Conan O'Brien facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Conan O'Brien
O'Brien in 2024
Birth name	Conan Christopher O'Brien
Born	(1963-04-18) April 18, 1963 (age 62) Brookline, Massachusetts, U.S.
Medium	Television film podcast
Education	Harvard University (AB)
Years active	1983–present
Genres	Improvisational comedy sketch comedy physical comedy surreal humor black comedy musical comedy satire
Subject(s)	American culture American politics everyday life pop culture current events social awkwardness self-deprecation
Spouse	Liza Powel ​ (m. 2002)​
Children	2
Notable works and roles	Saturday Night Live (writer, 1988–1991) The Simpsons (writer, producer, 1991–1993) Late Night with Conan O'Brien (host, 1993–2009) The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien (host, 2009–2010) Conan (host, 2010–2021) Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend (host, 2018–present)
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Conan Christopher O'Brien (born April 18, 1963) is a famous American television host, comedian, actor, writer, and producer. He is best known for hosting popular late-night talk shows. These include Late Night with Conan O'Brien (1993–2009) and The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien (2009–2010) on NBC. Later, he hosted Conan (2010–2021) on the cable channel TBS.

Before becoming a host, O'Brien was a writer for the NBC sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live from 1988 to 1991. He also wrote for the Fox animated sitcom The Simpsons from 1991 to 1993. Since 2018, he has hosted the podcast series Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend. In 2024, he starred in the travel show Conan O'Brien Must Go on Max.

Conan O'Brien was born in Brookline, Massachusetts, and grew up in an Irish Catholic family. He was the president of The Harvard Lampoon, a humor magazine, while studying at Harvard University. He earned a degree in history and literature. After college, he wrote for several comedy shows in Los Angeles.

In 1993, Lorne Michaels and NBC chose O'Brien to take over as host of Late Night. This was after David Letterman left the show. Even though the show got some bad reviews at first, it became very popular. It even won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series. Conan hosted Late Night for 16 years, becoming its longest-serving host.

In 2009, O'Brien moved to Los Angeles to host The Tonight Show. He hosted it for seven months. After some public disagreements with the network, he left the show in 2010. Following this, O'Brien went on a live comedy tour called The Legally Prohibited from Being Funny on Television Tour. A documentary called Conan O'Brien Can't Stop (2011) was made about this tour. He then hosted Conan from 2010 to 2021.

Throughout his career, Conan has hosted many awards shows and TV specials. These include the Emmy Awards in 2002 and 2006. He also hosted the White House Correspondents' dinner in 1995 and 2013. He will host the Academy Awards in 2025. Time magazine named him one of the 100 Most Influential People in 2010. He will receive the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in 2025.

His international travel shows, like Conan Without Borders, have been very popular. When David Letterman retired in 2015, O'Brien became the longest-working late-night talk show host in the United States. He retired from late-night TV in June 2021, after almost 30 years as a host.

Early Life & Education

Conan O'Brien was born on April 18, 1963, in Brookline, Massachusetts. His father, Thomas Francis O'Brien, was a doctor and professor at Harvard Medical School. His mother, Ruth O'Brien, was a retired lawyer. Conan has three brothers and two sisters.

He went to Brookline High School. There, he was the managing editor of the school newspaper, The Sagamore. He also worked as an intern for Congressmen Robert Drinan and Barney Frank. In his senior year, he won a writing contest for his short story "To Bury the Living".

After graduating as the top student in 1981, O'Brien went to Harvard University. He studied History & Literature and graduated with honors in 1985. His college thesis was about how children are used as symbols in the works of famous writers William Faulkner and Flannery O'Connor. At Harvard, O'Brien played drums in a band called the Bad Clams. He also wrote for the Harvard Lampoon humor magazine. He was the Lampoon's president during his second and third years.

Career Highlights

Early Writing & Saturday Night Live (1985–1991)

After college, O'Brien moved to Los Angeles. He joined the writing team for HBO's sketch comedy show Not Necessarily the News. He worked there for two seasons. During this time, he also took improvisation classes.

In January 1988, Lorne Michaels, the producer of Saturday Night Live (SNL), hired O'Brien as a writer. For three years on SNL, he wrote popular sketches like "Mr. Short-Term Memory" and "The Girl Watchers." In 1989, O'Brien and his fellow SNL writers won an Emmy Award for their excellent writing.

O'Brien sometimes appeared as an extra in SNL sketches. His most famous appearance was as a doorman when Tom Hanks hosted his fifth episode in 1990. In 1991, O'Brien left Saturday Night Live because he felt tired from the work. He later returned to host the show in 2001 and made a cameo in 2022.

Writing for The Simpsons (1991–1993)

Mike Reiss and Al Jean, who were in charge of the animated sitcom The Simpsons, offered O'Brien a writing job. The Simpsons was a very respected show for writers back then. O'Brien was one of the first new writers hired after the show's original team.

O'Brien worked as a writer and producer for The Simpsons from 1991 to 1993. He wrote some of the show's most famous episodes, like "Marge vs. the Monorail" and "Homer Goes to College". He also wrote "New Kid on the Block" and parts of "Treehouse of Horror IV". When O'Brien joined, the show started to become more silly and surreal.

While working on The Simpsons, Conan was approached by Lorne Michaels again. Michaels was looking for a new host for the talk show Late Night. O'Brien did a test audition on the stage of The Tonight Show. The audience included his fellow Simpsons writers.

On April 26, 1993, O'Brien was chosen as the new host of Late Night. His friend Robert Smigel suggested Andy Richter to be Conan's sidekick. Fox, the network that aired The Simpsons, did not want to let O'Brien leave his contract. Eventually, NBC and O'Brien shared the cost to release him from the contract.

Late Night with Conan O'Brien (1993–2009)

Late Night with Conan O'Brien started on September 13, 1993, in New York City. At first, critics did not like the show. Many people thought O'Brien was too nervous and fidgety on camera. The show was often at risk of being canceled. At one point in 1994, NBC even threatened to give him only a week-to-week contract.

However, Late Night slowly became successful. The jokes between O'Brien and his sidekick Andy Richter got better. Sketches like "If They Mated" and "In the Year 2000" became popular. A turning point was when David Letterman appeared on the show in February 1994. This boosted everyone's spirits.

The show's quality improved over time, thanks to O'Brien's growing comedic skills. It started to combine silly studio sketches with more elegant, story-driven segments filmed outside the studio, called "remotes." One famous remote showed Conan visiting a Civil War-era baseball league. O'Brien loved this segment and said it showed "who I'm all about."

Conan's audience grew steadily, especially young men. The show began to beat its competitors in ratings for 15 seasons. Fans even created unofficial websites about the show. Critics who had disliked the show at first changed their minds. From 1996 onwards, O'Brien and the Late Night writing team were nominated for Emmy Awards for Best Writing. They won the award in 2007.

O'Brien at the US Embassy in Helsinki in 2006

In 2006, people noticed that O'Brien looked a lot like Tarja Halonen, the president of Finland. O'Brien and Late Night made funny political ads supporting Halonen. This even affected the real election, which Halonen won. O'Brien traveled to Finland after the election. He met with President Halonen at the Finnish Presidential Palace. This trip was released as a special one-hour episode of Late Night.

On February 20, 2009, the last episode of Late Night with Conan O'Brien aired. It showed clips from past episodes and included a surprise appearance by Andy Richter. O'Brien ended the show by smashing the set with an axe and thanking everyone who helped him.

The Tonight Show (2009–2010)

A poster created by Mike Mitchell during the 2010 Tonight Show conflict displaying his "Coco" nickname

In 2004, NBC made a deal that O'Brien would take over The Tonight Show from Jay Leno in 2009. Hosting The Tonight Show was a dream for O'Brien. Jay Leno moved to a prime-time show. On June 1, 2009, Will Ferrell was Conan's first guest on The Tonight Show.

Conan got the nickname "Coco" during his second episode of The Tonight Show. Guest Tom Hanks used the nickname, and the audience started chanting it. Conan joked that he would sue Hanks if the name stuck!

By November 2009, the ratings for O'Brien's The Tonight Show had dropped. On January 7, 2010, NBC executives met with Jay Leno and Conan O'Brien. They wanted to move Leno back to late night. They suggested that O'Brien's Tonight Show would start later, at 12:05 am. O'Brien was very unhappy with this plan. He said that delaying The Tonight Show would "seriously damage what I consider to be the greatest franchise in the history of broadcasting."

On January 21, 2010, it was announced that Conan would leave The Tonight Show the next day. He received $45 million from NBC, with $12 million for his staff. The final Tonight Show with Conan aired on January 22, 2010. It featured guests like Tom Hanks, Steve Carell, and Will Ferrell.

Comedy Tour & Conan (2010–2021)

O'Brien performing in a replica of the costume Eddie Murphy wore in Eddie Murphy Raw (2010)

After leaving NBC, O'Brien was not allowed to appear on television until May 2010. On March 11, 2010, he announced a 30-city live tour. It was called "The Legally Prohibited from Being Funny on Television Tour". His co-host Andy Richter and members of his former band joined him. The tour started on April 12, 2010, in Eugene, Oregon. It ended in Atlanta on June 14. A documentary film, Conan O'Brien Can't Stop (2011), followed O'Brien during this tour.

O'Brien promoting Conan O'Brien Can't Stop at the 2011 SXSW convention

On the same day his tour began, O'Brien announced he would host a new show on the cable channel TBS. The show, Conan, started on November 8, 2010.

O'Brien at Al Udeid Air Base during "Conan in Qatar"

In February 2015, O'Brien became the first American TV personality to film in Cuba in over 50 years. He also visited Armenia with his assistant Sona Movsesian, who is Armenian American. In April 2016, O'Brien visited South Korea after a fan invited him. He even visited the Korean Demilitarized Zone, briefly stepping into North Korea. These international trips became a popular series called Conan Without Borders. He traveled to 13 countries in total. The series won an Emmy in 2018.

In late 2018, Conan took a break while O'Brien went on another comedy tour. The show returned on January 22, 2019, with a new, shorter format and no live band. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the show was filmed from O'Brien's home starting in March 2020. Later, it moved to the Largo at the Coronet in Los Angeles with a small staff but no audience.

In November 2020, TBS announced that Conan would end in June 2021. The final show aired on June 24, 2021. It had a live audience and marked the end of O'Brien's 28 years as a late-night host. It was announced that O'Brien would move to a weekly variety show on HBO Max.

Podcasting & Conan O'Brien Must Go (2018–Present)

Sona Movsesian (left) and Matt Gourley (right) co-host Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend.

In 2018, O'Brien's company, Team Coco, started his weekly podcast, Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend. The first guest was Will Ferrell. O'Brien joked that the title meant he wanted to see if celebrity guests would actually become his friends. In each episode, Conan talks with a guest, his assistant Sona Movsesian, and the show's producer Matt Gourley. Famous guests have included Barack and Michelle Obama. The podcast has been very popular and won many awards. By August 2021, it had been downloaded over 250 million times.

In May 2022, O'Brien's podcast and his entire Team Coco digital media business were sold to SiriusXM for $150 million. This deal included all other Team Coco podcasts.

On April 18, 2024, HBO released a four-episode international travel series called Conan O'Brien Must Go on Max. The show received great reviews. In this series, O'Brien traveled to Norway, Argentina, Thailand, and Ireland. He met fans he had previously talked to on his podcast. The show was renewed for a second season in May 2024.

In January 2025, it was announced that O'Brien would receive the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. He will get the award on March 23 at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.

Other Work

Television Production

O'Brien was an executive producer and co-writer for the 2007 NBC adventure/comedy series Andy Barker, P.I.. The show starred O'Brien's sidekick Andy Richter. It was canceled after six episodes. His production company, Conaco, has also produced other TV pilots and shows.

Voice Work

O'Brien has done voice work for several animated shows and movies. His first guest appearance after starting his late-night career was playing himself in The Simpsons episode "Bart Gets Famous". He also appeared as a "head in a jar" version of himself in Futurama in the episode "Xmas Story". O'Brien has voiced characters in the Adult Swim series Robot Chicken.

He also voiced Robert Todd Lincoln in an audiobook. He was the voice of talk show host Dave Endochrine in the 2013 animated movie Batman: The Dark Knight Returns (Part 2). O'Brien voiced Kuchikukan in an episode of Nickelodeon's The Penguins of Madagascar. He also voiced Santa Claus in The Backyardigans episode "The Action Elves Save Christmas Eve".

Guest Appearances

O'Brien with fellow late-night hosts Samantha Bee, Jimmy Kimmel, and James Corden in 2018

On the TV show 30 Rock, O'Brien is shown as an ex-boyfriend of the main character, Liz Lemon. He appeared as himself in the episode "Tracy Does Conan". O'Brien also made a quick appearance on the U.S. version of The Office in the episode "Valentine's Day". In 2011, he starred as himself in three episodes of the web series Web Therapy. O'Brien also made a guest appearance in the 2019 video game Death Stranding.

Hosting Duties

O'Brien has hosted several awards shows and TV specials. He hosted the 54th Primetime Emmy Awards in 2002 and the 58th Primetime Emmy Awards in 2006, both receiving good reviews. He also hosted the 2014 MTV Movie Awards. In 2011 and 2012, O'Brien hosted the Christmas in Washington special.

Conan has been the host for the White House Correspondents' Association dinner twice, in 1995 and 2013. In 2016, O'Brien hosted the 5th Annual NFL Honors. He also hosted a reunion special for Game of Thrones in Northern Ireland in 2018. On March 2, 2025, O'Brien will host the 97th Academy Awards.

Influences & Style

O'Brien says his comedy was influenced by people like David Letterman, Peter Sellers, and Johnny Carson. In turn, many actors and comedians say O'Brien has influenced them. These include Mindy Kaling, Seth Meyers, and John Mulaney.

On Late Night, O'Brien was known for his energetic and spontaneous hosting style. He often made fun of himself. This spontaneous style was also clear in his "remotes," where he was put in new and open situations. Some of these, like the "Civil War-era baseball" remote and his international Conan Without Borders shows, are among his most loved work.

Personal Life

O'Brien with his wife Liza in 2007

Conan O'Brien met Elizabeth Ann "Liza" Powel in 2000. She appeared in a skit on Late Night with Conan O'Brien. The couple dated for about 18 months before getting married in 2002 in Seattle. O'Brien and Powel have two children: a daughter named Neve (born 2003) and a son named Beckett (born 2005).

O'Brien often talks about his Irish Catholic background. He has said that his family came to America from Ireland in the 1850s. A DNA test later confirmed that his ancestry is 100% Irish Catholic, which is very rare for an American.

He has been a registered Democrat since 1984. O'Brien also helped start an organization called Labels Are For Jars to fight hunger. He helped open the Cor Unum meal center in Lawrence, Massachusetts in 2006.

In January 2008, after a writers' strike, O'Brien grew a beard. Guest Tom Brokaw joked that it made him look like "a draft dodger from the Civil War." After leaving The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien in 2010, O'Brien grew another beard. It was partly shaved off by Will Ferrell on his show Conan in 2011.

O'Brien bought a $10.5 million house in Brentwood, Los Angeles, California, when he moved there in 2009. He brought his 1992 Ford Taurus SHO car with him to California. He showed it on the first episodes of both The Tonight Show and Conan. He also bought a beach house in Carpinteria, California in 2016.

On June 12, 2011, O'Brien received an honorary degree from Dartmouth College. He also gave the commencement speech. On October 21, 2011, O'Brien became a minister. This allowed him to perform a same-sex marriage in New York, where it was legal at the time. The wedding, for a member of his staff, was broadcast on Conan on November 3, 2011. It was the first same-sex marriage ceremony shown on American late-night television.

Filmography

Film

Television

Video Games

Music Videos

Awards and Nominations

See also

In Spanish: Conan O'Brien para niños