Hilary Duff will be Northeastern University’s 2026 commencement speaker

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It’ll be the commencement that dreams are made of.

Hilary Duff attends D23 Disney+ Showcase. Frazer Harrison/Getty Images North America

Northeastern University announced actor and singer-songwriter Hilary Duff as its 2026 undergraduate commencement speaker in a Y2K-themed social media post on Wednesday.

Duff, 38, rose to fame in the early 2000s as a Disney actress and is most known for her roles in the TV show “Lizzy Maguire” and movies like “A Cinderella Story” and “Cadet Kelly.”

Northeastern will host its 2026 undergraduate commencement on April 29 in Fenway Park, the university’s commencement page said.

In an Instagram post, the school’s mascot, Paws, prances about a Duff-coded dorm room, jamming to her song “What Dreams Are Made Of.”

Paws’ pretend concert is interrupted by a bedazzled flip phone vibrating with a phone call from Duff, before an announcement about the star’s planned appearance fills the screen.

Duff’s 2003 hit song “What Dreams Are Made Of” has racked up more than 56 million streams on Spotify. Duff also recently released her first album in ten years, titled “luck…or something.”

Northeastern has seen commencement speakers like David A. Thomas, President of Morehouse College, in 2024, David Muir in 2015, Barbara Pierce Bush in 1991, Coretta Scott King in 1971, and John F. Kennedy in 1956, Northeastern Global News reported.

Last year, Elliot Grainge, CEO of Atlantic Record and a Northeastern alumus, spoke to the graduating students.

“If there’s one thing I’ve learned in my time here on earth, it’s this. No matter how carefully you plan, life rarely follows the blueprint,” Grainge told the crowd.

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