Comedian Jerry Seinfeld picked to deliver Duke University’s 2024 commencement address
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
What’s the deal with college graduation?
After completing years of coursework, soon-to-be alumni walk in procession into a stadium sometime in the spring each year, hear some speeches — and then, yada, yada, yada, they turn their tassels.
This year, Duke University’s Class of 2024 will hear from someone who knows all about the yada yada.
Comedian Jerry Seinfeld will address Duke graduates at the university’s commencement ceremony on May 12 at Wallace Wade Stadium. He will also receive an honorary doctor of arts degree from the university.
The university announced Seinfeld as this year’s commencement speaker during Saturday’s men’s basketball game between Duke and the North Carolina Tar Heels at Cameron Indoor Stadium. Duke President Vincent Price and three Duke students starred in a video to reveal the news, filled with nods to classic moments from Seinfeld’s eponymous sitcom that ran for nine seasons from 1989 to 1998.
In the video, Price asks the students what they’d like to hear the not-yet-revealed commencement speaker talk about in their speech. One student says they hope the speaker will be funny, while another suggests that the speaker could talk about cinnamon babka. The third student says most speakers “usually talk about getting a job and then yada, yada, yada.”
Price turns to someone off-screen who had been serving the group coffee throughout their chat, and asks, “Do you have any idea who could give a speech like that?”
The camera then turns to reveals it was Seinfeld who had been serving the coffee. He thinks for a second, then lights up: “I do!” he says.
The video then breaks the fourth wall, with Seinfeld speaking to viewers and congratulating the soon-to-be graduates directly and telling them that he’ll be their commencement speaker.
“I cannot wait,” Seinfeld said in the video. “I got a lot of things to tell you.”
Seinfeld’s ties to Duke
Seinfeld holds degrees in communications and theater from Queens College, City University of New York. But he’s found himself connected to and involved with Duke later in his life.
Seinfeld and his wife, Jessica, are the parents of two Blue Devils: one, already an alumna, and another who is a current student at the university.
The couple was spotted around Durham as they dropped off their kids and helped them move in on campus in 2021. Jessica Seinfeld documented the trip on social media, with locals noticing the couple made a pit-stop at Parker & Otis, a restaurant at Durham’s American Tobacco Campus.
The husband-wife pair also serve as chairs of the Duke Parents Committee, a volunteer group for non-alumni parents that raises money for the university and a variety of opportunities it offers.
“When our first child became a student at Duke, we soon realized that hearing about her experience and just occasionally visiting the school, we were missing out on a lot of the great benefits of being a Duke family,” the Seinfelds say in a message on the Parents Committee website. “Through the Parents Committee, we’ve enjoyed meeting professors and administrators who are invested in our kids. We have met fabulous parents who are doing interesting and creative work around the globe.”
Seinfeld also appears to be a fan of Duke basketball, making appearances in the stands of Cameron Indoor for men’s games in 2019 and 2022.
Price said he was “delighted” that Seinfeld would be addressing graduates this spring.
“Jerry is a pioneering entertainer and producer and a gifted observer of human nature who has an extraordinary ability to bring people together through humor,” he said. “I look forward to the insights and wisdom he will share during our celebration of the Class of 2024.”
More information about Duke commencement
Duke’s 2024 commencement ceremony will be held May 12 at 9 a.m. at Wallace Wade Stadium in Durham.
Duke will award four additional honorary degrees at the ceremony. The honorees are:
Claudius “C.B.” Claiborne, Duke’s first Black student-athlete
Rhiannon Giddens, Grammy Award- and Pulitzer Prize-winning musician
Rose Marcario, CEO of the Patagonia clothing brand
Desmond Meade, voting rights activist
Learn more about Duke commencement at commencement.duke.edu/schedule-of-events/commencement-ceremony.
