Actors Barry Keoghan and Annette Bening will be the Hasty Pudding Theatricals’ 2024 Man and Woman of the Year, the group announced, with Man of the Year festivities set to take place on February 2, followed by the Woman of the Year ceremony on February 6.
Irish actor Keoghan broke out with the 2017 film Dunkirk and has since appeared in The Killing of a Sacred Deer, Eternals, and The Banshees of Inisherin. His performance in the latter movie earned him 2022 Oscar and Golden Globe nominations for best supporting actor. This year, Keoghan earned another Golden Globe nomination for his role in the comedy-thriller Saltburn, a class satire and modern twist on the novel Brideshead Revisited that scandalized—and confounded—audiences.
“We are feverishly locking up all gravesites and bathtubs in anticipation of Barry’s arrival to Harvard,” Man of the Year Coordinator Aidan Golub said in the Hasty Pudding’s announcement, alluding to scenes from Saltburn. “With experience as both superhero and supervillain, Barry Keoghan is the perfect choice to fight to earn his Pudding Pot February 2nd.”
American actress Bening’s career has spanned decades, earning her Academy Award nominations for performances in The Grifters, American Beauty, and The Kids Are All Right. This year, she secured another Oscar nomination for her role in Nyad, a biopic that follows swimmer Diana Nyad’s attempts to cross the Florida Straits in the early 2010s.
“Earning the esteemed Pudding Pot won’t be as difficult as swimming from Cuba to Florida,” producer Hannah Frazer said in the announcement. “[Bening’s] impressive range as an actress and long list of accolades makes it pretty tough to come up with material for our historic Hasty Pudding roast!”
Both actors will be honored with a celebratory roast and the presentation of a ceremonial Pudding Pot at Farkas Hall—Keoghan at 7 p.m. on Friday and Bening at 7 p.m. on Tuesday. After the ceremonies, Keoghan and Bening will watch performances of Heist Heist Baby, the Hasty Pudding Theatricals’ 175th production. Hasty Pudding Theatricals has created and performed an annual musical performance since 1844.
The Woman of the Year and Man of the Year awards were established in 1951 and 1967 respectively, and past honorees have included Tom Cruise, Robert Downey Jr., Meryl Streep, and Scarlett Johansson.
