Neil Patrick Harris Will Host 2015 Oscars

Neil Patrick HarrisThe versatile and energetic stage and screen star Neil Patrick Harris will host the 87th Oscars.

Harris is a popular Tony and Emmy Award host, but this will be his first time as Oscar host. The show will air live on ABC on Oscar Sunday, February 22, 2015.

“We are thrilled to have Neil host the Oscars,” said producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron. “We have known him his entire adult life, and we have watched him explode as a great performer in feature films, television and stage. To work with him on the Oscars is the perfect storm, all of his resources and talent coming together on a global stage.”

“It is truly an honor and a thrill to be asked to host this year’s Academy Awards,” said Harris. “I grew up watching the Oscars and was always in such awe of some of the greats who hosted the show. To be asked to follow in the footsteps of Johnny Carson, Billy Crystal, Ellen DeGeneres, and everyone else who had the great fortune of hosting is a bucket list dream come true.”

“Neil is a terrific actor, singer, risk-taker and collaborator,” said Dawn Hudson, Academy CEO. “We can’t wait to see the show that he and Craig and Neil create together.”

“Neil Patrick Harris is highly energetic and a definitive entertainer,” said Paul Lee. “We are thrilled to have him as our 2015 Oscar host.”

The “How I Met Your Mother” star is a triple-threat performer. Harris recently receive a Tony Award for best actor in a musical for “Hedwig and the Angry Inch.” He also stars, opposite Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike in David Fincher’s “Gone Girl.”

Harris garnered multiple Emmy and Golden Globe award nominations for his role as Barney Stinson on the hit television series, “How I Met Your Mother,” and he won an Emmy for his guest-starring role on “Glee” in 2010. He served as host of the 61st and 65th Primetime Emmy Awards, as well as the 63rd, 65th, 66th and 67th Tony Awards, for which he won four Emmys.

Most recently, Harris added the title of author to his list of accomplishments with the release of his autobiography from Crown Publishing, “Neil Patrick Harris: Choose Your Own Autobiography.”

From the press release,sent out by the Academy today: “The last two Oscars telecasts, which were produced by Zadan and Meron, received a major spike in the ratings. The 86th Oscars was TV’s most-watched entertainment event in 10 years and attracted the biggest viewership since 2000, with more than 45 million viewers. The show resulted in dramatic gains in younger demos and social media conversation, with more than one billion impressions generated on Twitter and 25 million interactions happening on Facebook on Oscar Sunday. Additionally, the star-studded “selfie” became the most retweeted photo of all time with 32.8 million views.”

The Oscars will be held at the Dolby Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center in Hollywood, and will be televised live by the ABC Television Network at 4 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT on Feb. 22, 2015.

Take a look at Neil’s opening number for the 2013 Tony Awards…


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