With “a
comic identity as distinctive as his name,” according to “The New York
Times,” Conan O’Brien has firmly established himself in the late night
universe. Hailed by “The Washington Post” as “modest, wry, self-effacing
and demonstrably the most intelligent of the late-night comics,” O’Brien
is “one of TV’s hottest properties” according to “People” magazine’s “25
Most Intriguing People” issue. His unique brand of comedy has earned
Conan the title “Late Night’s King of Cool” from “Entertainment Weekly”
and landed him on the magazine’s list of the “50 Funniest People Alive.”
This season marks O’Brien’s ninth
season combining his talents as writer, performer and interviewer as
host of “Late Night,” which his hometown paper “The Boston Globe”
dubbed, “the most consistently funny and original show on late night.”
In addition, O’Brien currently heads up Conaco, a production partnership
with the network to develop original programming for NBC primetime, as
well as other day parts and networks. Conaco produced the reality show
"Lost,” the well-received “50 Years of NBC Late Night” and has a pilot
at Fox – “Beat Cops.”
Since 1996, O’Brien and the “Late Night”
writing team have consistently been nominated for an Emmy Award for Best
Writing in a Comedy or Variety Series. In both 1997 and 2000, he and the
“Late Night” writing staff have won the Writer’s Guild Award for Best
Writing in a Comedy/Variety Series.
Two-time president of the venerable and
notorious “Harvard Lampoon,” O’Brien moved to Los Angeles upon
graduation and joined the writing staff of HBO’s “Not Necessarily the
News.” During his two years with the show, he performed regularly with
several improvisational groups, including The Groundlings.
By 1988 his talents had come to the
attention of “Saturday Night Live’s” executive producer Lorne Michaels,
who hired O’Brien as a writer in January of that year. His
three-and-a-half years on the show produced such recurring sketches as
“Mr. Short-Term Memory” and “The Girl Watchers” (first performed by Tom
Hanks and Jon Lovitz). In 1989 his work on “SNL” was recognized with an
Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing in a Comedy or Variety Series.
In the spring of 1991, O’Brien left “SNL”
and wrote and produced a TV pilot, “Lookwell,” starring Adam West. It
was telecast on NBC in July of that year but was not picked up as a
series. That fall O’Brien signed on as a writer/producer for the Fox
series, “The Simpsons,” where he later became the show’s supervising
producer. Of all the episodes he wrote, his favorite is “Springfield
Gets a Monorail.”
On April 26, 1993, O’Brien was selected
from among the many talented potential hosts of “Late Night” for his
particular and unique mix of “vitality, wit and intelligence,” according
to Michaels.
Born in Brookline, Massachusetts, O’Brien
resides in New York City. His birthday is April 18.
