See a young Conan O’Brien in his ‘80s high school yearbook photos and get to know the ‘Late Night’ and ‘The Simpsons’ comedian, writer, and television host better.
Full Name: Conan Christopher O’Brien
Birthdate: April 18, 1963 (age 62)
High School: Brookline High School, Brookline, Massachusetts
Who is Conan O’Brien?
It is nearly impossible to discuss modern pop culture without mentioning Conan O’Brien’s impressive twenty-eight-year hosting run, dominating late-night television on ‘Late Night with Conan O’Brien’, ‘The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien’, and ‘Conan’.
Conan O’Brien is a legendary comedian, writer, and late-night talk show host, best known for his hosting duties on Late Night with Conan O’Brien, The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien, and Conan. Conan began his career as a comedy writer. His first writing gig was on the HBO sketch comedy series Not Necessarily the News. He later wrote for Saturday Night Live (SNL) and The Simpsons.
Conan has become known for his unique brand of humor that he has showcased in his hosting gigs. He makes guests feel more at ease with his ability to make fun of himself and make light of awkward topics and situations. Conan has been widely regarded as one of the most influential comedians of all time, and makes audiences worldwide feel young again with his light-hearted approach to life and television.
What to Know About Conan O’Brien?
- Conan O’Brien Education: Before his comedy career, Conan was the valedictorian of Brookline High School (Class of 1981) and graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University, where he served as president of the Harvard Lampoon.
- The Simpsons: Conan credits his time as a writer for The Simpsons (1992–1994) with saving his career. He authored legendary episodes like “Marge vs. the Monorail” and “Homer Goes to College” before being plucked from relative obscurity to host Late Night.
- Late-Night Icon: Spanning 28 years across Late Night, The Tonight Show, and Conan, O’Brien redefined the talk-show format with his self-deprecating humor and surreal sketches. His travel specials, Conan Without Borders, earned him an Emmy and a global fanbase.
- Family Life: Conan met his wife, Liza Powel, when she appeared in a 2000 Late Night sketch. The couple has been married since 2002 and has two children, Neve (22) and Beckett (21).
Where Did Conan O’Brien Go to School?
Where Did Conan O’Brien Go to Elementary & Middle School?
Conan attended elementary and middle school at The Michael Driscoll School in Brookline, Massachusetts.
Where Did Conan O’Brien Go to High School?
Conan attended Brookline High School, also in Brookline, graduating as valedictorian in 1981. He was a managing editor of the school newspaper, The Sagamore, and a congressional intern for Congressmen Robert Drinan and Barney Frank. He wrote a short story in his senior year, titled “To Bury the Living,” which won the National Council of Teachers of English writing contest.
Where Did Conan O’Brien Go to College?
Conan went on to attend the prestigious Harvard University, majoring in history and literature, and graduating magna cum laude in 1985. He briefly played drums in a band called the Bad Clams, and wrote for the Harvard Lampoon humor magazine, serving as the president during his sophomore and junior years.
Conan O’Brien: Then vs. Now
Conan O’Brien has always stood out thanks to his tall, lanky appearance and his witty, spontaneous persona. From the ‘80s to today, here’s how he looked from his teenage years vs. now.
Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Conan O’Brien: The Face of Late Night
Early Career
Following his graduation from Harvard, Conan began a career in comedy, moving to Los Angeles to write for the HBO sketch comedy series Not Necessarily the News, remaining on the show until 1987. He subsequently wrote for The Wilton North Report, another news satire program, which lasted less than a month.
Conan achieved his big writing break in January of 1988, when he was hired as a writer for Saturday Night Live (SNL) by executive producer Lorne Michaels. He worked on SNL for three years, writing a number of hilarious recurring sketches, including “Mr. Short-Term memory” and “The Girl Watchers”. In 1989, Conan and the rest of the SNL writing team won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series.
O’Brien wrote a sitcom pilot with fellow SNL writer Robert Smigel called Lookwell starring Adam West, which aired on NBC in 1991. The pilot was unsuccessful, and did not become a series, but later became a cult hit among comedy fans. Following this setback, Conan decided he needed a fresh start and left his position at SNL.
Emerging Comedic Presence
Shortly after his departure from SNL, Conan was hired as a writer for the animated sitcom The Simpsons. The series was very selective with whom they hired as writers, and the role was considered very prestigious at the time. Conan was one of the first hires after the show’s original writing team. Conan credits The Simpsons with saving his career, as he had no real plan after quitting SNL.
Conan was nervous about this new transition, but quickly fit in with the rest of The Simpsons’ writers, and contributed greatly to the series, writing some of its most memorable episodes, including “Marge vs. the Monorail” and “Homer Goes to College”. He also had sole writing credits on the episodes “New Kid on the Block” and “Treehouse of Horror IV”.
On April 26, 1993, Conan O’Brien was selected to succeed David Letterman as the new host of Late Night after auditioning for executive producer Lorne Michaels, whom he previously worked for at SNL, as well as other NBC executives.
Legendary Hosting Career
Conan made his debut as host of Late Night on September 13, 1993. O’Brien’s version of the show was not well received at first, due to him being virtually unknown to the public, and critics and viewers not quite grasping O’Brien’s awkward humor. During its first season, the show was at constant risk of being cancelled, and NBC even considered replacing Conan with actor Greg Kinnear.
The series began to see more success after sketches grew in popularity and the appearance of former host David Letterman as a guest. Conan described this as a “morale boost. The show also began to set itself aside from former late night shows with its own unique format where Conan would do his usual interviews and sketches, but would also incorporate a remote broadcast segment, where he would visit various outside locations, including an old time baseball league set during the Civil War era.
Late Night with Conan O’Brien went on to dominate late night television for the next 15 years, attracting an average audience of around 2.5 million viewers. O’Brien and his writing team were nominated for the Emmy Award for Best Writing in a Comedy or Variety Series on several occasions, winning only once in 2007. The final episode of the show aired on February 20, 2009, as Conan was next in line to take over as host of The Tonight Show later that year, replacing Jay Leno.
rds323, CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Late Career to Present Day
The first episode of The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien aired on June 1, 2009, with fellow comedian Will Ferrell appearing as his first guest, and Pearl Jam appearing as his first musical guest. By November 2009, the ratings for the show were down significantly from when Leno was host. NBC executives proposed that Conan remain as host of The Tonight Show, but his time slot be moved from 11:35 to 12:05, and Leno appear in a 30-minute segment beforehand. Conan was not happy with this, and instead opted to leave The Tonight Show, receiving a $45 million settlement from NBC. Leno returned as host in 2010.
Tertiary7, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Conan took a break from hosting following his departure, and commenced a live tour spanning 30 different cities in April 2010. Conan’s co-host and sidekick, Andy Richter, as well as members of the former Tonight Show Band, accompanied Conan on his tour. The tour began in Eugene, Oregon, and concluded in Atlanta, Georgia, with a notable stop at Radio City Music Hall in New York City, right next to Conan’s former Late Night studio. Conan O’Brien Can’t Stop, a documentary covering the tour, was released in 2011.
Conan resumed hosting duties in late 2010 with his third late-night talk show, Conan, on TBS. The series was a massive success, with Conan’s remote episodes in particular drawing significant attention. Conan traveled to a number of countries, including Armenia and South Korea. These episodes eventually became their own series called Conan Without Borders, which won an Emmy in 2018. The show concluded in June of 2021, marking the end of Conan’s twenty-eight year period as a late-night television host.
Conan launched a podcast in 2018, titled Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend, which he still hosts today. The podcast has featured a number of talented celebrity guests, including Barack and Michelle Obama, Stephen Colbert, and Bob Newhart.
In 2024, Conan starred in a four-episode international travel series called Conan O’Brien Must Go, which depicted him travelling to Norway, Argentina, Thailand, and Ireland to meet fans. The show was renewed for a second season in May 2024.
On March 2, 2025, Conan appeared as host of the 97th Academy Awards. His performance received positive ratings, and he was asked to return as host of the 98th Academy Awards, which will air in March of 2026.
Later that month, Conan received the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor for his legendary contributions to comedy and television over the years. The ceremony took place at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. Conan earned an Emmy for Outstanding Variety Special for the recording of the presentation.
Who is Conan O’Brien’s Family?
Irish Catholic Upbringing
Conan was raised in Brookline, Massachusetts by his mother, Ruth O’Brien, an attorney, and his father, Thomas Francis O’Brien, a physician and professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School who specialized in epidemiology. Conan has three brothers, Neal, Luke, and Justin, as well as two sisters, Kate and Jane. His third cousin is fellow comedian Denis Leary. Conan has 100% Irish Catholic heritage, as his ancestors from both sides of his family moved to America from Ireland in the 1850s and married only other Irish Catholics.
Married with Children
Conan met his wife, Liza Powel, in 2000, when she was working as a senior copywriter for the advertising agency Foote, Cone & Belding, and appeared in a sketch on Late Night with Conan O’Brien in which Conan attempted to create a more effective commercial for a furniture company. They got married in 2002 in Seattle, and have two kids together, a daughter, Neve, born in 2003, and a son, Beckett, born in 2005.
John J. Kruzel/American Forces Press Service, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
A Comedic Maestro
Conan will forever be remembered as one of the most memorable contributors to modern comedy, and for shaping the realm of late-night television throughout the 1990s, 2000s, and 2010s. He will always be a beloved figure in pop culture, and a reminder that laughter is the best medicine.
Conan has written for, acted in, and hosted the following TV programs:
- Not Necessarily the News (1983-1987)
- The Wilton North Report (1987-1988)
- Saturday Night Live (1988-1991, 2001, 2022)
- Lookwell (1991)
- The Simpsons (1992-1994)
- Late Night with Conan O’Brien (1993-2009)
- 54th Primetime Emmy Awards (2002)
- Andy Richter Controls the Universe (2003)
- Robot Chicken (2005-2008)
- 58th Primetime Emmy Awards (2006)
- 30 Rock (2006, 2013)
- The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien (2009-2010)
- Conan (2010-2021)
- White House Correspondents’ Dinner (2013)
- 2014 MTV Movie Awards (2014)
- Conan Without Borders (2015-2019)
- 5th NFL Honors (2016)
- Conan O’Brien Must Go (2024-present)
- 97th Academy Awards (2025)
- Conan O’Brien: The Mark Twain Prize for American Humor (2025)
- 98th Academy Awards (2026) (upcoming)
His film credits are as follows:
- Tomorrow Night (1998)
- Pootie Tang (2001)
- Vanilla Sky (2001)
- Bewitched (2005)
- Queer Duck: The Movie (2006)
- Pittsburgh (2006)
- The Great Buck Howard (2008)
- Conan O’Brien Can’t Stop (2011)
- Now You See Me (2013)
- The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (2013)
- The Lego Batman Movie (2017)
- Sandy Wexler (2017)
- Norm Macdonald: Nothing Special (2022)
- Weird: The Al Yankovic Story (2022)
- Please Don’t Destroy: The Treasure of Foggy Mountain (2023)
- John Candy: I Like Me (2025)
- Toy Story 5 (2026) (in production)
Browse Yearbooks From Your Favorite Celebs
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