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MTV Movie & TV award hosts through the years
Kevin Mazur/Getty Images 

MTV Movie & TV award hosts through the years

What’s an award show without a host? Well, as we learned at the most recent Oscars, sometimes it can be all right. However, a great host makes watching a bunch of famous people get awards that much more enjoyable. The MTV Movie & TV Awards, formally just the MTV Movie Awards, doesn't have the prestige of the Oscars or the Emmys, but it has had its fair share of interesting, occasionally head-scratching, hosts. Here’s who has hosted the MTV Movie & TV Awards every year since their inception.

 
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Dennis Miller

Dennis Miller
Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic

This is maybe not a choice that has stood the test of time. On the one hand, Miller, a standup and fan of talking, made sense as a host. However, even in 1992 he didn’t fit in with the MTV vibe. Now, of course, he’s known for his conservative stances that have made him increasingly polarizing. Also, he was a commentator on “Monday Night Football” for a while, which was weird.

 
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Eddie Murphy

Eddie Murphy
Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic

Now here’s a fine bit of course correction. In 1993 Murphy wasn’t in his heyday, but if he was, he might not have been convinced to host an awards show. It feels weird now, after so many mediocre films, but Murphy was one of the biggest stars in the world for a while. He’s too low energy to be a host these days, but 1993 was a different time.

 
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Will Smith

Will Smith
Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images

Talk about a choice that knocked it out of the park. This was 1994, before Smith had starred in “Independence Day” or “Men in Black.” He was still the Fresh Prince in the minds of many. The charisma was clear, though. Soon enough, Smith wouldn’t be hosting the MTV Movie Awards. He’d be winning them.

 
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Jon Lovitz and Courteney Cox

Jon Lovitz and Courteney Cox
Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic, Inc

Cox had just started starring on “Friends,” so her star was on the rise. Maybe she’s not the obvious choice for a host, but it’s not that hard of a job. Then there’s Jon Lovitz, who doesn’t really have an “MTV” feel to him. He was great on “The Critic” though.

 
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Ben Stiller and Janeane Garofalo

Ben Stiller and Janeane Garofalo
SGranitz/WireImage

Stiller and Garofalo worked together on “The Ben Stiller Show” as well as “Reality Bites,” so they had a good working relationship. They were sort of quintessential Gen X comedians, and 1996 was the ideal time for two Gen Xers to be hosting an MTV award show.

 
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Mike Myers

Mike Myers
Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic, Inc

The year 1997 was a big one for Myers. In addition to hosting the MTV Movie Awards, he starred in a little film called “Austin Powers.” It made Myers a bona fide movie star again, as it had been several years since “Wayne’s World 2” had come out. Myers would make two more Austin Powers movies, plus a bunch of "Shrek" films, but he didn’t host another MTV award show.

 
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Samuel L. Jackson

Samuel L. Jackson
Kevin Winter/Getty Images

Jackson, if nothing else, is a force of personality. He loves to talk, and seemingly to yell, and he also appears to be game for anything. That’s a good asset in an award show host. Jackson was going to keep people’s attention, even if he had to partake in some of his trademark loud swearing.

 
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Lisa Kudrow

Lisa Kudrow
Frank Micelotta/ImageDirect

Did we mention “Friends” was a popular show? In 1995 it was just beginning to bubble. In 1999 it was maybe the biggest show in the world. Anything “Friends” related was huge, and that includes Kudrow. She played the bubbly, flighty Phoebe but showed that she was smarter and savvier than the character she was most famous for while hosting this show.

 
Sarah Jessica Parker
Frank Micelotta/Getty Images

The new millennium began with Parker, starring in “Sex and the City” at the time, hosting. She made a big deal about changing her dress a whole bunch of times during the night. That’s about all she brought as a host, but at least it was something.

 
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Jimmy Fallon and Kirsten Dunst

Jimmy Fallon and Kirsten Dunst
M. Caulfield/WireImage

Yes, Fallon has been around for a LONG time. This was back in 2001, when he was just beginning to emerge on the national scene. He still was a giggly and obsequious goofball, though, which made him a perfect choice for an award show host. He shared the bill with Dunst, who would win two MTV Movie Awards two years later for “Spider-Man.”

 
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Sarah Michelle Gellar and Jack Black

Sarah Michelle Gellar and Jack Black
KMazur/WireImage

Couldn’t you see these two starring in a sitcom together? Maybe there’s still time. Of course back in 2002, Gellar was ensconced in the role of Buffy, the famed vampire slayer. Black, meanwhile, had been acting for a while but hadn’t quite broken out yet. He had been doing Tenacious D, though, and had something of a breakout role in “Orange County” in 2002 as well.

 
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Seann William Scott and Justin Timberlake

Seann William Scott and Justin Timberlake
M. Caulfield/WireImage

Eventually Timberlake would become an actor of some note, but back in 2003 he was still primarily known as a musician and specifically as a member of 'N Sync, and he had just gone solo. This was an opportunity for him to try and show he was more than a guy in a boy band. Scott is Stifler. No matter what he does, he will be Stifler, especially to an MTV audience.

 
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Lindsay Lohan

Lindsay Lohan
Kevin Winter/Getty Images

There was a time when Lohan seemed poised to be the biggest star in the world. She was a young, promising actress who seemed to be everywhere. That included hosting the MTV Movie Awards, and the next year she would win one for “Mean Girls.” Of course she then quickly developed personal issues, became unreliable and watched her career implode. We’ll always have the 2004 MTV Movie Awards.

 
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Jimmy Fallon

Jimmy Fallon
M. Caulfield/WireImage

Fallon was the first person to host more than one MTV Movie Awards. That seems fitting, given everything we know about him. He’s the warm emcee who keeps the event going. He’s uncontroversial and unthreatening, plus, young people seem to like him. So why not let him host solo?

 
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Jessica Alba

Jessica Alba
L. Cohen/WireImage

Alba doesn’t seem like the hosting type, as an actress without any real standup or presenting experience. However, Alba had been acting since she was a kid, so at least she was comfortable in front of people. Also, she was fairly popular at the time, though the Alba era seemed to come and go awfully quick, didn’t it? Is it because she made that movie with Dane Cook?

 
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Sarah Silverman

Sarah Silverman
John Shearer/WireImage

On the other hand, Silverman seems like a perfect choice for a host. She’s too edgy for something like the Oscars, or perhaps even the Emmys, but she fit in just right with MTV. As a standup, hosting comes naturally to a performer like Silverman, who you can also count on not to take an event like this too seriously.

 
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Mike Myers

Mike Myers
Lester Cohen/WireImage

It made sense when Myers hosted in 1997. He had just done Austin Powers and was still sort of seen as hip and cool. In 2008, though, he was a man in his mid-40s who had made three "Shrek" movies. Oh, and in 2008 he also made “The Love Guru.” That’s almost assuredly why he took this gig. “The Love Guru” turned out to be a massive flop, and it basically ended Myers’ movie career.

 
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Andy Samberg

Andy Samberg
Stephen Lovekin/FilmMagic

Samberg, the “SNL” album and star of “Brooklyn Nine-Nine,” has hosted both the Emmys and the Golden Globes. His first chance at hosting, though, was with the 2009 MTV Movie Awards. People must think he’s good at the role, and he must not mind it, given how many times he’s done it.

 
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Aziz Ansari

Aziz Ansari
Kevin Mazur/WireImage

Ansari has an MTV connection, as the standup and actor was one of the stars of the show “Human Giant” that aired on the channel for two seasons. At this point, he had joined the cast of “Parks and Recreation,” which made him known to many. Of course he has also gone on to become a huge standup star and made his own show for Netflix: “Master of None.”

 
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Jason Sudeikis

Jason Sudeikis
Kevin Winter/Getty Images

MTV appears to love hiring “Saturday Night Live” alumni to be hosts. That makes sense, as they are used to performing before a live audience, doing sketches, wearing costumes, etc. Sudeikis was just the latest in that lineage, and as of this moment he is the last “SNL” alum to host.

 
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Russell Brand

Russell Brand
Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic

Much like Jessica Alba, the era of Russell Brand seemed to come and go in the blink of an eye. The British actor-slash-provocateur made an immediate splash with his dynamic, occasionally unpredictable personality. Few people have seemingly ever loved the spotlight more. However, he never really clicked as a movie star, he briefly had a TV show that failed and then he seemed to disappear. At least he got this hosting gig out of it.

 
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Rebel Wilson

Rebel Wilson
Michael Buckner/Getty Images

With roles in films like “Bridesmaids” and “Pitch Perfect,” the Australian actress turned heads in scene-stealing performances. Wilson hasn’t quite had the role to make her a major star just yet, but she’s still appearing in movies and has a solid career going on. She is the kind of person who could potentially find herself hosting one of these award shows again, though.

 
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Conan O'Brien

Conan O'Brien
Jason LaVeris/FilmMagic

People think of MTV as a channel for young people, and thus their award show is for young people as well. Where else would all the “Twilight” and “Hunger Games” movies get a ton of wins? By 2014, Conan was a middle-aged talk show host who had been on TV for literally decades. You wouldn’t think he would be the guy MTV would go with. It did though, which was smart, because O’Brien is the perfect person to host an award show — even one that gives its three biggest awards to a “Hunger Games” sequel.

 
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Amy Schumer

Amy Schumer
Paul Archuleta/FilmMagic

It wasn’t overnight in reality, but it felt like Schumer suddenly became the biggest standup in the world...overnight. She was everywhere. Schumer had her own show on Comedy Central, and 2015 was also the year she got her first starring role in a film, in “Trainwreck.” It didn’t skyrocket her to superstardom, but it was a success and was the same year she got the hosting gig for MTV. She could fall back on her standup history for that role, of course.

 
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Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart

Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart
Kevin Winter/MTV1415/Getty Images for MTV

A lot of times, at least as the show went on, hosting the MTV Movie Awards was a way to promote a movie. And wouldn’t you know it, in 2016 Johnson and Hart had a movie called “Central Intelligence.”  They seemed to like working together, given that they both starred in “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle” the next year. Also in that film? Former MTV Movie Award host Jack Black. When will Karen Gillan get her shot?

 
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Adam DeVine

Adam DeVine
Kevin Mazur/WireImage

Not to be confused with Adam Levine, the lead singer of Maroon 5, DeVine is the actor you probably remember from “Workaholics” or maybe for his role in the “Pitch Perfect” movies. Not to knock DeVine, but he was certainly a step down from recent hosts in terms of fame. Or maybe we’re just getting too old to realize who is popular.

 
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Tiffany Haddish

Tiffany Haddish
Kevin Winter/Getty Images for MTV

There is no confusion over Haddish hosting in 2018, though. She became a huge star seemingly overnight. Haddish was everywhere, perhaps in part because fame was so new to her that she felt the need to take every opportunity that came her way. Who could blame her? Get that money, Tiffany! She also has standup experience and a lot of personality, both perfect for hosting.

 
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Zachary Levi

Zachary Levi
Albert L. Ortega/Getty Images

And now we get to the 2019 host, Shazam himself, Zachary Levi. The actor first gained note for the TV show “Chuck,” and now he seems to have found himself a movie star. His role in “Shazam” probably gave him the cache to get this hosting gig. Now he gets to be there for awards such as “Best Meme-able Moment.” The perks of fame.

Chris Morgan is a sports and pop culture writer and the author of the books The Comic Galaxy of Mystery Science Theater 3000 and The Ash Heap of History. You can follow him on Twitter @ChrisXMorgan.

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