[5] Harris studied toward a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in acting from The Theatre School at DePaul University in 2009, but was cut from the program after a year.

[2][10] He had a residency at the MacDowell Colony, where he wrote the play "Daddy", in which a young black artist (Franklin) becomes involved with an older European art collector (Andre).

[2][4][11] "Daddy" served as Harris's writing sample when he applied to the Yale School of Drama, where he began studies in the fall of 2016.

[13] It was then produced off-Broadway at the New York Theatre Workshop under the direction of Robert O'Hara in 2018, Harris's first professional production as playwright.

[22] New York Times reviewer Ben Brantley noted some excellent performances, but found the dialogue "endless and circular and repetitive" and the play too "cerebral".

[11] In November 2019, an experimental work entitled Black Exhibition, credited under the pseudonym @GaryXXXFisher, debuted at the Brooklyn theater Bushwick Starr.

[23] Using Ntozake Shange's term choreopoem to describe its structure, Harris combines language and movement in a work that centers on five characters: San Francisco writer Gary Fisher, Kathy Acker, Yukio Mishima, Samuel R. Delany, and Missouri college athlete Michael L.

Harris was cast in the Sean Price Williams directed film The Sweet East (2023) alongside Ayo Edebiri.

[citation needed] He produced streaming for both Heroes of the Fourth Turning (a remount of an earlier digital reading) and Circle Jerk (later produced as a physical production by the same team), donated a collection of plays by black writers to one library in each of the 50 states, plus Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico, and Guam, and pledged various fees and royalties from Slave Play to fund $500 microgrants, administered by the Bushwick Starr theater, to 152 U.S.-based playwrights.

[citation needed] In 2020, Harris sent a letter to then-president-elect Joe Biden, urging him to revive the Federal Theatre Project, and then used an appearance on Late Night with Seth Meyers to further advocate the idea.

[20] Interviews frequently mention Harris's physical appearance, including his 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m) stature,[4] and what GQ called his "dandyish style".

[31] Unproduced plays In June 2019, to mark the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots, a series of demonstrations that represent the start of the modern LGBT rights movement, Queerty named Harris one of the Pride50 "trailblazing individuals who actively ensure society remains moving towards equality, acceptance and dignity for all queer people.