Openly gay Neil Patrick Harris as Sesame Street's Shoe Fairy

Neil Patrick Harris - from the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother - plays the "Shoe Fairy" on the 39th season premiere of Sesame Street.

NPH spoke to AfterElton.com about the character: "Not the shoe fairy – the fairy shoe person. It’s quite a different connotation. I was asked by Sesame Street to be a part of a song and I just leapt at the opportunity. Jim Henson was the only person I ever wrote a fan letter to as a kid and I’m a wild fan of puppets and the Henson Company in general. They wrote a song, wanted me to sing it. There are all these different mythical characters this season. Sandra Oh plays another type of fairy that Abby Cadabra creates and so we got to do this big musical number with puppets and dancing. It was a great, great afternoon. It’s one demographic that I have yet to win over."

Harris played the role of Doogie Howser, M.D. from 1989-1993. He was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico - on June 15, 1973.