'911' Star Elijah M. Cooper Discusses Harry&x27;s Journey as the 118&x27;s New Recruit Natalie OganesyanFri, January 23, 2026 at 2:00 AM UTC 0 Before 911 entered its ninth season, the longrunning firefighter drama promoted a couple of recruits, including Elijah M. Cooper, who took over the role of Harry Grant beginning in Season 7. The son of Athena (Angela Bassett) and Michael, and stepson to the late Bobby Nash (Peter Krause), he's been at odds with his mom ever since the Season 9 premiere established he'd dropped out of high school as a fresh 18yearold.
'9-1-1' Star Elijah M. Cooper Discusses Harry's Journey as the 118's New Recruit
Natalie OganesyanFri, January 23, 2026 at 2:00 AM UTC
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Before 9-1-1 entered its ninth season, the long-running firefighter drama promoted a couple of recruits, including Elijah M. Cooper, who took over the role of Harry Grant beginning in Season 7. The son of Athena (Angela Bassett) and Michael, and stepson to the late Bobby Nash (Peter Krause), he's been at odds with his mom ever since the Season 9 premiere established he'd dropped out of high school as a fresh 18-year-old. But now, in the latest episode, "Fighting Back," Harry finds his purpose: Joining the 118 as a rookie.
Of Season 9, Cooper tells Parade the overarching theme is unity: "We're exploring a lot of different dynamics, and the main undertone is family. And how does family move forward? How does family also remember? We started off with saying, 'This is now Bobby's house, this is his fire station.' We're not forgetting the events that happened, but we're trying to find a way to move forward."
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But as viewers have seen throughout the year, Harry's bid to follow in his stepfather's footsteps leads to tensions in the Grant home, as Athena struggles to reconcile her son's headstrong nature with the dangerous realities of his newfound passion — the same career path that led to the death of her husband last season. With Oliver Stark's Buck and his on-screen sister May (Corinne Massiah) as backup, and a much-needed heart-to-heart, Harry and Athena reach an understanding that allows both of them peace of mind and courage.
Cooper credits the show's writing team for crafting grounded personal dramas that keep people watching: "How do we lean on each other? How do we love each other? It's been really beautiful to see how that is all coming together in a space of loss in this season."
In the below interview, Cooper unpacks Harry's firefighting journey and teases what's ahead for the new trainee.
Related: 6 Wild '9-1-1' Moments That Took the Show Completely Off the Rails
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First off, congrats on the Season 9 promotion. Going into this season, did you know your character's arc? What was the process of reading the script and finding out?I, of course, knew that I'd be making a move into the 118, so that was the big piece for me: Seeing how Harry has gone through these ups and downs, though, I wasn't as clear on, but it's a really cool journey for me, because I'm learning the 118 and I'm learning this new firefighter life, just as Harry is, so I feel like it's bringing a lot of authenticity to my performance, and it's just fun week-to-week.
Your character has been through so much in childhood, and this episode unpacks some family tension and the trauma associated with Bobby's death. Why do you feel your character is drawn to being a firefighter and having this be his purpose?Harry has clearly always had a very strong will about him, and we see that in how he's approaching this situation, joining the 118, or really just trying to be a firefighter in general. What we've seen from the beginning of me starting with Harry, when I'm coming to L.A. fleeing from the cops, I don't always fully think things through, and I feel like this is another one of those situations where the space that it came from is great: I wanted to follow in Bobby's footsteps, I wanted to honor him in this way, but in the little things like when I put on his turnouts for Halloween, how my mom is like, 'You're not taking this seriously enough.' Or when I do end up falling, having this concussion, I'm like, 'I don't know why my mom is doing so much.' And my sister has to be like, 'This is why. I need to clearly sit you down, talk to you like a third grader, and help you understand what's going on.' I think that because Harry is such a go, go, go, action-oriented type [of] person, he doesn't always fully look at the small details. And so for him to have all of these defining moments as a character, for him to be talked to to understand the full scope of whatever he's doing in the moment, that's incredibly important, and I feel like it's also developed him heavily as a person.
The tension between Harry and Athena is so well-drawn this season, and their conversation in the car is gratifying to see. What was filming that scene with Angela like, especially since it gets into the meat of these issues between them?This is a really great scene for Harry specifically, because there's this callback to when he was a kid. He was like, 'I want you to quit.' Harry: He wanted his mom; he was afraid of the danger of the job, right? And now the script is flipped. It's now on Harry, and he's doing this thing, and it provides him the perspective and understanding that even though this job is dangerous, even though there are variables that sometimes you can't control, there's greater purpose, there's greater meaning behind this, and there's real reason behind it. But [for] that reason, you can't be afraid, you can't step into this job from a scared mindset because that's what ends up getting you in trouble.Being able to hear his mom say, 'I had to find a way to separate my personal and my work when it came time to do my job,' I think that was really important for him to understand; this is a person that I love so much, that has done their job successfully for so long, and maybe they do actually make a really good point in this. It was also a really good scene for Athena as well. I think it was good for her dynamic with Harry because I'm sure she carries a lot of fear with him going into this new thing that, unfortunately, led to the passing of her husband; this is scary. This is a very new space for her, as much as it is for Harry. So I think it's cementing this dynamic that, yes, every party has nerves, but there needs to be open communication, there needs to be a space of vulnerability so that everybody can go about this in the right way.
Elijah M. Cooper as Harry in '9-1-1'Disney/Christopher Willard (Disney/Christopher Willard)
Another dynamic you get to explore is with Buck, with the training montage — how much he steps in as an older brother or mentor — and how instrumental he ends up being in nudging Athena. Could you talk about playing that?I think it comes down to the 118 being a family. We saw that Buck had his struggles, and Bobby stepped up for him, and now it's time for Buck to do that for Harry as well. Because Harry also has understood that Buck has been in the same place as him before — being a young guy trying to figure things out — it allows for him to be more vulnerable with Buck and have these moments and say, 'Hey, I need a mentor. I need somebody to help me through this process.' And also just being able to be real with him and say, like, 'I don't want to be putting all this on my mom. I don't want to put all this on my sister. I'm looking for somebody to help me outside of this.' I need somebody who I trust to help me through this journey. And yeah, I think too, since Buck and Athena had their own relationship in that he's sort of like the third sibling, he does have an older brother that's looking out for him. It's going to be cool now seeing them transition into partners in all this.
Did you do the stunt fall this episode? How was that shot?I gotta give a little love to my stunt double, Tyson. He definitely did his good work on that. I got a fall in there; my fall was a little bit shorter.
I was going to say — it was scary to watch.Yeah, it was scary to do. But I was, like, you know what? This is great. This is fine. I mean, when you become an actor, you're like, 'Of course, I want to do the stunts and I want to do all the fun stuff.' This show, of course, allows that. I definitely went up the ladder, five stories, all the way — even that was scary. I had never been up that high, and the ladder was shaking. Luckily, I'm not afraid of heights. Just experiencing this all — getting into it, doing the firefighter stuff — has been very new for me, but it's been fun.
I'm sure you're in the weeds of shooting further episodes. The ceremony was beautiful, the 118 reveal. Can you tease, maybe, some of the personal/professional dynamics that are going to come in as your character steps into this world? Anything you can say about what we might see Harry doing?Harry is the probie at this point, so he's gonna have probie responsibilities as any probie would. Now, Ravi kind of gets the heat taken off of him a little bit. He's coming in to this being new, so he has to ease his way into getting more responsibility in these moments, but, as we were talking about, Harry is also a very strong-willed person, so he's gonna find his ways to step up and contribute as much as he can. So, yeah, I don't want to give away too much, but people will definitely be seeing Harry be Harry.
Related: You'll Be Shocked These 11 '9-1-1' Emergencies Were Real
This story was originally published by Parade on Jan 23, 2026, where it first appeared in the TV section. Add Parade as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
Source: "AOL Entertainment"
Source: Entertainment
Published: January 23, 2026 at 12:45AM on Source: PRIME TIME
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