Harner was born in Elmira, New York and grew up in suburban Northern Virginia, where he saw a handful of plays at Washington, D.C.’s Arena Stage. His middle name Butler is his mother’s maiden name. He graduated from T. C. Williams High School, Alexandria, Virginia, in 1988. Although Harner was the president of his high school drama club, he spent his time building sets rather than acting since many of his relatives were carpenters or plumbers. At 17, after graduating from high school, he worked as an usher at the Eisenhower Theater, part of the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. He graduated from VCU with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in acting in 1992. After graduating from VCU, he was an apprentice at Actors Theatre of Louisville; he subsequently moved to New York City and received a Master of Fine Arts in the Graduate Acting Program from Tisch School of the Arts in 1997. Harner returned to VCU as a Master Teacher during their 2007-08 Guest Artist program. Harner completed filming for Changeling in December 2007. He played Gordon Stewart Northcott, a mechanic accused of murder. He appeared in the HBO miniseries John Adams as Oliver Wolcott, Jr., the second United States Secretary of the Treasury. Harner had a guest role on the pilot for Fringe, which premiered in September 2008 on Fox. He was cast as the regular character Silas Hunton on the cable series Possible Side Effects, until Showtime cancelled the series in April 2008. He plays Associate Warden Elijah Bailey "E.B." Tiller on the Fox series Alcatraz which debuted in January 2012. He made his London theater debut in February 2010 in the Lanford Wilson play Serenading Louie at Donmar Warehouse, London, England. During his stay in London, Harner read Michael Chabon's Manhood for Amateurs on BBC Book of the Week in April 2010.
Theatrical career
1990: In What I Did Last Summer play by A. R. Gurney.
May 1994: In Loved Less play by Brian Jucha.
1997: In Hydriotaphia, or the Death of Dr. Browne play by Tony Kushner.
June 1997: Plays Sir Henry Guildford/Page/Garter/King of Arms Henry VIII play by William Shakespeare.
July 1998: Plays Demarais the servant in Transit of Venus play by Maureen Hunter
October 1999: Plays Donalbain/Murderer in Macbeth play by William Shakespeare.
October 1999: Plays Thomas Armstrong/Phil in An Experiment with an Air Pump play by Shelagh Stephenson.
January 2000: Plays Young Housman opposite James Cromwell in the American premiere of The Invention of Love play by Tom Stoppard.
September 2000: Plays Johnny Boyle in Juno and the Paycock play by Seán O'Casey.
November 2006: Plays Ivan Turgenev in the trilogy The Coast of Utopia: Voyage, The Coast of Utopia: Shipwreck, and Coast of Utopia: Salvage plays by Tom Stoppard.
Harner narrates the audio book version of Dark prophecy: a Level 26 thriller featuring Steve Dark,. The book is written by Anthony Zuiker and Duane Swierczynski.
Awards
Nominated for a 2006 Drama Desk Award for the Laura Pels Theatre's production of The Paris Letter.
