Jesse Hartman

Jesse Hartman is an American musician, film maker and actor, living in New York's East Village.

Career Music Hartman formed the band Sammy with Luke Wood (where Hartman co-wrote, sang, and played guitar and keyboards), releasing Debut Album (1994), Kings of the Inland Empire (1995) and Tales of Great Neck Glory (1996). Sammy came out of an earlier group called Worrying Thing where Wood sang most of the vocals and Hartman played lead guitar. Hartman sang on one song called "In Filth," which was later rerecorded as Sammy's first single, "Evergladed."

Hartman went on to form the rock/electro group Laptop in 1997, releasing an EP, End Credits, in 1997, followed by the single "Gimme The Nite" in 1998. "End Credits" garnered airplay on BBC Radio 1's Evening Session. daytime on Xfm rotation and was debuted by John Peel on BBC Radio 1. The song used samples of Hartman's ex-girlfriend's answering machine. The Laptop single Nothing to Declare spent one week at #74 in the UK Singles Chart in June 1999.

Hartman was then signed to a recording contract by Island Records and released two singles ("Nothing to Declare" and "I'm So Happy You Failed", both in 1999), before leaving the label. He eventually joined Trust Me Records and released the albums Opening Credits (2000), The Old Me vs. The New You (2001), and Don't Try This At Home (2003). Recently Laptops debut single 'End Credits' was released by synthpop supergroup Doublespeak (consisting of Vince Clarke of Erasure, Neil Arthur of Blancmange and Benge), inspiring a relaunch of the project and reissue of the song, accompanied by remixes and extended versions.

Film As a filmmaker, Hartman has written and directed Happy Hour (1993, Best Short Film Award Berlin Intl. Film Festival) and House of Satisfaction (2008), made documentaries for MSNBC's Edgewise (1997, opening night selection of Rotterdam Intl. Film Festival), and produced Kelly Reichardt's debut indie feature film River of Grass, which premiered at the 1994 Sundance Film Festival.

As an actor, Hartman has been in Larry Fessenden's vampire film Habit and House of Satisfaction (2008), which he also wrote and directed.