Television host Bill Nye, best known for his children’s educational series Bill Nye the Science Guy, received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame this week on Monday, Sept. 22.
In footage shared to Instagram by E! News, the 69-year-old can be seen looking grateful and humbled as he unveiled his star, wearing a slim black suit and his trademark bowtie.
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Nye also shared his thoughts about the honor in an Instagram post on Tuesday, September 23.
“What an honor to receive a Star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame,” he wrote. “Recognition by one’s peers always means a great deal, but to have spent yesterday with many people who have influenced my career, contributed to my work, encouraged me, and supported me through all my ideas, was extraordinary.”
“I love science. I love comedy. I love television, which was invented with science,” Nye continued. “Science is the best idea humans have ever had. I became a mechanical engineer because of it, and then entered the world of comedy too, which led me to my show that gave me the opportunity to teach so many people about the life changing world of science.”
“All of my work has been a celebration of the passion, beauty, and joy of science—coupled with the Art of television and the moving image,” he added. “It’s been the experience of a lifetime spreading the lessons of science to people around the world and I know we all have the power to change the world because of it.”
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Nye was flanked by Ross Shafer and Joel McHale, host and co-star of the local Seattle sketch comedy Almost Live!, which gave him his big break in the ’80s.
Before that, Nye had been working as an engineer for Boeing, having graduated with a mechanical engineering degree from Cornell. However, he became involved in standup comedy after winning a Steve Martin lookalike contest in 1978, and was later discovered by Almost Live! co-host John Keister at an open mic night.
It was on that program that Nye first honed his “Bill Nye the Science Guy” character, which he eventually developed into the titular series for the Seattle public broadcasting station KCTS-TV. As he told SeattleMet in 2017, at the time Nye and series co-creators James McKenna and Erren Gottlieb pitched the show as “Mr. Wizard meets Pee-wee’s Playhouse.”
After obtaining funding from the National Science Foundation, Bill Nye the Science Guy was distributed for nationwide syndication by Buena Vista Television, where it went on to air for six season and 100 episodes from 1993 to 1999. He eventually spun the series off as a show geared towards adults, Bill Nye Saves the World, ran on Netflix from 2017 to 2018.
In addition to his newly-minted Hollywood star, Nye likewise was honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom earlier this year, presented to him by President Joe Biden in a White House ceremony on Jan. 4, 2025.
