Arts & Culture | January 18, 2017

Octavia Spencer is the Hasty Pudding Club's 2017 Woman of the Year

The actress will attend the Hasty Pudding's festivities on January 26.

by Sophia Nguyen

Smiling woman with dark hair in a teal dress, standing in front of a branded backdrop. — Octavia Spencer at a screening of *Hidden Figures* at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture
Photograph by Joel Kowsky/NASA

Hasty Pudding theatricals has named actress Octavia Spencer its 2017 Woman of the Year.

Best known for her performance as Minny Jackson in The Help, for which she won an Oscar in 2012, she has also played: a reluctant rebel in the young adult franchise dystopia Divergent and a determined one in Snowpiercer; the worried mother of Oscar Grant in Fruitvale Station; and an otter with a missing husband in Zootopia. Recent television roles include a tough nurse in the series Red Band Society and Harriet Tubman in the comedy show Drunk History. Currently, Spencer can be seen playing Dorothy Vaughan, a mathematician and NASA supervisor, in Hidden Figures. She was nominated for a 2017 Golden Globe for the role.

Spencer will receive her award on January 26, and lead a parade through the streets of Cambridge. The festivities also feature a celebratory roast, the presentation of her Pudding Pot, and a live-streamed press conference. The Woman of the Year award, established in 1951, pre-dates the society’s Man of the Year award. Past recipients include Rosalind Russell, Lucille Ball, and most recently, Kerry Washington.

Spencer joins Hasty Pudding Man of the Year Ryan Reynolds, announced last week.

You might also like

A woman with curly blonde hair sits casually against a stone wall, wearing a black top and jeans.

Why Men Have Worn the Same Black Suits for 200 Years

Chloe Chapin trains her Broadway costume designer’s eye on the history of men’s fashion.

A vase of yellow flowers on a table next to an orange and a glass.

There’s a New Sargent Painting in Town

Harvard Art Museums restores a rare glimpse of an American master.

Portrait of a man in a denim shirt beside a blue book cover for "Gretal and the Great War" featuring an illustration of a leg holding an army helmet..

How Adam Ehrlich Sachs Writes Absurd and Beautiful Fiction

The Gretel and the Great War author on how the Lampoon derailed his science career—and set him on a literary path.

Most popular

Two mounted pheasants displayed on a stand against a gray background.

Explore More From Current Issue

Three hands hold smartphones displaying social media profiles with likes and hearts.

Tell us about how social media impacts your daily life.

Caricature of a young man in front of red doors, wearing a green striped sweater.

Harvard History

In 1954, Gregory Corso moved into Eliot House. How he stayed there is a literary legend.

Decorative wrought iron gate framed by leafy branches, captured in sepia tones.

Former Indiana University president Thomas Ehrlich looks back on curriculum, co-education, and other major trends.