Bio
Wood Harris is an American actor best known for his role as Avon Barksdale in the police drama series The Wire.
harris was born in Chicago, Illinois to John and Mattie Harris, and holds a Bachelors of Arts in Theater Arts from Northern Illinois University (NIU) and a Master of Arts from New York University.
He is the younger brother of actor Steve Harris, who is best known for his role as Eugene Young in The Practice.
While enrolled in NYU, Harris starred in his first major film role in the basketball drama Above the Rim, starring opposite Tupac Shakur, and appeared in minor theatrical stage productions of various off-Broadway plays.
Harris was awarded the New York Film Festival's 1st Run Best Actor Award for his portrayal of "Derrick 'D-Train' Trainer" in Morningside Prep, a thirty-minute short movie directed by rising filmmaker, Malcolm Lee.
He subsequently guest starred in a variety of television and film venues before portraying legendary guitarist, Jimi Hendrix in Showtime's 2000 movie, Hendrix.
Later that year, Harris received his first NAACP Image Award nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture along with the Blockbuster Movie Award nomination for Favorite Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture for his role as Julius "Big Ju" Campbell in Remember The Titans.
He starred as Avon Barksdale on the first three seasons of HBO's original series The Wire and will reprise his role in the fifth season.
He also produced his own debut album, Beautiful Wonderful, which was released in 2005.
In Common's 2005 video "Testify" he plays a defendant who is double-crossed by his wife. Also in 2005, he played the role of Brax in the feature film Dirty.
He appeared in the movies Southland Tales and Ways of the Flesh in 2006 and in 2007 made a guest appearance on the drama series NUMB3RS.