The solid cast of How I Met Your Mother has been portraying our beloved gang of five since the show premiered in 2005. Currently in its seventh season (renewed for an eighth), both the actors and their characters have come a long way. Specifically, the success of the CBS sitcom has created exciting opportunities for these versatile actors, from hosting gigs to superhero film roles. Here's where you can currently catch the gang outside their weekly appearances at MacLaren's.



Josh Radnor (Ted Mosby)
Also a blooming director, Radnor debuted his first film as writer/director at the Sundance Film Festival in 2010. Happythankyoumoreplease impressed critics at the festival, garnering Radnor the Audience Award for his romantic comedy about twenty-somethings finding their way in New York. Radnor followed up that indie success with Liberal Arts, which showed at Sundance this year, and in which he also plays the protagonist, a dejected thirty-five-year-old who returns to his alma mater and falls for a young college student (played by Elizabeth Olsen). Radnor is also currently writing a memoir titled One Big Blissful Thing to be published later this year.

Alyson Hannigan (Lily Aldrin)
After successful roles in the American Pie movies and on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Hannigan settled on another long-term role as the cheery yet odd kindergarten school teacher on HIMYM. She can currently be seen in American Reunion, reprising her roles as Michelle, the girl from band camp, which released in theaters on April 6.


Jason Segel (Marshall Eriksen)
Arguably the most prominent in his non-HIMYM acting endeavors, Segel has proven his abilities as a writer, producer and musician in many of his recent mainstream films, such as Forgetting Sarah Marshall (writer, leading role) and The Muppets (writer, executive producer, leading role and performer of several of the film's songs). When it comes to lighthearted comedies with relative success at the box office, Segel has shown he is something of a Renaissance man. You can currently catch Segel in Jeff, Who Lives at Home (co-starring Office star Ed Helms) or The Five-Year Engagement (alongside Emily Blunt), which opens in theaters April 27.


Neil Patrick Harris (Barney Stinson)
Since first capturing our favorite womanizer as Barney, Harris has gone on to become a talented host (for the Tony Awards, the Spike's Video Game Awards, and the TV Land Awards), appealing singer (as the title character in the musical web series Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog and the villain Music Meister in a musical episode of Batman: The Brave and the Bold) and guest star/judge (he won an Emmy for his guest appearance on Glee and has guest judged on American Idol and So You Think You Can Dance). Harris was named one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people in 2010. It was recently announced that Harris will emcee the 66th annual Tony Awards on June 10, marking his third time as host of the Broadway awards.


Cobie Smulders (Robin Scherbatsky)
Smulders has been cast in Joss Whedon's upcoming summer superhero film The Avengers as Maria Hill, an agent who works closely with Samuel L. Jackson's character Nick Fury, who is assembling a team of superheroes to defend the world against a new villain. Last week, Smulders revealed a clip from the film while on The Late Show With David Letterman, which shows the actress in skin-tight agent suit quite different from the Scherbatsky we're used to seeing. The highly anticipated film is set to release on May 4.

(Images courtesy of CBS, BCDF Pictures, Universal Pictures)