Born April 18, 1963 in Brookline, Massachusetts, Conan Christopher O’Brien is an American comedian and television personality, best known as the host of Late Night with Conan O’Brien (1993–2009), The Tonight Show (2009–10) and Conan (2010–).
O’Brien He was the third of six children; his mother was a lawyer and his father practiced medicine and taught at Harvard Medical School. He showed an early interest in entertainment and comedy and, as a child, took tap dance lessons and wrote comedies. In 1981 he enrolled at Harvard University, where he majored in American history and literature. There he wrote for The Harvard Lampoon, the school’s prestigious humor magazine, and was elected magazine president for two unprecedented 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 the popular HBO newscast parody Not Necessively the News. He wrote for the show for two years and performed in various improv groups, including the Groundlings. In 1988 he became a writer on the late night comedy show Saturday night Live (SNL), where he created such popular recurring characters as Mr. Short-Term Memory Y 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 team of The Simpson, the popular cartoon series about an offbeat suburban family. The combination of satire and silliness of O’Brien contributed greatly to the success of the show, eventually becoming its 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 it premiered in September 1993 and was greeted with a wave of media scrutiny. O’Brien He was inevitably compared to Letterman, and his inexperience and nervousness in his new role showed on camera. Critics were harsh on the show and NBC handed out 13-week contracts one at a time, prompting speculation about its cancellation. O’BrienHowever, he 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, his partner Andy Richter (who was on the show until 2000) helping his pranks, and a trendy band, led by Max Weinberg (drummer for Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band), playing in the background, but O’Brien he was as irreverent and silly as Letterman. Their material was aimed directly at the 18-34-year-old market, mixing such recurring comedy pieces as “Audience Hygiene“,”Classic Films Dubbed by Children” Y “Clutch Cargo“, in which O’Brien I interviewed celebrities whose images appeared on a screen with overlapping moving lips. Also popular was Triumph, the Insult Comic Dog, a puppet played by Robert Smigel. The show was nominated for numerous Emmy Awards and won one for writing in 2007.
In 2004, Jay Leno, a longtime host of The Tonight Show, announced that he would be leaving the talk show in 2009, and O’Brien he was named as his replacement. In February 2009 the last episode of Late Night with Conan O’Brien aired, and O’Brien assumed the position of presenter of The Tonight Show in June, with Richter again at his side. However, the Tonight Show presented by O’Brien He struggled with ratings and in January 2010 speculation emerged that Leno would return to the show. The resulting drama was intensified by the monologue wars between the late-night comedians, who directed their barbs at NBC as well as each other. After heated negotiations with NBC, O’Brien he left The Tonight Show at the end of January and was replaced by Leno. With the legal prohibition of appearing on television for six months by the terms of its agreement with NBC, O’Brien embarked on a live comedy tour in April, which was filmed for the documentary feature film Conan O’Brien Can’t Stop (2011).
In November 2010 he returned to late night television as the host of the talk show Conan at the TBS cable station. Due to the rating drop, the one-hour program was reduced to 30 minutes in 2019. During this time, the well-received podcast began (2018) Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend.
In addition to hosting your talk shows, O’Brien He appeared on various television shows and movies, often playing himself. He lent his voice for a number of animated projects, including The LEGO Batman Movie (2017), where he played the classic Batman villain, The riddle.