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Familiar to television audiences from his starring role on “Married With Children”, Harold Sylvester is a veteran actor and Emmy award-winning writer and producer whose credits include 17 feature films and more than 400 television shows. Harold has been married to Kathleen Dunn Sylvester for 56 years. They have two wonderful children, daughter, Dr. Tracey Sylvester Garnett, and son, Harold Christopher Sylvester, III. 

Born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana, Sylvester’s first claim to fame came as a member of the St. Augustine High school basketball team that went undefeated during the regular season in 1965. He participated in a secret basketball game that was a seminal event that led to the integration of athletics in the state of Louisiana. He eventually led his St. Augustine squad to the LIALO state basketball championship in 1966.

After he said no to Harvard University, Sylvester attended Tulane University, where he was the first African American to receive an athletic scholarship. He majored  in theater and psychology.  

With college stage experience under his belt, he landed supporting roles in productions shooting on location in New Orleans, including the acclaimed television movie, “The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman”. Sylvester landed his big break, while still in Louisiana, when he was cast in the lead in “Part II Sounder”, a sequel to the groundbreaking film “Sounder”, which stared Paul Winfield and Cicely Tyson. The sequel launched Sylvester‘s career and he moved to Los Angeles in 1975. Since then, he stared many high profile feature films, including “An Officer and a Gentleman” with Richard Gere and Louis Gossett Jr., the basketball comedy “Fast Break” with Gabe Kaplan, “Inner Space” with Martin Short, Dennis Quaid, and Meg Ryan, the Vietnam drama, “Uncommon Valor” with Gene Hackman and Patrick Swayze, Richard Donner’s “Inside Moves” and “Corrina,Corrina” with Whoopi Goldberg.

On television, Sylvester spent three seasons as “Griff”, the shoe salesman working with Al Bundy (Ed O’Neill) at Gary’s Shoe Emporium on “Married, With Children”.

Over the past years he has been a familiar face on television starring and guest starring in literally hundreds of shows including recurring roles on “Hill Street Blues”, “NYPD Blue” and “A Different World.” 

In 1978, he starred in the highly successful 10-part miniseries “Wheels”, the story of boardroom intrigue in the automobile industry with Rock Hudson and Lee Remick, based on the best-selling novel by Arthur Haley. 

Also, as a successful screenwriter, Sylvester has sold several screenplays including “Passing Glory”, a Turner original movie about a high school basketball game between a black high school and a white high school which is based on a true story, “Fast Girls” about a girls track team and “The Muhammed Ali story”. He was a writer, producer on the CBS medical drama “City of Angels” and has written for the ABC police drama, “NYPD Blue”. Sylvester won an Emmy award as a Writer/ Executive producer on the TNT documentary on “On Hallowed Ground” along with his producing partner, legendary UCLA basketball star Michael Warren.

Sylvester made his directorial debut in 2005 with the feature film “NOLA”.

Harold has served on various boards of directors, including the John Anson Ford Theater Foundation, the Urban League, Tulane University ‘s President’s Consul, New Orleans Center for Creative Arts, Tulane University Dean’s Consul and the New Orleans Contemporary Arts Center. Most recently, he was elected to the “Eternal Seeds” board of directors which is associated with Brandan “B-Mike” Odums Studio B. He also serves on the Board of Advisors for The Robey Theatre Company founded by Ben Guillory and Danny Glover. Harold was co-chairman of New Orleans Mayer Ray Nagin’s National Film Advisory Board, serving the city’s “Hollywood South” initiative.  Harold is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and president/CEO of Blue Bayou Productions, City Media Collective, LLC, and Blues Bayou Music, BMI.