Cynthia Erivo is heading to Harvard… to accept an award. The Ivy league institution has named the Wicked star as the 2025 Woman of the Year by Harvard University’s Hasty Pudding Theatricals. The theater group, which dates to 1844 and claims to be the world’s third-oldest still operating, said the Oscar nominee will receive the Pudding Pot award at a celebratory roast Feb. 5. While there, she will attend a performance of Hasty Pudding Theatricals’ 176th production, 101 Damnations. Mad Men star Jon Hamm is the 2025 Man of the Year. He will receive his Pudding Pot Jan. 31. Previous Pudding Woman of the Year recipients include Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, Scarlett Johansson and Annette Bening.
“We are holding space for Cynthia Erivo’s arrival,” Man and Woman of the Year Events Coordinator Hannah Frazer said in a statement, as reported by the Associated Press. “We’re sweeping out our broomstick closets and prepping some wicked smart humor as we eagerly await her in February. Before she flies off with her Pudding Pot, she’ll have to work a little magic to earn it.”
Outside of her recent film musical, Erivo earned critical acclaim in the Broadway revival of The Color Purple, winning her the 2016 Tony for best actress in a musical. Other credits include the biopic Harriet. She is one of a few entertainers to have nominations for the EGOT.
Erivo has been having quite the year, inking a first-look deal with Universal Pictures in the aftermath of the success of Wicked. She was also recently nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress for this year’s award ceremony.“Moments like this don’t come along very often, and when they do, it is sacrilege to let them pass by without a moment of gratitude. I am grateful, grateful to @theacademy, grateful to be a part of something that makes people feel seen, grateful to be a cog in the wheel of a piece that makes us believe in magic, grateful to have experienced a dream come true, and deeply deeply grateful for this unbelievable recognition,” she wrote in part in a lengthy Instagram post when she was announced in the category.
