Conan O’Brien (born April 18, 1963, Brookline, Massachusetts, U.S.) is an American late-night talk-show personality and comedian best known as the host of Late Night with Conan O’Brien (1993–2009), The Tonight Show (2009–10), and Conan (2010–21).
O’Brien was the third of six children; his mother was a lawyer, and his father practiced medicine and taught at Harvard Medical School. He displayed an early interest in entertaining and comedy, and, as a child, he took tap-dancing lessons and wrote comedic plays. In 1981 O’Brien enrolled at Harvard University, where he majored in American history and literature. There he wrote for The Harvard Lampoon, the school’s prestigious humour magazine, and was elected president of the magazine for an unprecedented two consecutive terms in 1983–84.
After graduating magna cum laude from Harvard in 1985, O’Brien moved to Los Angeles to join the writing team for HBO’s popular news-show parody Not Necessarily the News. He wrote for the program for two years and acted in several improvisational groups, including the Groundlings. In 1988 he became a writer at the late-night comedy show Saturday Night Live (SNL), where he created such popular recurring characters as Mr. Short-Term Memory and the Girl Watchers. In 1989 O’Brien and other SNL writers won an Emmy Award. After leaving Saturday Night Live in 1991, O’Brien joined the writing staff of The Simpsons, a popular cartoon series about an unconventional suburban family. O’Brien’s combination of satire and goofiness contributed greatly to the show’s success, and O’Brien eventually became supervising producer.
In 1993, after David Letterman moved his late-night talk show to CBS, NBC hired O’Brien to fill the vacant time slot. Late Night with Conan O’Brien premiered in September 1993 and was greeted with a wave of media scrutiny. O’Brien was inevitably compared with Letterman, and his inexperience and nervousness in his new role showed on camera. Critics panned the program, and NBC doled out 13-week contracts one at a time, leading to speculation that the show would be canceled. O’Brien, however, gradually developed a devoted audience. Late Night with Conan O’Brien had the traditional look of a late-night talk show—with O’Brien behind a desk, sidekick Andy Richter (who was with the program until 2000) helping his jokes along, and a hip band, led by Max Weinberg (drummer for Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band), playing in the background—but O’Brien was as irreverent and silly as Letterman. His material was aimed squarely at the 18- to 34-year-old market, mixing in such recurring comedy bits as “Audience Hygiene,” “Classic Films Dubbed by Children,” and “Clutch Cargo,” in which O’Brien “interviewed” celebrities whose images appeared on a screen with moving lips superimposed. Also popular was Triumph, the Insult Comic Dog, a puppet performed by Robert Smigel. Richter and Smigel also wrote for the show; other notable writers include Bob Odenkirk, Kevin Dorff, Allison Silverman, Louis C.K., and Laurie Kilmartin. Late Night with Conan O’Brien was nominated for numerous Emmys and won one for writing in 2007.
In 2004 Jay Leno, longtime host of The Tonight Show, announced that he was leaving the talk show in 2009, and O’Brien was named his replacement. In February 2009 the last episode of Late Night with Conan O’Brien aired, and O’Brien took over as host of The Tonight Show in June, with Richter again by his side. The Tonight Show hosted by O’Brien struggled in the ratings, however, and in January 2010 speculation arose that Leno would return to the program. The ensuing drama was heightened by monologue wars between the late-night comedians, who directed barbs at NBC and at each other. After heated negotiations with NBC, O’Brien left The Tonight Show in late January and was replaced by Leno. Legally prohibited from appearing on television for six months by the terms of his agreement with NBC, O’Brien embarked in April on a live comedy tour, which was filmed for the documentary feature Conan O’Brien Can’t Stop (2011). In November 2010 he returned to late-night television as host of the talk show Conan on the cable station TBS. Amid declining ratings, the hour-long show was shortened to 30 minutes in 2019, and two years later Conan ended. During this time he started (2018) the well-received podcast Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend.
In addition to hosting his talk shows, O’Brien appeared in a number of television shows and films, often portraying himself. He lent his voice to a number of animated projects, including The LEGO Batman Movie (2017), where he played the classic Batman villain the Riddler.