He is a singer, pianist, composer,
actor and humanitarian born Joseph Harry Fowler Connick in New
Orleans, Louisiana.His father was a former district
attorney of New
Orleans from
1977-2003 and his mother is a former Louisiana Supreme Court Justice and
together they also owned a record store.He started to play the keyboard from
age three and performed in public by the time he was six.He recorded with a local jazz band
when he was ten and continued to study music at the New OrleansCenter
for the Creative Arts.He studied
further at the Manhattan School of Music and HunterCollege in New
York where he was spotted by an executive from
Columbia Records and signed up to the label.He has since released many successful
albums including the Grammy Award winning We Are In Love and Songs I
Heard, and also receiving a further five Grammy Award nominations with
other albums.He has often been
requested to provide the soundtracks for film and he won a further Grammy
Award for When Harry Met Sally
and an Academy Award and Golden Globe nomination for his contribution to the
Godfather III.His most successful single to date
is "(I Could Only) Whisper Your Name" which was sung for the
film The Mask. As an actor he made his screen
debut in 1990 in the film Memphis Belle
and has gone on to star in many others including
Copycat, Excess Baggage, Little Man Tate,
Hope Floats and Mickey.His voice was also used as a
character in the movie The Iron Giant
and he narrated My Dog Skip.His TV appearances include several episodes
of the series Will & Grace.As a composer he wrote the score for
the Broadway musical Thou Shalt Not for which he received a Tony Award nomination
for music and lyrics, and the animated special The Happy Elf for which he was also a narrator and executive
producer.The cartoon Freakazoid has
the characters attending the HarryConnick Jr.High School.After Hurricane Katrina he toured New
Orleans to attempt to bring the plight of the citizens
that were stranded to public attention.He also co-organised
a live telethon concert called A
Concert for Hurricane Relief.In 2005 he was made honorary chair of Habitat for Humanity's "Operation
Home Delivery" which is a long-term rebuilding plan for victims of
the Hurricane.He is also a Longines Ambassador of Elegance and a founder of the Krewe of Orpheus, along with his father and Sonny Borey, which is a New Orleans Mardi Gras krewe that puts on one of the largest parades in the
carnival.
