Mark Wahlberg may be a big action star these days, but when Nickelodeon comes calling, he answers. The “Lone Survivor” actor has been tapped to host their 27th annual Kids’ Choice Awards in March, and chances are good that he’ll come away a little slimy.

“We are thrilled to welcome a superstar like Mark Wahlberg as he takes the helm as our master of ceremonies at the biggest kid event of the year,” said Russell Hicks, Nickelodeon’s president of content development and production. “We can’t wait for him to host and have lots of slime-filled fun with Hollywood’s biggest stars and our audience.”

Wahlberg, who grew up in Boston and got into quite a bit of trouble when he was younger, has a soft spot for kids and even developed his own organization, the Mark Wahlberg Youth Foundation, to help kids and teens in the inner city. The actor and former rapper was arrested as a teen for assaulting a man and leaving him blind in one eye, and says he’s learned from the violence of his past.

“I did a lot of things that I regretted and I certainly paid for my mistakes,” Wahlberg said. “You have to go and ask for forgiveness and it wasn’t until I really started doing good and doing right, by other people as well as myself, that I really started to feel that guilt go away. So I don’t have a problem going to sleep at night. I feel good when I wake up in the morning.”

The awards show will air live on March 29 at 8 p.m. Kids can go here check out moments from past shows and here to cast their votes.

Image via Wikimedia Commons