Mark Wahlberg has been tapped to host the Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards.
The Lone Survivor star will take the stage at this year’s 27th annual fan-voted awards show, which will take place at University of Southern California’s Galen Center and airs live Saturday, March 29, from 8 to 9:30 p.m. ET/PT on the cabler.
“We are thrilled to welcome a superstar like Mark Wahlberg as he takes the helm as our master of ceremonies at the biggest kid event of the year,” said Russell Hicks, Nickelodeon’s president of content development and production. “We can’t wait for him to host and have lots of slime-filled fun with Hollywood’s biggest stars and our audience.”
Wahlberg, an Oscar and Golden Globe nominee for David O. Russell’s The Fighter and Martin Scorsese‘s The Departed, next stars in the fourth installment of the Transformers franchise, Age of Extinction, and appears in A&E reality series Wahlburgers. He also starred in Ted, The Italian Job and The Other Guys.
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As a producer, Wahlberg produced Lone Survivor, 2 Guns and the upcoming Entourage movie, in addition to Boardwalk Empire and In Treatment. In 2001, Wahlberg founded the Mark Wahlberg Youth Foundation, benefiting inner city children and teens.
Last year’s Kids’ Choice Awards drew 5.8 million viewers on March 23, 2013, and garnered a record 392 million votes in 22 categories. Past hosts have included Josh Duhamel, Will Smith, Jack Black, Dwayne Johnson, Justin Timberlake, Rosie O’Donnell, Cameron Diaz, Mike Myers and Ben Stiller.
Nickelodeon Productions and Bob Bain Productions produce the awards show. Bob Bain, Jay Schmalholz and Shelly Sumpter Gillyard are executive producers.
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