CONAN O'BRIEN

Quick Biography

Conan Christopher O'Brien was born April 18, 1963, in Brookline, MA, to Ruth, a lawyer, and Tom, a doctor. He has three brothers, two sisters, and his cousin is comedian Denis Leary. At Brookline High School, he was on the debate team and served as editorial editor on the Sagamore. After high school, he attended Harvard University where he was the editor of the Harvard Lampoon; he graduated magna cum laude in 1985 with a B.A. in American history. After graduation, O'Brien went out to L.A. to put his education and sense of humor to work for him. He was on the writing staff of HBO's Not Necessarily the News for two years and worked with the improv group the Groundlings. In 1988, Saturday Night Live creator Lorne Michaels recognized O'Brien's talent and hired him as a writer for the show. He wrote for the show for three and a half years and in 1989, shared an Emmy with the writing team for Outstanding Writing in a Comedy or Variety Series. In 1991, he left the show and pitched an idea to NBC for a series starring Adam West, but it was not picked up. Good thing, though, because O'Brien's next gig would be yet another high-profile show on its way to television history. As a writer and producer for Fox's The Simpsons, he wrote such hilariously memorable episodes as "Marge Vs. the Monorail" and "Whacking Day." After the much-ballyhooed decision that Jay Leno would replace Johnny Carson on NBC's Tonight Show instead of David Letterman, and when Letterman left for CBS, Letterman's old timeslot was left open. Enter one tall, funny Irish guy with a classically dry sense of humor to keep late-night audiences tuning in. Late Night With Conan O'Brien premiered September 13, 1993, with Michaels serving as executive producer. An aspiring writer/performer, Andy Richter, had hopes of getting on the team behind the new show, but instead wound up in the role of "trusty sidekick" to O'Brien. Rounding out the late-night backdrop was music director Max Weinberg, who had been the drummer with Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band, and his backing band. This amalgam of performers, plus an Emmy-winning writing team, led to such comedic bits involving Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, Pimpbot 5000, and In the Year 2000. In 1997 and 2000, he and the writing staff won the Writer's Guild Award for Best Writing in a Comedy/Variety Series. However, Richter left in 2000 to work on his own television career, starring in Fox's Andy Richter Controls the Universe in 2002. O'Brien married advertising executive Liza Powell in January 2002. -- Rachel Sprovtsoff-Mangus (this biography can be found on Conan-Obrien.com)

Check out some photos of the early years

(2nd on the left)

These are a bunch of video clips I've collected.  Put your mouse on it to start.  Enjoy!

 

This one's called camel-toe Annie

this is bill clinton

Here's an Olympic dream...

Conan in High School

Triumph the insult comic dog in action

 

Conan mocks his band

If the mated

Rebecca and Conan kiss

Sigfreid and Roy 

THE SHOW

Conan's show has quite few staples.  Here are the major ones:

Triumph the insult comic dog seen with the band leader, Max Weinberg

Conan seen with president Clinton live via satellite. Andy Richter was on the show until a few years ago. He left. I miss him.

These are very common Skits

One of Conan's trademarks is if they mated.  Here are a few examples.

Another Conan Trademark,  "Actual Items", are ads Conan's team 'found.'