Neil Patrick Harris Named Harvard's Hasty Pudding Theatricals 2014 Man of the Year

Emmy Award winner and Broadway alum Neil Patrick Harris has been selected by the prodigious students of Harvard University's cross-dressing Hasty Pudding Theatricals as the recipient of the 2014 Man of the Year Award. Harris joins Dame Helen Mirren, the 2014 Woman of the Year, in the raucous theatrical troupe's annual festivities.

Established in 1963, the Man of the Year Award is presented each winter to a performer who has made a lasting contribution to the world of entertainment. Past recipients include Clint Eastwood, Tom Cruise, Robert De Niro, Steven Spielberg, Harrison Ford, Anthony Hopkins, Bruce Willis, Justin Timberlake, Jason Segel, and Kiefer Sutherland.

The 2014 Man of the Year festivities, presented by The Related Companies, will take place on Friday, February 7. The Hasty Pudding Theatricals will host a celebratory roast in Harris' honor, where it will present him with his Pudding Pot at Farkas Hall, the Hasty Pudding's home in the heart of Harvard Square. A press conference will then follow at 8:30pm as well as the Pudding's presentation of its opening-night performance of Victorian Secrets, its 166th production. The troupe will also offer Harris a tour of the new Hasty Pudding Headquarters, which recently relocated to the historic Hyde-Taylor House in Harvard Square.

In addition to his popular role as Barney Stinson on the long-running hit sitcom How I Met Your Mother, Neil Patrick Harris has performed in Broadway productions of Cabaret, Proof, and Assassins, and he will return to Broadway this spring in Hedwig and the Angry Inch. Harris has also hosted four Tony Awards ceremonies, in 2009, 2011, 2012, and 2013, earning him three Emmy Awards.

"I assume this is for that pudding wrestling competition I won last April…right?" said Neil Patrick Harris. "It was dark and seemed quite seedy at the time — I'm stoked that it's connected with Harvard. Fancy! Can't wait!"