The star, who has hosted both Broadway's Tony and TV's Emmy awards shows in the past, will front the 87th Academy Awards on February 22, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences said yesterday.
The high-profile hosting job is a prime gig in Hollywood, at the climax of its annual awards season. Harris will follow Ellen DeGeneres last year and a who's who of showbiz over the decades.
"It is truly an honor and a thrill to be asked to host this year's Academy Awards," said the star of 2005's "How I Met Your Mother," in an Academy statement.
He added: "To be asked to follow in the footsteps of Johnny Carson, Billy Crystal, Ellen DeGeneres and everyone else who had the great fortune of hosting is a bucket list dream come true."
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Producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron said: "We are thrilled to have Neil host the Oscars. We have known him his entire adult life, and we have watched him explode as a great performer in feature films, television and stage.
Industry journal Variety noted that, with the Oscars job Harris will have done three of the four so-called EGOT full house of hosting duties -- the Emmys, Oscars and Tonys, with only the Grammys to go.
Harris, who hosted the Tony awards and the Emmys in 2009 and 2013, has been nominated for four Golden Globes and won five Emmys, including four for hosting the Tonys.
Hosting awards shows is more difficult and prone to pitfalls than many imagine.
Recent questionable Oscars hosts have included James Franco and Anne Hathaway who were widely panned in 2011, and Seth McFarlane whose "We saw your boobs' song raised eyebrows, not in a good way.