Early life
Harris Jayaraj was born into an impious Christian Nadar family in Chennai, Tamil Nadu.[1] He studied at the Krishnasamy Matric School, Chennai and later. His father, S.M. Jayakumar, was a film guitarist who later became a noted musician and Chennai film composer. His father was an assistant to Malayalam Music director Shyam and he wished to make his child Harris a great singer. But Harris' interest was in music and he once confessed that he couldn't sing well and his vocal is also not good. He turned to music and Harris Jayaraj was an early admirer of the work of Hans Zimmer.
Career
Harris Jayaraj entered the world of film music as a musician, programming scores and drum–percussion for films under the famous Tamil music director A. R. Rahman. Harris began his career as a keyboardist for several music directors over twelve years including Rahman, Mani Sharma, Vidyasagar, Karthik Raja, Yuvan Shankar Raja and Sirpi, in addition to composing beats for TV advertisements.[1] His first music score for a commercial film was for the Tamil film Minnale. The music was well received, particularly the song "Vaseegara", which made the film a box office hit, running the charts for weeks. After Minnale, Harris composed music for the Tamil movies 12B and Majunu which met with high acclaim. His score for Minnale was later dubbed.Harris's collaborations with director Gautham Menon have been widely acclaimed, both of them being very successful in Tamil film industry. They have worked together in a series of hit movies like Minnale, Kaaka Kaaka (2003), Vettaiyaadu Vilaiyaadu (2006), Pachaikili Muthucharam (2007) and Varanam Aayiram (2008).
Personal life
Harris is married to Joyce (formerly Suma). The couple have a son called Samuel Nicholas and a daughter called Karen Nikita. Harris' father Jayakumar is a noted evangelistic musician.Harris tried hard with his studies and easily skiped in to music.As a student in Trinity College of Music Harris got a title of 'Top mark scorer in Asia'.Harris established himself as a great musician.Later he turned his role as composer
Awards
Vaa Vaa Thalaivaa Vanakam vanakam"-Harris Jayaraj
* Harris Jayaraj won the Filmfare Award (Tamil) in Best Music for Minnale (2001), Kaakha Kaakha (2003), Anniyan (2005) and Vaaranam Aayiram (2008).
* He has won the Tamil Nadu State Award in Best Music for Kaakha Kaakha (2003), Anniyan / Ghajini (2005).
He has been awarded the meera Tamil music awards held by isai aruvi TV in 2008 for the categories of best album of the year (Unnalae Unnalae) and the most listened song of the year (June Ponaal July Kaatre). In 2009 he was awarded with the same awards for the categories of best music composer and best music album of the year, both for Vaaranam Aayiram and also the best romantic song of the year award for the song anbe en anbe in dhaam dhoom.
He also received the ITFA 2009 (International Tamil Film Awards) for the category of best music director (Vaaranam Aayiram) held in 2009.
Also he got two Vijay Awards in 2009 held by Vijay TV for the categories of best music composer (Vaaranam Aayiram and Dhaam Dhoom) and favorite song of the year (Anjalai - Vaaranam Aayiram) in 2009.his next film is mugamudi.
He got the prestigious kalaimaamani award twice from the Tamil Nadu government.