Eddie Murphy to host 84th annual Academy Awards

LOS ANGELES, Calif. – Eddie Murphy is hosting the Oscars.

Academy Awards producers Brett Ratner and Don Mischer say the actor and comedian will host the 84th annual Oscar ceremony.

Ratner called the 50-year-old entertainer “a comedic genius; one of the greatest and most influential live performers ever.” Mischer called Murphy “a truly groundbreaking performer” whose “quick wit and charisma will serve him very well as Oscar host.”

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This will be Murphy’s first time hosting the Academy Awards. He was nominated for an Oscar in 2006 for his supporting role in “Dreamgirls.”

Murphy said in a statement Tuesday that he is “enormously honoured” to join the ranks of past Academy Awards hosts such as Johnny Carson, Bob Hope, Billy Crystal, Steve Martin and Whoopi Goldberg.