Born in 1939 in Brooklyn, Harvey Keitel is among the top stars of the international film industry. He studied with Frank Corsaro, Lee Strasberg and Stella Adler and as a member of the Actor's Studio, Keitel has worked extensively in the New York theatre community.

Keitel made his debut in Martin Scorcese's "Who's That Knocking at My Door" (1968) and went on to star in Scorcese's classic urban drama of small-time hoods, "Mean Streets" (1973) Keitel also teamed up with Scorcese on "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore" (1974), "Taxi Driver" (1976) and "The Last Temptation of Christ" (1988).

Harvey Keitel is well known for his compelling, intense and highly varied performances. His riveting role as the lover in Jane Campion's Awardwinning "The Piano" earned him an Australian Best Actor Award. Keitel was also voted 'Best Supporting Actor' by the National Society of Film Critics for his performances in Alan Rudolph's "Mortal Thoughts", Ridley Scott´s "Thelma and Louise" and Barry Levinson's "Bugsy", for which he also received an Academy Award nomination.

More recently, Keitel's well known memorable roles have been as Mr. White in Quentin Tarantino's "Reservoir Dogs" (which he co-produced) as Winston Wolf in "Pulp Fiction", as Augie Wren in Wayne Wang's "Blue in the Face" (which garnered Italy's David di Donatello Award for Best Foreign Actor, among others) and unforgettably as the eponymous "Bad Lieutenant", under the direction of Abel Ferrara, for which he won an Independent Feature Project Award for Best Actor. He was last seen in Campion's "Holy Smoke" and in the submarine action drama "U-571".
Keitel also recently drew attention for his role in the daring television production of "Fail Safe".

Among his other film credits are Robert Altman's "Buffalo Bill and the Indians", "SisterAct" (with Whoopi Goldberg), Jack Nicholson's "The Two Jakes", "Point of No Return", "Rising Sun", "Imaginary Crimes", "The Border", "Mother", "Jugs and Speed", Spike Lee's "Clockers", James Toback's "The Pick-Up Artist", Robert Rodriguez´s "From Dusk Til Dawn", "Fairy Tale", "A True Story" and "Prince of Central Park". Forthcoming for Keitel is Joel Silverman's "Nailed", Tim Blake Nelson's "The Grey Zone" and Juan Gerard's "Dreaming of Julia".

His own film production company, "The Goatsingers" , which has a first look deal with Kinowelt USA, served as executive producers on Tony Bui's "Three Seasons", Wayne Wang and Paul Auster´s "Blue in the Face" and as co-producer on Quentin Tarantino´s "Reservoir Dogs". "The Goatsingers" is currently involved in the development of a number of projects as "The Grey Zone", by Tim Blake Nelson, "Henry and the Second Gunman", by Tom Leopold and "Dreaming of Julia" by Juan Gerard and Letvia Arza-Goderich. Keitel is renowned for the support he has provided to young and first time filmmakers, notably: Quentin Tarantino, Paul Schrader, Alan Rudolph, Ridley Scott, James Toback, Susanna Styron, Paul Auster, and Toni Bui.

In the film TAKING SIDES Harvey Keitel plays the role of Major Steve Arnold, the American foil to Wilhelm Furtwängler.