Jason Butler Harner

Jason Thomas Butler Harner (born October 9, 1970) is an American actor. Life and career Harner was born in Elmira, New York and grew up in suburban Northern Virginia, where he saw a handful of plays at Washington, D.C.’s Arena Stage. His middle name Butler is his mother’s maiden name. He graduated from T. C. Williams High School, Alexandria, Virginia, in 1988. Although Harner was the president of his high school drama club, he spent his time building sets rather than acting since many of his relatives were carpenters or plumbers. At 17, after graduating from high school, he worked as an usher at the Eisenhower Theater, part of the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. He graduated from VCU with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in acting in 1992. After graduating from VCU, he was an apprentice at Actors Theatre of Louisville; he subsequently moved to New York City and received a Master of Fine Arts in the Graduate Acting Program from Tisch School of the Arts in 1997. Harner returned to VCU as a Master Teacher during their 2007-08 Guest Artist program.