This coroner-turned-CSI has friends in high places.

Hill Harper plays forensic scientist (and former medical examiner) Dr Sheldon Hawkes on CSI: New York, but the actor spent a large part of the past two years campaigning for President-Elect Barack Obama. Harper was a member of Obama's national campaign finance committee and has known the president-elect for 20 years. They met while attending Harvard Law School. "We met basically the first week at school, at Harvard, actually on the basketball court," Harper told Zap2It. He was playing by himself, "and basketball's one of those things where it's always more fun to do with somebody else and in walked this tall, skinny guy named Barack Obama. We struck up a friendship."

In order to devote so much time to campaigning for Obama, Harper had to work with the creative team behind New York to make his schedule work. He credited producer Vikki Williams with helping him work things out. "It's a lot of moving logistical pieces, because certainly I wasn't the only one requesting time for different things," he explained, adding, "[I]t's a lot of juggling, so I have so much respect for what they do in putting together a production."

Being part of a successful television show helped Harper reach a bigger audience during the campaign, but the actor said he enjoys the show beyond how it benefited his work for Obama. "I love doing CSI: NY and I love playing Dr. Hawkes because I love breaking stereotypes, I love being the most intelligent character on the show," he said. "I love being the character that all the other characters have to come to for answers and we don't see that image being portrayed enough, as far as African-American males are concerned, on television." And now, Harper added, with the election of Barack Obama, "we're going to see that image in the White House, and I think that's fantastic."

The original interview is from Zap2It. Information about Harper's role in the Obama campaign is from Politico.

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