Steve Carell turns Northwestern commencement address into a dance party

Leave it to Steve Carell to turn a commencement speech into a dance party.

Leave it to Steve Carell to turn a commencement speech into a dance party. While speaking at Northwestern’s 2025 commencement ceremony over the weekend, the “Office” star asked everyone to rise before breaking into what he called “the mid-commencement address dance break,” according to a clip of the moment posted to social media. Carell then began to dance with the Dean of the School of Communication and Annenberg University Professor E. Patrick Johnson, according to the Chicago Tribune, while “That’s Not My Name” by the Ting Tings played in the background. Carell then ran off the stage and into the sea of dancing graduates, running down the aisles showing off his dance moves and throwing up high-fives. “That was as invigorating as it was disturbing,” he joked, breathlessly, once he got back up to the podium. “Wow, am I out of shape.” Carell is not a Northwestern graduate but he does have Chicago roots, having performed with the city’s famed Second City comedy troupe after he graduated from Denison University in Ohio.