Comprehensive information and links about Conan OBrien

Conan O'Brien

Early life

Conan Christopher O’Brien was born in Brookline, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston. He is the third of six children in an Irish American family, one of four boys. His father, Dr. Thomas O’Brien, was a research physician at Brigham and Women's Hospital and an associate professor at Harvard Medical School, specializing in infectious disease. His mother, Ruth Reardon O’Brien, is a former partner of the Boston law firm of Ropes . His sister Jane is a comedy writer and producer.

After graduating as the valedictorian from Brookline High School (Brookline, Massachusetts), O’Brien entered Harvard University. Throughout his college career, he was a writer for the humor magazine. During his junior and senior years, O’Brien served as the Lampoon's president, making him only the second person ever to serve as president twice, and the first person to have done it in 85 years. He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard in 1985 with a concentration in American History and Literature.

Television career

O’Brien moved to Los Angeles upon graduating from Harvard to join the writing staff of HBO's . He spent two years with that show, and performed regularly with improvisational groups like The Groundlings. He also acted in corporate infomercials to earn money during this period.

After he wrote such recurring sketches as "Mr. Short-Term Memory" and "The Girl Watchers", the latter of which was first performed by Tom Hanks and Jon Lovitz. O’Brien also wrote the sketch "Nude Beach", which became infamous due to the fact that the word . He also appeared as an extra in some skits, occasionally with a speaking role. In 1989, he and the other , starring Adam West. It was broadcast on NBC in July but was not picked up as a series. That Fall, O’Brien signed on as a writer and producer for the Fox series , where he also became a supervising producer. In a speech he gave at Harvard on Class Day in 2000, O’Brien credited with "saving" him, a reference to the career slump he was experiencing prior to his hiring for that show span , he created the character of Captain Horatio McCallister (the Sea Captain). Of the episodes he wrote while there, he considers "Marge vs. the Monorail" to be his favorite.

On April 26, 1993, Lorne Michaels chose O’Brien to be David Letterman's replacement as host of . It received generally unfavorable critical reviews for the first 2-3 years after its debut. Indeed, the show was reportedly cancelled by network executives, but was allowed to remain on a day-to-day basis when it was realized there was no programming available to replace it.

Since then, however, O’Brien and the writing team have consistently been nominated for an Emmy Award for Best Writing in a Comedy or Variety Series, though they have not won as of 2005. In 1997, 2000, 2002, 2003, and 2004 he and the Variety Series.

In 2001 he formed his own production company, Conaco, which has subsequently shared in the production credits for averaged 2.5 million viewers each week, easily beating out every other show in its time slot.

In 2005, O'Brien appeared in The White Stripes' music video, "The Denial Twist". The band had previously been a week long musical guest on

Conan has appeared as a guest on many shows. He has appeared on equally surreal (and late) talk show Space Ghost Coast to Coast, Episode 77: Fire Ant, in which he and Space Ghost argue between themselves about a number of things, including whether or not anyone actually watches SGC2C. Space Ghost later quips "Well that's very stupid, and you won't make it in television," an obvious parody of early reviews of Conan's show. After a while, Space Ghost ignores the interview entirely to follow a fire ant that bit him (for about 11 straight minutes). As Space Ghost is crawling out of the studio, Conan gripes that "For all these people know, my show is...a...cop...show...on Fox...or something," to which Space Ghost replies "...Isn't it?"

On January 12, 2002, O’Brien married (former) advertising copywriter Liza Powel in her hometown of Seattle, Washington, in a nuptial Mass at St. James Cathedral. They have one daughter, Neve, born on October 14, 2003 in New York City and a son, Beckett, born November 9, 2005 in New York City [5] [6]span Sometimes switches into a silly voice or affectation and back again, similarly to Robin Williams but not so manic; has joked several times that his real identity is the actor "Chip Whitley"Often jokes that his show is underfunded and unpopular due to its late time slot when it is, in fact, the top rated show in its timeslot.Frequently makes jokes about how nerdy, unpopular, and poor with the ladies he is despite the opposite being true.Often quiets applause of audience members prior to his monologue by saying "keep cool my babies" with hushing hand gesture.Often makes fun of Kirstie Alley, Ruben Studdard, and Star Jones for being overweight. George W. Bush, Paris Hilton, Michael Jackson, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Kevin Federline also make easy targets for himHas incorporated a "Walker Texas Ranger"-lever act, showing short clips from the tv-series claiming that since the merger between NBC and Universal Studios he can use the clips without paying royalties.When members of the audience shout out "I love you!", Conan will say "I love you too, sir", regardless of the sex of the person yelling.On October 11, 2005, O'Brien first pointed out on his show that he resembles the President of Finland, Tarja Halonen (who is female), after meeting a Finnish man (Who was actually Finnish actordirector Lauri Nurkse) in the audience before the show. Since then he has done many comedy bits about that fact, including one that promoted Halonen for second term. Halonen's appearance in American popular culture received publicity in Finland. About a week and a half after the initial show, Conan showed actual Finnish newspaper articles which commented on the resemblance, one calling them "like two berries." It is an expression roughly equivilent to the American phrase "like two peas in a pod." After the initial publicity received by O'Brien's sketch, Tarja Halonen's re-election campaign started advertising on the Finnish broadcast of Late Night with Conan O'Brien.He has an affinity with Abraham Lincoln. He frequently interviews authors that have written about Lincoln, such as Doris Kearns Goodwin and Sarah Vowell."Somehow, Conan O’Brien has transformed himself into the brightest star in the Late Night firmament. His comedy is the gold standard and Conan himself is not only the quickest and most inventive wit of his generation, but quite possibly the greatest host ever." — Conan O’Brien, 2000 Harvard Commencement Speech span