Conan O'Brien

Conan O'Brien is an American television host, comedian, actor, writer, and producer. He is best known for having hosted late-night talk shows, 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 hosted 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.

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, where he graduated with an AB degree in history and literature. He 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, the White House Correspondents' dinner in 1995 and 2013, and the Academy Awards in 2025. O'Brien was named one of Time's 100 Most Influential People in 2010.

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". His 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. 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 nearly 30 years.

Family life

O'Brien was born on April 18, 1963, in Brookline, Massachusetts. His father, Thomas Francis O'Brien (1929–2024), was a physician and professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, specializing in epidemiology. His mother, Ruth O'Brien (née Reardon; 1931–2024), was an attorney and partner at the Boston firm Ropes & Gray. O'Brien has three brothers and two sisters.

O'Brien met Elizabeth Ann "Liza" Powel in 2000, when, as a senior copywriter for the advertising agency Foote, Cone & Belding, she appeared in a skit on Late Night with Conan O'Brien in which O'Brien sought to craft a more effective TV commercial for Hilton Furniture, a store in Houston, where O'Brien's show was only broadcast at 2:40am. The couple dated for nearly 18 months before their 2002 marriage in Powel's hometown of Seattle. O'Brien and Powel have a daughter, Neve (born 2003), and a son, Beckett (born 2005).

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Heritage

O'Brien often speaks proudly of his "100% Irish Catholic" roots. His ancestors arrived in the United States as part of the wave of Irish immigration during the 1850s and early 1860s. The O'Briens in particular came from Dungarvan, County Waterford. He notes the stereotypical background of his family: they lived in farm country in Central Massachusetts and worked in fields like law enforcement.

O'Brien jokes that his ancestors married into each other for more than 100 years in Massachusetts, resulting in him being "dangerously inbred." The surnames Walsh and Powers appear in his recent family tree four separate times. Other surnames include Reardon, Powers, and Gavin. Conan's brother Luke has also joked that the family can't be seen as overly inbred, since they come from "at least" two different counties in southwestern Ireland. Luke has also described his family as: "They're nice. Deeply disturbed. Dangerously inbred. Palpably unbalanced. But nice."

During the special post-Super Bowl episode of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on February 3, 2019, O'Brien revealed that he had recently taken a DNA test that showed him to be "100% Irish," something his doctor said means O'Brien is "inbred."

A family-oriented man, O'Brien has included his family in many ways in his entertainment career. While working as a writer for The Simpsons, he named the character Ruth Powers after his maternal grandmother, who lived with him while he was growing up. He frequently referenced his family on his Late Night program, even having his sister Kate appear in an episode in which she was infatuated with Conan's sidekick, Andy Richter. In June 1997, he took Late Night to Ireland for a week, during which he explored sites of interest in his family heritage, including O'Brien Castle. He even met his wife, Liza Powel O'Brien, when she was featured in a remote bit.

O'Brien notes that his children are of the first generation in his family to not be 100% Irish Catholic, since he married a Scots-Irish Episcopalian.

He frequently discusses his heritage in the media:

• Conan O'Brien's appearance on RTÉ One's "Ryan Confidential"
• Conan O'Brien's speech at Trinity College Dublin

Resources

• Wikipedia: Conan O'Brien
• TeamCoco.com: Official Website