McDonagh’s, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri earned him a 2018 Academy Award® nomination for Best Supporting Actor and a BAFTA nomination for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. He was previously nominated by the Academy, the Golden Globes® and SAG Awards® in the category of Best Actor for his portrayal of controversial magazine publisher Larry Flynt in Milos Forman’s The People vs. Larry Flynt. His portrayal of a casualty notification officer in Oren Moverman’s The Messenger garnered him a 2010 Academy Award® nomination for Best Supporting Actor.
Harrelson next joins Scarlett Johansson and Channing Tatum in the Greg Berlanti-directed film Project Artemis for Apple Original Films, set around the 1960s space race. Harrelson recently completed shooting Suncoast alongside Laura Linney, a drama written and directed by Laura Chinn in her directorial debut for Searchlight Films.
Harrelson recently starred opposite Justin Theroux in The White House Plumbers, a five-part limited series for HBO Max. Harrelson starred in Bobby Farrelly’s sports comedy for Focus Features, Champions, based on the Goya Award winning Spanish film Campeones. Harrelson can be seen in Ruben Ostlund’s English language ensemble film Triangle of Sadness which made its world debut at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival where it received an eight-minute standing ovation and won the Palme D'Or.
Other recent film credits include Columbia Pictures’ action-comedy The Man From Toronto starring opposite Kevin Hart; Sony Picture’s Venom: Let There Be Carnage as Cletus Kasady opposite supervillain ‘Carnage’ played by Tom Hardy; Netflix’s The Highwaymen with Kevin Costner and Kathy Bates; Midway opposite Mandy Moore; Lucasfilm’s Solo: A Star Wars Story, Shock and Awe and LBJ both directed by Rob Reiner; The Glass Castle co-starring Naomi Watts; the third installment of the Planet of The Apes, entitled War for the Planet of the Apes directed by Matt Reeves; Fox Searchlight’s critically acclaimed The Edge of Seventeen; Wilson with director Craig Johnson; Now You See Me 2 for director Jon Chu; and Triple Nine for director John Hillcoat.
Harrelson wrote, directed, produced and starred in an unprecedented live feature film Lost in London, which was broadcast live into theaters nationwide on January 19, 2017. The comedy also stars Owen Wilson and Willie Nelson.
Other highlights from Harrelson’s film career include Rampart with director Oren Moverman; Ruben Fleischer’s box office hit, Zombieland as well as the 2019 sequel Zombieland: Double Tap; Out of the Furnace starring opposite Christian Bale and Casey Affleck; The Hunger Games film series; Now You See Me; The Grand; No Country For Old Men; A Scanner Darkly; A Prairie Home Companion; Seven Pounds; The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio; North Country; Transsiberian; The Thin Red Line; Welcome To Sarajevo; Natural Born Killers; Indecent Proposal; White Men Can’t Jump and was recently seen as the on screen host for director Pete McGrain’s powerful political documentary Ethos.
On television, Harrelson most recently reprised his role as 'Archie Bunker' in two episodes of the Critics’ Choice and Emmy-winning ABC special Live In Front Of A Studio Audience, produced by Jimmy Kimmel and Norman Lear.
Other notable television credits include HBO’s True Detective co-starring Matthew McConaughey for which he was nominated for Emmy and SAG Awards in the lead actor category and a Golden Globes Award for lead actor in a Mini Series. In 2012 Harrelson starred opposite Julianne Moore and Ed Harris in the HBO film Game Change for which he earned Primetime Emmy®, SAG Awards®, and Golden Globe® nominations for his role as Steve Schmidt, and Martin McDonagh’s Seven Psychopaths, alongside Sam Rockwell, Colin Farrell and Christopher Walken.
Harrelson first endeared himself to millions of viewers as a member of the ensemble cast of NBC's long-running hit comedy, Cheers. For his work as the affable bartender ‘Woody Boyd,’ he won a Primetime Emmy® in 1988 and was nominated four additional times during his eight-year run on the show. In 1999, he gained another Primetime Emmy® nomination when he reprised the role in a guest appearance on the spin-off series Frasier.
Balancing his film and television work, in 1999 Harrelson directed his own play, Furthest From The Sun at the Theatre de la Juene Lune in Minneapolis. He followed next with the Roundabout's Broadway revival of The Rainmaker; Sam Shepherd’s The Late Henry Moss, and John Kolvenbach's On An Average Day opposite Kyle MacLachlan at London’s West End. Harrelson directed the Toronto premiere of Kenneth Lonergan's This Is Our Youth at Toronto’s Berkeley Street Theatre. In the winter of 2005 Harrelson returned to London's West End, starring in Tennessee Williams' Night of the Iguana at the Lyric Theatre. In 2011, Harrelson co-wrote and directed the semi-autobiographical comedy Bullet for Adolf at Hart House Theatre in Toronto. In the summer of 2012 Bullet for Adolf made its Off-Broadway debut at New World Stages.