Conan O'Brien
Conan Christopher O'Brien (born April 18, 1963) is an American television host, comedian, writer, and producer. He is best known for having hosted late-night talk shows for almost 28 years, beginning with Late Night with Conan O'Brien (1993–2009) and The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien (2009–2010) on the NBC television network, and Conan (2010–2021) on the cable channel TBS. Before his hosting career, O'Brien was a writer for the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live from 1988 to 1991, and the Fox animated sitcom The Simpsons from 1991 to 1993. He has also been host of the podcast series Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend since 2018 and starred in the 2024 travel show Conan O'Brien Must Go on Max.
Conan O'Brien
Conan Christopher O'Brien
April 18, 1963
Brookline, Massachusetts, U.S.
- Television
- film
- podcast
1983–present
2
Denis Leary (third cousin)
- 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)
Born in Brookline, Massachusetts, O'Brien was raised in an Irish Catholic family. He served as president of The Harvard Lampoon while attending Harvard University, and was a writer for the sketch comedy series Not Necessarily the News. After writing for several comedy shows in Los Angeles, he joined the writing staff of Saturday Night Live. O'Brien was a writer and producer for The Simpsons for two seasons until he was selected by Lorne Michaels and NBC to take over David Letterman's position as host of Late Night in 1993. Despite unfavorable reviews and threats of cancellation in the show's first years, O'Brien and the show developed and became highly regarded, earning a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series. He hosted Late Night for 16 years, and as of 2023 is still the longest-serving host in the history of the franchise.
In 2009, O'Brien moved from New York to Los Angeles to host his own incarnation of The Tonight Show for seven months until highly publicized network politics prompted a host change in 2010. After this departure, O'Brien hosted a 32-city live comedy tour titled The Legally Prohibited from Being Funny on Television Tour, which was the subject of the documentary Conan O'Brien Can't Stop (2011). He then hosted Conan from 2010 to 2021. Throughout his career, he has also hosted a number of awards shows and television specials, including the Emmy Awards in 2002 and 2006 and the White House Correspondents' dinner in 1995 and 2013.[1][2] Conan was named one of Time's 100 Most Influential People in 2010.[3]
Known for his spontaneous hosting style, which has been characterized by The New York Times as "awkward, self-deprecating humor", O'Brien's late-night programs combine the "lewd and wacky with more elegant, narrative-driven short films".[4] His segments outside the studio, dubbed "remotes", have also become some of his best-received work, including the international travel series Conan Without Borders. With the retirement of David Letterman on May 20, 2015, O'Brien became the longest-working late-night talk show host active in the United States.[5] This active streak ended with O'Brien's retirement from late-night television in June 2021, with his entire run as a late-night host lasting almost 28 years.
Early life
Conan Christopher O'Brien was born on April 18, 1963, in Brookline, Massachusetts.[6] His father, Thomas Francis O'Brien (b. 1929), is a physician and professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School where he specializes in epidemiology.[7][8] His mother, Ruth O'Brien (née Reardon; b. 1931), is a retired attorney and former partner at the Boston firm Ropes & Gray.[9] O'Brien has three brothers and two sisters.[10] O'Brien attended Brookline High School, where he served as the managing editor of the school newspaper, then called The Sagamore.[7] He was a congressional intern for Congressmen Robert Drinan and Barney Frank, and in his senior year won the National Council of Teachers of English writing contest with his short story "To Bury the Living".[11][12]
After graduating as valedictorian in 1981, O'Brien entered Harvard University.[13] He lived in Holworthy Hall during his first year with future businessman Luis Ubiñas and two other roommates,[14] and in Mather House during his three upper-class years.[15] He majored in History & Literature, and graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1985.[16][17] O'Brien's senior thesis, entitled Literary Progeria in the Works of William Faulkner and Flannery O'Connor, concerned the use of children as symbols in the works of William Faulkner and Flannery O'Connor.[18][19] During college, O'Brien briefly played drums in a band called the Bad Clams and was a writer for the Harvard Lampoon humor magazine.[20] During his sophomore and junior years, he served as the Lampoon's president.[21] At this time, O'Brien's future boss at NBC, Jeff Zucker, was serving as president of the school newspaper The Harvard Crimson.[22]
Career
Saturday Night Live (1988–1991)
After graduating from Harvard, O'Brien moved to Los Angeles to join the writing staff of HBO's sketch comedy series Not Necessarily the News.[23] He was also a writer on the short-lived The Wilton North Report.[24] He spent two years with that show and performed regularly with improvisational groups, including The Groundlings.[25] In January 1988, Saturday Night Live (SNL) executive producer Lorne Michaels hired O'Brien as a writer.[26] During his three years on SNL, he wrote such recurring sketches as "Mr. Short-Term memory" and "The Girl Watchers"; the latter was first performed by Tom Hanks and Jon Lovitz.[27]
While on a writers' strike from Saturday Night Live following the 1987–88 season, O'Brien put on an improvisational comedy revue in Chicago with fellow SNL writers Bob Odenkirk and Robert Smigel called Happy Happy Good Show.[28][29] While living in Chicago, O'Brien briefly shared an apartment with Jeff Garlin near Wrigley Field.[30] In 1989, O'Brien and his fellow SNL writers received an Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series.[31]
O'Brien, like many SNL writers, occasionally appeared as an extra in sketches; his most notable appearance was as a doorman in a sketch in which Tom Hanks was inducted into the SNL "Five-Timers Club" for hosting his fifth episode in 1990.[32] O'Brien and Robert Smigel wrote the television pilot for Lookwell starring Adam West, which aired on NBC in 1991.[33] Even with support from NBC president Brandon Tartikoff, the pilot never went to series.[34] Despite the negative reviews, it became a cult hit.[35] It was later screened at The Other Network, a festival of unaired TV pilots produced by Un-Cabaret; it featured an extended interview with O'Brien and was rerun in 2002 on the Trio network.[36]
In 1991, after the failure of his sitcom, O'Brien also had an engagement to be married fall through and he quit Saturday Night Live, citing burnout.[37] "I told Lorne Michaels I couldn't come back to work and I just needed to do something else," O'Brien recalled. "I had no plan whatsoever. I was literally in this big transition phase in my life where I decided, I'll just walk around New York City, and an idea will come to me."[38]: 160–161 O'Brien would later return to the show as host in 2001,[39] and in a 2022 cameo appearance.[40]