Neil Patrick Harris
Birthdate: June 15, 1973 (52 Years Old)
Birthplace: Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA
Few performers in show business enjoy the profile of Neil Patrick Harris as a serious actor, comedian, singer, stage director, book author, as well as beloved awards show emcee and TV host. It could be argued that Harris, like Richard Thomas before him on The Waltons, won a career’s worth of audience goodwill for a charming role that positively branded him as a guy you could love when he appeared (at the ripe age of 16) as Doogie Howser, M.D. (1989-1993).
Few young actors have had such early success, and it may have been a hard act to follow. Theater work followed, but Neil Patrick Harris’s first major film role was an unlikely yet memorable one: as one of the commanders in Paul Verhoeven’s spectacular, semi-campy science fiction epic, Starship Troopers (1997), and quickly followed with The Proposition (1998) with Kenneth Branagh, Madeleine Stowe, and William Hurt and John Schlesinger’s The Next Big Thing (2000) with Madonna and Rupert Everett.
Much of Neil Patrick Harris’s diverse career (he’s even a respected and skilled magician) has been on the American stage and television, including producing and hosting multiple editions of the Tony Awards broadcast, and most prominently as Barney in the long-running sitcom hit, How I Met Your Mother (2005-2014). But his occasional screen roles tend to be memorable, as when he played himself in the groundbreaking cult hit, Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle (2004) with John Cho and Kal Penn, and revived the stunt in the sequels, Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay (2008) and A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas (2011).
Harris jumped on the current animation bandwagon early, doing voices in both Phil Lord’s and Christopher Miller’s Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009) and its 2013 sequel, as well as Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore (2010). He starred in a live-action/animation mix in The Smurfs (2011) and The Smurfs 2 (2013) and opposite Jim Henson’s legendary puppets in The Muppets (2011).
Neil Patrick Harris altered his feature-film profile in 2014 with David Fincher’s film adaptation of Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl with Ben Affleck, Rosamund Pike, and Tyler Perry, which he followed up with Downsizing (2017), opposite Matt Damon, Christoph Waltz, and Kristen Wiig under Alexander Payne’s direction. Between a busy string of TV appearances, Harris returned to the big screen in 2021 in the decidedly dark role of “The Analyst” in Wachowski’s The Matrix Resurrections (2021) with Keanu Reeves. Neil Patrick Harris’ feature-film activity continued in 2022 with Nicolas Cage in The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent and starring opposite Ashley Judd in the Anita Bryant biopic, Anita (no date announced).
Personal life
Awards
Four-time winner, (as Tony Awards broadcast producer) Emmy Awards (2010, 2012-2014); Seven-time nominee, Emmy Awards (2007-2010, 2015, 2018-2019); Four-time nominee, Golden Globes (1989, 1992, 2009-2010); Hollywood Walk of Fame (2011).
Neil Patrick Harris Movies
Actor
Previous (12)
- 2022 |
The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent
asRichard Fink
The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent
Moviestar Nick Cage is channeling his iconic characters as he's caught between a superfan and a CIA agent.
- 2021 |
The Matrix Resurrections
asThe Analyst
Return to a world of two realities: one, everyday life; the other, what lies behind it. To find out if his reality is a construct, to truly know himself, Mr. Anderson will have to choose to follow the white rabbit once more.
- 2021 |
8-Bit Christmas
asJake Doyle (Adult)
In 1980s Chicago, a 10-year-old sets out on a quest to get the Christmas gift of his generation: the latest and greatest video-game system.
- 2014 |
- 2014 |
A Million Ways to Die in the West
asFoy
A Million Ways to Die in the West
As a cowardly farmer begins to fall for the mysterious new woman in town, he must put his newly found courage to the test when her husband, a notorious gun-slinger, announces his arrival.
- 2013 |
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2
asSteve
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2
Flint Lockwood now works at The Live Corp Company for his idol Chester V. But he's forced to leave his post when he learns that his most infamous machine is still operational, and is churning out menacing food-animal hybrids.
- 2013 |
The Smurfs 2
asPatrick
The Smurfs team up with their human friends to rescue Smurfette, who has been abducted by Gargamel, since she knows a secret spell that can turn the evil sorcerer's newest creation, creatures called "The Naughties", into real Smurfs.
- 2011 |
A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas
asNeil Patrick Harris
A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas
Six years after their Guantanamo Bay adventure, stoner buds Harold Lee and Kumar Patel cause a holiday fracas by inadvertently burning down Harold's father-in-law's prize Christmas tree.
- 2011 |
The Smurfs
asPatrick Winslow
When the evil wizard Gargamel chases the tiny blue Smurfs out of their village, they tumble from their magical world into New York City.
- 2009 |
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
asSteve
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
A local scientist is often regarded as a failure until he invents a machine that can make food fall from the sky. But little does he know that things are about to take a turn for the worst.
- 1997 |
Starship Troopers
asCarl Jenkins
Humans, in a fascist militaristic future, wage war with giant alien bugs.
- -- | as Jake Doyle (Adult)
