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 fall marks O’Brien’s
tenth anniversary 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 2002, O’Brien
brought his wit and style to his hosting duties on the
54th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards, garnering big laughs
and critical acclaim, delivering “one of the funniest
opening monologues in Emmy history” according
to The Los Angeles Times.
Since 1996, O’Brien
and the “Late Night” writing team have consistently
been nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing
in a Comedy or Variety Series. Recently, the show received
its first Emmy nomination for Outstanding Variety, Music
or Comedy Series. He and the “Late Night”
writing staff have won four Writer’s Guild Award
for Best Writing in a Comedy/Variety Series, including
two consecutive wins in 2002 and 2003.
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 is married and resides in New York City.
His birthday is April 18.
