From 2011, Harewood starred as David Estes, the director of the CIA's Counterterrorism Center, in the Showtime series Homeland. After appearing in 24 episodes, his character was killed off in a bomb explosion at the end of season 2.[1] Also in 2011, he voiced Captain Quinton Cole in the video game Battlefield 3.
In June 2014, he appeared in Tulip Fever.[16] In October 2015, he appeared as a core cast member on the CBS television series Supergirl as Hank Henshaw. Since his character was revealed (in the episode Human for a Day) to be J'onn J'onzz/Martian Manhunter posing as Henshaw, he portrays J'onn J'onzz with Henshaw's likeness as his human form and has a dual recurring role as the real Hank Henshaw / Cyborg Superman.
In 2017, Harewood was in London to attend the British Urban Film Festival. The following year, for his performance in "Free in Deed", Harewood won Best Actor at the 2018 British Urban Film Festival awards. Harewood was included in the 2019 edition of the Powerlist, ranking the 100 most influential Black Britons.[17] Also in 2019, he played the position of goalkeeper for England in Soccer Aid for UNICEF 2019. Psychosis and Me, a documentary hosted and produced by Harewood received a BAFTA Television Award nominated for Single Documentary.[18]
In October 2021, it was revealed that Harewood will make his feature directorial debut with For Whom The Bell Tolls, a boxing film about the rivalry between Chris Eubank and Nigel Benn.[19]
In November 2021, The Guardian published an article focusing on Harewood and actor Ricardo P Lloyd comparing both of their lives and careers and the struggles black British actors face in the UK. This was part of Black British culture matters, curated by Lenny Henry & Marcus Ryder for The Guardian Saturday Culture Issue No7.[6][20]
Harewood is an advocate of the British government apologising for Britain's participation in the slave trade.[27] His great-great-great-great grandparents had been slaves on a plantation in Barbados owned by Henry Lascelles, 2nd Earl of Harewood.[28] Slaves were given surnames derived from those of their owners, hence Harewood's ancestors had to take their name from the Lascelles' title. Harewood has engaged with David Lascelles, the 8th and current Earl of Harewood and a descendant of the 2nd Earl, who also believes the government should apologise for the slave trade.[27] As part of a BBC Look North programme in 2007, David Harewood visited Lascelles' ancestral home, Harewood House, which was built with the profits of slavery, and interviewed Lascelles on the subject.[29] He did so again for a Channel 5 documentary in 2021.[30]
In September 2023, a portrait of Harewood, commissioned by Lascelles, was put on display at Harewood House as an acknowledgement of their families' connected history.[27] It will become part of the stately home's permanent collection.[30] The portrait's unveiling was accompanied by a temporary exhibition at the house focussing on Harewood's life and career.[31] Harewood described the hanging of the portrait as "well overdue for me and my ancestors"[32] and commented that he hoped visitors to the house would
see a picture of a black person that they may recognise from the television, they will enquire as to why his picture is there, and then they'll understand… all of the unpaid work that my ancestors did, and the brutality of what they suffered… helped build this house.[27]
In 2007, Harewood donated his bone marrow and as a result saved the life of a patient.[35] In October 2013, Harewood voiced an interactive video campaign for the British Lung Foundation aiming to ban smoking in cars with children on board in the United Kingdom.[36]
Sport
Harewood is an avid supporter of Birmingham City Football Club.[1][37] Harewood appeared in Soccer Aid 2018 as England's celebrity goalkeeper. He saved two penalties during the penalty shootout, helping England to win the charity match. The event raised more than £5 million for UNICEF, a charity that Harewood supports.
Personal life
Harewood married his long-term girlfriend Kirsty Handy in February 2013 in Saint James, Barbados. They have two daughters and the family resides in Streatham, London.[38]
Harewood is a mental health ambassador and has been open about his own struggles, confessing that he used to self-medicate with alcohol and marijuana to deal with his bipolar-like symptoms, discarding the medication given to him by doctors. He was sectioned under the Mental Health Act,[39] spent time on the Whittington Hospital psychiatric ward, and was prescribed the antipsychotic drug chlorpromazine.[40] He subsequently expanded on his experiences, hosting a 2019 BBC documentary titled David Harewood: My Psychosis and Me.[41][42]
I had consumed a fair amount of marijuana and was under a lot of stress; over the course of two years, I'd slowly come undone. I had spent weeks walking all over London, sometimes throughout the night, talking to strangers and following them wherever they led me. I'd black out only to regain consciousness in a completely different part of town, hours later, afraid and with absolutely no idea what had happened in the interval. Had it not been for some extraordinary friends who decided that I needed to be hospitalised, I might have vanished into the night for good. Worse still, I could have taken heed of the incredibly real and convincing voices in my head and simply thrown myself off Westminster Bridge. Instead, I found myself sectioned under the Mental Health Act.
