By Kathleen Archambeau

“This ain’t Reality TV. This is 8 shows a week! Now go see a Mother - @ # $ % & Broadway show!”

Neil Patrick Harris, Host, 66th
Annual Tony Award Show and Emmy Award-winning Actor

Born in Albuquerque,  New Mexico, Neil Patrick Harris made his film debut in Clara’s Heart, starring Whoopi Goldberg. At the ripe old age of 15 he was nominated for a Golden Globe Award. Discovered at a Drama Camp in Las Cruces, New Mexico, Harris was cast the following year, 1990, in the starring role in the television series, Doogie Howser, M.D. Harris garnered two Emmy Awards in 2010 for his guest appearance on Glee and his hosting of the 63rd Annual Tony Awards. Just this past Sunday, Neil Patrick Harris delighted by hosting, for the third time, the 66th Annual Tony Awards.

A versatile performer, Neil Patrick Harris began singing to the accompaniment of his father’s guitar as a child. An unlikely Hollywood star, Harris’ parents were both lawyers who ran an American-style restaurant in Albuquerque called “Perennials,” now closed.

Openly gay since 2006, Neil Patrick Harris announced his engagement to David Burtka via Twitter just after the Marriage Equality Act in New York passed on June 24, 2011. Harris has been with David Burtka, a fellow actor, since 2004. In a town where “you’re never quite enough,” Harris told Oprah in an interview (at the couple’s home in the San Fernando Valley) that juggling his and his partner’s careers hasn’t always been easy. Burtka, in fact, gave up acting to study at Le Cordon Bleu in Pasadena in order to carve out a new career in catering in 2009.

But the role for which Harris is most famous and most proud is his new role as father to fraternal twins, Harper Grace and Gideon Scott, born on Oct. 12, 2010, via surrogate. Both Harris and Burtka’s sperm took to the same batch of eggs from an anonymous donor.

While Harris freely admits that he’s the more analytical and action-oriented of the two, David Burtka, “his better half,” makes up the difference in feeling and bonding with the boy and girl children while Harris fixes the crib and cleans the dishes. Since they “don’t leave the house much now,” he and Burtka host many dinner parties. Of having children, Harris says that “what really matters is the greater community that surrounds our children…a true village filled with unconditional love and support.”

Recipient of the 2009 Trevor Life Award, which honors “an individual who...is an inspiration to LGBTQ youth,” Harris was elected to the Board of Directors of the Trevor Project in 2010 and was named one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World  the same year. Today, he embraces his role as celebrity emissary for the Trevor Project. At this year’s Tony’s, Harris charmed the audience once again, dancing with the cast of The Book of Mormon and welcoming the audience, “to the 66th Annual Tony Awards, or, as we like to call it, 50
shades of gay!”