KCRW's Harry Shearer to Receive Hollywood Walk of Fame Star

KCRW's Harry Shearer to Receive Hollywood Walk of Fame Star

SANTA MONICA, Calif., June 19 /PRNewswire/ -- Radio personality ... actor ... author ... director ... comedian ... musician ... philosopher ... political satirist ... multimedia artist ... and one of the best "voices" in the business (just ask "The Simpsons"), HARRY SHEARER is one of the most prolific entertainers of this -- or any -- generation. Today, The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce's Walk of Fame Committee announced that Harry Shearer is one of two LA-based radio personalities who will be honored with a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame next year.

For 25 years, Harry Shearer has been dissecting headlines, impersonating news makers, creating topical songs, writing/acting/producing sketches about political figures, news anchors and entertainers, and inventing unique feature segments and characters for Le Show, his weekly Sunday morning program, produced for and distributed nationwide by 89.9 KCRW-Santa Monica and www.KCRW.com. Le Show is one of the station's most popular podcasts -- available here: (www.KCRW.com/etc/programs/ls). He writes, produces and presents all of the material on the show himself.

Vogue magazine called Le Show "a wildly clever, iconoclastic stew of talk, music, political commentary, readings of inadvertently funny public documents or trade magazines and scripted skits." Los Angeles Magazine described Harry's talent for writing and performing this way: "Shearer is a one-man renaissance assault force on the conventions of our culture and a much-needed antidote to the current gloom and doom."

An LA native and child actor, Shearer appeared on radio with Jack Benny and in the pilot episode of TV's "Leave it to Beaver" as Eddie Haskell. A political science major at UCLA in the early 60s (where he was a writer and editor for the school's humor magazine), Shearer also did graduate work at Harvard and served a political internship in Sacramento. As a freelance journalist, Shearer covered the Watts riots for Newsweek before teaching high school English for two years in South Central Los Angeles. He cut his performance and satirical teeth with the legendary 70s stage troupe, "The Credibility Gap," writing for, producing and performing on their albums and tours.

Shearer's TV work currently includes "THE SIMPSONS," the longest running primetime animated series, where he is never seen but always heard as three of the show's leading characters (Mr. Burns, Smithers and Ned Flanders) as well as dozens of other "friends" who visit the Simpson family. Other television credits include "Saturday Night Live," "Murphy Brown" and "Chicago Hope," to name just a few, and he starred in his own HBO hour-long special: "Comedy Hour Live: The Magic of Live." He is a two-time Cable Ace Award winner for his rap music video "Shredding Party," and "The News Hole," a current events gameshow. These days, he appears in his own productions on "My Damn Channel," an Internet-based entertainment website.

Shearer earned multi-media artist status by creating several acclaimed museum exhibits of public figures, captured via satellite in silence as they waited for their television interviews to begin. The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in Los Angeles presented Shearer's installation, Wall Of Silence, featuring key figures from the O.J. Simpson Trial in their least soundbite-stealing moments.

Shearer, along with his wife, singer-songwriter Judith Owen, created Courgette Records; among other albums, they released Shearer's CD "Songs Pointed and Pointless," which was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2007. His new CD, "Songs of the Bushmen," will be released July 7 as a digital download at www.harryshearer.com.

KCRW congratulates Harry Shearer and all of today's announced Walk of Fame star-honorees: Felicity Huffman, William H. Macy, Cameron Diaz, Robert Downey Jr., Tim Burton, Leslie Caron, Charles Durning, Ralph Fiennes, William Petersen, Kyra Sedgwick, John Stamos, Mark Burnett, Chuck Lorre, Kenny "Baby Face" Edmonds, Dave Koz, The Miracles, Doug Morris, Rush, Shakira, KFI radio personality Bill Handel.

First Call Analyst:
FCMN Contact:

Source: KCRW Foundation

CONTACT: Sarah Spitz of KCRW, +1-310-314-4627, sarah.spitz@kcrw.org

Web Site:

http://www.harryshearer.com/
http://www.kcrw.com/

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