Broadway Vet Cristin Milioti Unveiled as Mother in ‘HIMYM’

Any Broadway fans that tuned into last night’s season eight finale of “How I Met Your Mother” saw a familiar face when Cristin Milioti was revealed as the titular mother character.

The series has been leading up to the reveal for its entire run, though the episode stopped short of showing how the mother meets Ted. That character, played by Josh Radnor, has been telling his future kids how he met their mother through a series of flashbacks, so it would be assumed that Milioti will play a large part in the ninth and final season of the show when it returns this fall.

Milioti is best known for her Tony nominated role as Girl in “Once,” which received the Best Musical Tony last year. She also has been seen on Broadway in “The Lieutenant of Inishmore” and “Coram Boy.” She has appeared on television in “The Sopranos,” “The Good Wife,” “Nurse Jackie” and “30 Rock.” She also appeared in the 2012 movie “Sleepwalk With Me” along with Mike Birbiglia.

The mother character has of course been teased throughout the series, and though she made her first appearance in season three as “The Girl With the Yellow Umbrella,” viewers had yet to see her face until last night. There have been many recurring characters throughout the show in addition to the main ensemble cast, and there have been quite a few “bait and switch” tactics, so it remained unclear if the mother would be a familiar face or someone new.

Even the appearance of Milioti as the mother might lead to questions as to whether this was just another attempt at misdirection, but CBS has confirmed that she is in fact the mother and Ted’s future wife.

The rest of the cast includes Alyson Hannigan, Jason Segel, Cobie Smulders and Neil Patrick Harris. It was recently announced that Harris will return to host the Tony Awards for the fourth time next month.