Conan Christopher O’Brien is an American television host, comedian, writer and producer. He is best known for hosting several late-night talk shows; since 2010, he has hosted Conan on the cable channel TBS. Take a look below for 35 more awesome and interesting facts bout Conan O’Brien.
1. O’Brien was born on April 18, 1963, in Brookline, Massachusetts.
2. His father, Thomas Francis O’Brien, is a physician, epidemiologist, and professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.
3. His mother, Ruth O’Brien, is a retired attorney and former partner at the Boston firm Ropes & Gray.
4. O’Brien has three brothers and two sisters.
5. O’Brien attended Brookline High School, where he served as the managing editor of the school newspaper, The Sagamore.
6. In his second year, O’Brien was an intern for Congressman Robert Drinan and in his senior year, he won the National Council of Teachers of English writing contest with his short story, “To Bury the Living”.
7. After graduating as valedictorian in 1981, he entered Harvard University.
8. At Harvard, O’Brien lived in Holworthy Hall during his first year with Luis Ubiñas and two other roommates and in Mather House during his three upper-class years.
9. He concentrated in History & Literature, and graduated magna cum laude in 1985.
10. O’Brien’s senior thesis concerned the use of children as symbols in the works of William Faulkner and Flannery O’Connor.
11. During college, O’Brien briefly served as the drummer in a band called “The Bad Clams”, was a writer for the Harvard Lampoon humor magazine, and developed a spoof of the video game One on One: Dr. J vs. Larry Bird in which the Boston Celtics play against a classical ballet troupe.
12. During his sophomore and junior years, he served as the Lampoon’s president. At this time, O’Brien’s future boss at NBC, Jeff Zucker, was serving as President of the school’s newspaper The Harvard Crimson.
13. O’Brien moved to Los Angeles after graduation to join the writing staff of HBO’s Not Necessarily the News.
14. He was also a writer on the short-lived The Wilton North Report. He spent two years with that show and performed regularly with improvisational group, including The Groundlings.
15. In January 1988, Saturday Night Live’s executive producer, Lorne Michaels, hired O’Brien as a writer. During his three years on Saturday Night Live (SNL), he wrote such recurring sketches as “Mr. Short-Term memory” and “The Girl Watchers.”
16. From 1991 to 1993, O’Brien was a writer and producer for The Simpsons. When O’Brien first arrived at the Fox lot, they temporarily gave him writer Jeff Martin’s office.
17. In 2018, O’Brien’s production company, TeamCoco, partnered with Earwolf to launch his own weekly podcast, Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend. The podcast debuted November 18, 2018, with Will Ferrell as the first guest. The title of the podcast refers to the premise that O’Brien is lonely and is thus inviting people onto the show to see if they could be his actual friend.
18. O’Brien was executive producer and co-wrote the pilot of the 2007 NBC adventure/comedy series Andy Barker, P.I., starring O’Brien’s sidekick Andy Richter.
19. O’Brien’s first guest appearance after beginning his late-night career was playing himself in the season five Simpsons episode “Bart Gets Famous”, interviewing Bart Simpson during his rise to fame as a catchphrase comedian.
20. In 1999, O’Brien made an appearance on Futurama in the second-season episode “Xmas Story”. O’Brien played himself as a head in a jar and still alive in the year 3000.
21. O’Brien has made multiple voice appearances on the Adult Swim series Robot Chicken, including the specials Robot Chicken: Star wars and Robot Chicken: Star Wars Episode II.
22. On the TV show 30 Rock, O’Brien is depicted as an ex-boyfriend of lead character Liz Lemon, who works in the same building.
23. O’Brien has hosted several awards shows and television specials. O’Brien hosted the 54th Primetime Emmy Awards in 2002 and the 58th Primetime Emmy Awards in 2006, to critical acclaim.
24. O’Brien also hosted the 2014 MTV Movie Awards.
25. Since 2011, O’Brien has hosted the Christmas in Washington special for TBS’ sister network, TNT, featuring celebrity performances and a special appearance by the Obama family.
26. Conan has served as the master of ceremonies for the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner in Washington, D.C. twice, in 1995 and 2013.
27. In 2016, O’Brien hosted the 5th Annual NFL Honors in San Francisco, California.
28. O’Brien met Elizabeth Ann “Liza” Powel in 2000, when she appeared on Late Night with Conan O’Brien in an advertising skit involving Foote, Cone & Belding, where she worked as senior copywriter.
29. 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).
30. O’Brien often affirms his Irish Catholic heritage on his show. On a 2009 episode of Inside the Actors Studio, he stated that ancestors from both sides of his family moved to America from Ireland starting in the 1850s, subsequently marrying only other Irish Catholics, and that his lineage is thus 100% Irish Catholic.
31. He has been a staunch Democrat since casting his first vote for President in 1984 for Walter Mondale. He considers himself a moderate on the political spectrum.
32. O’Brien founded the anti-hunger organization Labels Are For Jars with his friend and former Harvard dormmate Father Paul B. O’Brien.
33. O’Brien purchased a $10.5-million mansion in Brentwood, Los Angeles, California, to prepare for his move there in 2009 from New York City to host The Tonight Show at Universal Studios Hollywood.
34. As part of a long-running gag, he brought his 1992 Ford Taurus SHO with him to California, showcasing it on both the inaugural episodes of The Tonight Show and Conan.
35. On October 21, 2011, O’Brien was ordained as a minister by the Universal Life Church Monastery, allowing him to perform a same-sex marriage while back in New York, then one of the few states in the US where gay marriage was legal, to tape a week’s worth of shows.
