Ariana DeBose, who won an Oscar for best supporting actress last year for West Side Story and received even more attention recently after performing a piece of special material at the BAFTAs on Feb. 19, is set to present on this year’s Oscars on March 12. Will DeBose address the social-media brouhaha over her BAFTAs performance? Place your bets.
Other presenters include: Dwayne Johnson (The Rock), who made an appearance on last month’s Grammy Awards, meeting superfan Adele and later presenting her with the award for best pop solo performance; Janelle Monáe, who has juggled film and recording careers, finding success in both; and Questlove, who served as music supervisor of the 2021 Oscar telecast and won an Oscar last year for his directorial debut, Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised), which won best documentary feature.
Riz Ahmed, Emily Blunt, Glenn Close, Jennifer Connelly, Samuel L. Jackson, Michael B. Jordan, Jonathan Majors, Melissa McCarthy, Deepika Padukone, Zoe Saldaña, Donnie Yen and Troy Kotsur will also present.
Kotsur won best supporting actor last year for CODA. Last year’s best actress winner, Jessica Chastain, wasn’t included in this first batch of presenters. Last year’s best actor winner, Will Smith, was barred from attending any Academy events for 10 years after slapping Chris Rock on last year’s show.
The announcement was made on Thursday (March 2) by executive producers and showrunners Glenn Weiss and Ricky Kirshner and executive producer Molly McNearney. The producers will continue to announce talent joining the show in the run-up to the ceremony.
The producers have announced performances from four of the five nominees for best original song. The only one they haven’t yet announced is Lady Gaga performing “Hold My Hand” from Top Gun: Maverick.
Hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, the 95th Oscars will air live on ABC on Sunday, March 12 at 8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT. The show will be held at the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood.
