Biography

Tommy Harkness was born and raised in the Bay Area. He is a multi-faceted artist - he acts, directs, writes for the screen and stage, creates electronic music and is an abstract painter.

In recognition of his work as a filmmaker, Tommy's short films Infinite Color and Devil in the Dark were named finalists at the Lift-Off Online Film Festival (2018 & 2019) and his short Isabelle's Dream won the audience award for Best Local Featurette at the Another Hole in the Head Film Festival (2024). While earning his BFA and MFA degrees, Tommy was nominated 15 times (8x for Best Actor and 7x for Writing and Directing) at the Academy of Art University's annual NXTUPfest (2020-25). He won the Audience Award for Best Picture for his short After Midnight (2023) and won Best Personal Project for his short The Green Glass Door (2025).

As a painter, he has had multiple exhibitions of his work in San Francisco, including an exclusive show at Laszlo SF with his frequent collaborator Joel Gerhardson in October of 2022.

Tommy lives in the Mission district of San Francisco and has a BFA and MFA in Acting from the Academy of Art. When not being creative, he spends his time obsessing over his cat Chloe.
- IMDb mini biography by: Tommy Harkness