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Conan Christopher O’Brien (born April 18, 1963) is an American television presenter best known as host of NBC's late-night talk show/variety show Late Night with Conan O'Brien. O'Brien is scheduled to take over for Jay Leno as host of The Tonight Show in 2009. Conan's successor for Late Night as of July 2006, is still unknown.

Biography

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 diseases. His mother, Ruth Reardon O’Brien, is a former partner of the Boston law firm of Ropes & Gray . 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 Harvard Lampoon humor magazine. During his sophomore and junior 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 History and Literature.

Television career

O’Brien moved to Los Angeles upon graduating from Harvard to join the writing staff of HBO's Not Necessarily the News. 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 Not Necessarily the News, O’Brien worked as the warm-up comic for The Wilton North Report, a Fox show that was on the air for just four weeks.

In January 1988 Saturday Night Live's executive producer Lorne Michaels hired O’Brien as a writer. During his 3½ years on SNL 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 penis appeared in it no fewer than 42 times, much of it in the form of song . He also appeared as an extra in some skits, occasionally with a speaking role. In 1989, he and the other SNL writers were awarded an Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing in a Comedy or Variety Series.

While on a writers' strike from Saturday Night Live following the 1987-1988 season, Conan put on an improvisational comedy revue in Chicago with fellow SNL writers Bob Odenkirk and Robert Smigel called Happy Happy Good Show.

In the spring of 1991, O’Brien left SNL to write and produce a pilot for the television show Lookwell, 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 The Simpsons, where he also became a supervising producer. In a speech he gave at Harvard on Class Day in 2000, O’Brien credited The Simpsons with "saving" him, a reference to the career slump he was experiencing prior to his hiring for that show . During his time as a writer for The Simpsons, he created the character of Captain Horatio McCallister (the Sea Captain) and he named Patty and Selma Bouvier's iguana Jub-Jub (something Conan would say during awkward silences while writing). Of the episodes he wrote while there, he considers "Marge vs. the Monorail" to be his favorite.

Late Night

On April 26, 1993, Lorne Michaels chose O’Brien to be David Letterman's successor as host of Late Night and Andy Richter signed on as his sidekick. Late Night with Conan O'Brien 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 week-to-week basis when it was realized there was no programming available to replace it. By 1996-97, O'Brien's writing and comedic style was thought to have improved, and he began to develop a growing fan base, especially with high school and college students, as well as the respect of critics and his peers.

Since then, however, 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, though they have not won as of 2006. In 1997, 2000, 2002, 2003, and 2004 he and the Late Night writing staff won the Writers Guild Award for Best Writing in a Comedy/Variety Series.

In 2001 he formed his own television production company, Conaco, which has subsequently shared in the production credits for Late Night.

In the 2003-04 television season, Late Night with Conan O’Brien averaged 2.5 million viewers each week, easily beating every other show in its time slot.

Other work

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 Late Night when they were promoting their 2003 album, Elephant. He has appeared on the 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 O'Brien'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, O'Brien 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 March 7, 2006, NBC announced that it had ordered a pilot episode for Andy Barker P.I., a new comedy executively produced by O'Brien (who will also co-write the pilot). The show will star O'Brien's former sidekick Andy Richter. On September 27, 2004, NBC announced the planned 2009 retirement of Tonight Show host Jay Leno. O’Brien was named Leno's successor .

Conan had a brief guest spot on an episode of Robot Chicken, in a quick, SNL-esque sketch called "Randy, The Oblivious Pizza Delivery Guy."

Partial filmography

Family

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. Elizabeth Ann Powel was born November 12, 1970, is from Bainbridge Island, Washington (near Seattle), and is the daughter of Seattle Dixieland band-leader Jake Powel They met in the spring of 2000 when [http://www.fcb.com Foote, Cone & Belding (FCB), the advertising agency she worked for, redesigned the ads of O'Brien's Houston Sponsor, Hilton Furniture.

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 *.

O’Brien is a distant cousin of Denis Leary through marriage.

Comedy and mannerisms

  • Often knocks over his desk microphone (on purpose) and says that it is fake, sometimes saying it is made out of chocolate
  • Always manipulates his hips while pretending to tug on an imaginary string. Then, often yields an imaginary "pair of scissors", with which he 'cuts the string', forcing his hips to drop. This has become known as the string dance.
  • Performs the string dance at the request of guests on his show, and always on his own, during his monologue.
  • His left arm spasms repeatedly (and apparently subconsciously) just before he tells almost every punchline
  • Claps his hands and says 'yeah' during his monologue, between setup and punchline
  • Often uses sketches that contain a somewhat surreal tone
  • Makes extensive use of chroma key, puppetry, and cheap-looking models pulled by threads
  • Sometimes switches into a silly voice or affectation of another character and back again, in a style similar to that of Robin Williams or Eddie Izzard; has joked 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 jokes that he is nerdy, unpopular, and sexually unappealing.
  • Will often touch his hip and pretend to be burned by his 'hotness', and when the crowd cheers, he generally thanks them for pretending it was sexy.
  • Frequently makes remarks on how unprofessional he and the show are.
  • Often takes shots at NBC, saying that their "ratings are in the toilet"
  • Often moves outside the camera frame or very close to the camera during his monologue, sometimes pretending to be paddling a small canoe when re entering the frame. He will also frequently move off camera and lean onto the edge of the frame giving one of his frequent "thumbs up" poses
  • Often says "I'm not making this up..." preceding odd or unbelievable monologue stories
  • Often quiets applause of audience members prior to his monologue by saying "Keep cool, my babies" in falsetto, while making a hushing hand gesture
  • Often manipulates his pompadour for comic effect
  • Sometimes hisses like a cat. Originally, this was a snake impersonation, while Conan would state that he was "comin' atcha". He now continues to do it, though he allegedly no longer remembers what the hiss is supposed to be, or why he does it
  • Sometimes O'Brien and his guests look at the backdrop (a night-time view of New York) and comment on how late it is or how nice the weather is (e.g. "Yes, it's very late at night right now" or "The weather appears to have cleared up nicely"). This usually receives quiet laughter because the show is recorded at about 5:30 PM
  • Often makes fun of his own puffy red hair, large head, and pale complexion
  • Always hops onto a small star painted on the floor and gestures toward the band at the beginning of his show
  • Sometimes parodies The Tonight Show's "Headlines" segment, claiming the images are real despite is obviously and sometimes terribly edited.
  • Almost always comments on the audiences' applause before his monologue, usually saying that they either sound angry, are bordering on sarcastic, or that they got quiet really fast.
  • Often makes fun of Kirstie Alley, Luciano Pavarotti, Ruben Studdard, and Star Jones for being overweight; George W. Bush, Donald Trump, Paris Hilton, Michael Jackson, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Snoop Dogg, Clay Aiken, Geraldo Rivera, and Kevin Federline are also frequently lampooned on the show
  • Does a hyper impression of Tom Cruise(grits his teeth and makes growling noises) and refers to him as "the guest that will never be on our show"
  • Frequently displays his ability to move his hair up and down by using his scalp muscles
  • When members of the audience shout out "I love you!", O'Brien will reply "I love you too, sir", regardless of whether the person yelling is male or female
  • During his monologue he often unbuttons and re-buttons his suit jacket
  • Often ends the show by saying "Bye, everybody, bye!" in a high-pitched voice
  • Slides across the floor showing nothing but the top of his hair, similar to shark movement
  • Licks lips and puts his "tongue in cheek" when making a joke with delayed applause
  • O'Brien will often start clapping his hands and singing "I said a-I'm a-gonna go to Hell when I die" after he makes a particularly harsh joke (particularly in reference to Star Jones). When the audience claps along, he responds, "Don't clap along to that!"
  • After getting low applause he leans back clapping his hands and saying that it was just like in the U.S senate: "Very good, Mr. O'Brien, very good."
  • Often tells viewers that he will one day do an entire show, where all his staff and guests are just dancing without any interviews or sketches, from beginning to end, during the show's entire duration.
  • Always repeats "We've got a great show tonight" between his intro and his monologue.
  • Often makes fun of members of the houseband Max Weinberg Seven.
  • Often makes jokes saying that La Bamba is gay, which is always followed by a cut to La Bamba looking confused.
  • Often comments on what Max Weinberg is wearing.
  • Often, if not always, asks Max Weinberg after the opening monologue if they have a great show tonight, to which Weinberg makes an awkward response. O'Brien then jokes about the "chemistry" between them.
  • Often jokes about Max Weinberg being a pervert, sometimes in particular an ephebophile.
  • Often jokes about his announcer, Joel Goddard, and his apparent attraction to Asian male prostitutes.
  • Frequently (and jokingly) hints at his own sexual ambiguity.
  • Once in a while, he'll take the microphone clipped to his tie and stick it in one his nostrils while breathing in and out through his nose very hard. Thus, a very loud breathing sound is picked up by the mic. This is usually done if the monologue is slow or simply for comic effect.
  • If he's doing a joke mentioning Donald Trump, he'll cue the band to play the theme song from "The Apprentice" ("For The Love of Money" by the O'Jays). He then proceeds to shift his hair above his eyes, purses his lips and squints his eyes in an attempt to mimic Trump's facial characteristics. Finally, he'll walk in a silly way towards the camera, then imitates Trump's two most famous signatures: he says "You're fired!" and at the same time uses the hand gesture Trump uses on his show.
  • If he's doing a joke featuring Arnold Schwarzenegger, he'll use gibberish (usually trying to make it sound like German words) while using a fake German/Austrian accent; of course he's trying to imitate Schwarzenegger's distinctive Austrian accent. He then puts his hand to his mouth and pretends to bite something off. As Conan sometimes puts it...."he's always eating a sausage".
  • Often imitates a Frenchman by grabbing the imaginary handlebars of a pencil-thin mustache and shouting English words in a harsh French accent.
  • Often imitates Geraldo Rivera and Dr. Phil by placing his index finger and middle finger horizontally below his nose.
  • Nearly every night says in a joking manner that "tonight's show" is one of the best ever, and thus he can't waste time like he does most nights. He then, of course, proceeds to "waste time" with his signature nonsense comedic approach.
  • When talking about a nerdy topic such as comic books or science fiction, he often says in a nasal, "geeky" voice, "Hurray!"; then exclaims, "That's not funny, Conan O'Brien!" or "I'll get you, Conan O'Brien!"
  • Whenever an attractive female is one of the guests, O'Brien often proceeds to jokingly sexually harrass them by acting like a cat and reaches out to touch them. Sometimes he also includes licking his fingers and then preening his eyebrows.
  • Because NBC has acquired the rights to Walker Texas Ranger by merging with USA Universal, Conan will sometimes pull a lever coined the "Walker Texas Ranger Lever" which upon pulling plays random clips from the show, frequently pulling it after a clip has just played. He sometimes acts like he should move the show along
  • Frequently imitates his producer when he is told to "move along".
  • Often comments about his disproportionate body claiming he has a large head and a short torso.
  • Often incorporates Abe Vigoda or, to a lesser extent, Fabio into his comedy sketches.
  • Often after making a harsh joke, O'Brien often takes off his jacket and waves goodbye to the crowd as if he is leaving.
  • O'Brien often boasts that his show's purpose is no longer comedy, but education.

Trivia

  • On October 11, 2005, O'Brien first pointed out on his show that he resembled the female President of Finland, Tarja Halonen, after meeting a Finnish man (Finnish actor/director Lauri Nurkse) in the audience before the show. Since then he has done many comedy bits about this fact, including one that promoted Halonen for a second term. Halonen's appearance in American popular culture received publicity in Finland; about a week and a half after the initial show, O'Brien showed actual Finnish newspaper articles which commented on the resemblance, one calling them "kuin kaksi marjaa." (roughly, "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, and Halonen was re-elected as the Finnish President on January 29th 2006. O'Brien is extremely popular in Finland, where his show airs in prime time, and even visited Finland from February 11-14 while NBC aired the 2006 Winter Olympics. O'Brien and Halonen had a 15-minute meeting, during which Halonen admitted the resemblance between the two. O'Brien presented her with some candy in a heart-shaped box, and Halonen returned the favor by giving O'Brien some Finnish Moomin dolls for his children. O'Brien's visit received tremendous media attention in Finland where he was met with huge crowds and followed by paparazzi. O'Brien described the experience as "surreal". *

  • Although O'Brien is 6'4" tall //www.imdb.com/name/nm0005277/bio, many people are of the impression that he is of average height at most, as he spends most of his show sitting down. His stature becomes obvious when he stands up to greet a guest.

  • During O'Brien's first rocky year as host of Late Night, his predecessor, David Letterman, was very supportive, making an amicable appearance as one of O'Brien's first guests and later filling O'Brien's audience with the stand-by audience from his own show. Letterman would also invite O'Brien as a guest on The Late Show. Years later, when NBC announced that O'Brien would take-over The Tonight Show (a job previously coveted by Letterman), Letterman openly congratulated O'Brien on The Late Show.

  • Also during his first rocky year, O'Brien was a guest on The Howard Stern Show, where Stern and his crew mocked him by throwing a going-away party for him, brought on by newspaper reports that NBC was already looking for someone to replace O'Brien. After the joking subsided, Stern said that O'Brien was more talented than his competition and that he was improving.

  • Ever since his first show as the host of Late Night, O'Brien has kept four black & white photographs on the wall next to him. Those photographs are pictures of Steve Allen, Jack Paar, Johnny Carson, and David Letterman. O'Brien has stated on his show that those pictures represent television personalities who have hosted late night shows in New York City, where Late Night is taped. Allen, Paar, and Carson have died during O'Brien's reign as Late Night host; after each of their passings, O'Brien took the time to remember them on their show, discussing personal anecdotes and how each one was supportive of him when he first started hosting Late Night.

  • O'Brien is an avid guitarist and music listener. He frequently features little-known musical acts on his show not because of an inability to book big-name acts, but to give talented, lesser-known artists some exposure.

  • O'Brien is a fan of Arrested Development, and occasionally makes references to the show. He also has cast members frequently on as guests.

  • He has an affinity for Abraham Lincoln. He frequently interviews authors that have written about Lincoln, such as Doris Kearns Goodwin and Sarah Vowell. O’Brien and Andy Richter once ate at the Lincoln Restaurant, a Chicago diner known for its giant Abe Lincoln-head sign and its civil-war themed omelets. Pictures taken during their visit hang prominently near the establishment’s cash register.

  • While attending Harvard, O'Brien was roommates with Damon Krukowski, who later would become drummer for the seminal indie band Galaxie 500. O'Brien had bought himself a drumkit previously, but had only recently given up playing it. So he loaned it to Krukowski, who he knew would get more use out of it. O'Brien's drum kit can be heard on many of Galaxie 500's early recordings. Conan has even drummed with The Max Weinberg 7 on at least one occasion on the show, in a sketch in which he and Max Weinberg, whose parents were under the impression that he was the host and had come to see the show, switch places.

  • O'Brien is lampooned on the comedic site Conan vs. bear, an on-going gag in which artists create depictions of him fighting or competing with bears in various ways.

  • O'Brien said on his talk show that he drives a green 1992 Ford Taurus SHO. The car was featured in a Late Night segment about classic cars in which O'Brien attempted to get it appraised. In a later segment, the car was "sold" to Brad Pitt, who drove away in the vehicle.

Quotes

  • "...although you see me as a celebrity, a member of the cultural elite, a kind of demigod, I was actually a student here once much like you. ... I was, without exaggeration, the ugliest picture in the Freshman Face book. When Harvard asked me for a picture the previous summer, I thought it was just for their records ... I looked like a mackerel that had been in a car accident. You see, in those days I was six feet four inches tall and I weighed 150 pounds. Recently, I had some structural engineers run those numbers into a computer model and, according to the computer, I collapsed in 1987, killing hundreds in Taiwan." — Conan O’Brien, 2000 Harvard Class Day Speech .

References

External links

1963 births | American comedians | American television talk show hosts | American television writers | Bostonians | Emmy Award winners | Groundlings | Harvard University alumni | Harvard Lampoon people | Irish-Americans | Late Night with Conan O'Brien | Living people | People from Massachusetts | Roman Catholic entertainers | Saturday Night Live writers | Simpsons writers | Television talk show hosts | Chicagoans

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