Oprah Winfrey to deliver commencement address at Harvard

Television personality Oprah Winfrey attends HBO's New York premiere of the documentary "Beyonce - Life is But a Dream" in New York February 12, 2013. [Photo/Agencies]

Talk show host, entrepreneur and philanthropist Oprah Winfrey will deliver this year's graduation address at Harvard University, the Ivy League school said on Monday.

"Oprah's journey from her grandmother's Mississippi farm to becoming one of the world's most admired women is one of the great American success stories," Harvard President Drew Faust said in announcing her selection.

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Winfrey will join a long list of politicians, policy makers, captains of industry and authors - including George Marshall, Bill Gates and J.K. Rowling - who have offered their wisdom and advice to Harvard's graduating classes.

She will speak at the school's 362nd graduation exercises on May 30.

Long a fixture on Time Magazine's 100 most influential people list, the 59-year-old Winfrey has been popular on the college commencement circuit, speaking at Stanford University, Duke University and Spelman College in recent years.