Nerdy Actors That Turned Out To Be Total Heartthrobs

Neil Patrick Harris

Warner Brothers/Getty Images (left), Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for CNN (right)

Neil Patrick Harris is best known for his role as Barney Stinson on How I Met Your Mother, where he portrays the most conniving womanizer in all of New York City, but don’t be mistaken—Harris is no stranger to playing the nerdy roles. He was just a young teen in the picture above when he starred in Clara’s Hart, which earned him a Golden Globe nomination, and subsequently went on to his second-best-known role, child doctor Doogie Howser, which won him another Golden Globe nomination. As a hardworking performer, Harris continues to appear on TV, in movies, and on stage.