EARLY LIFE

Conan Christopher O'Brien was born on April 18, 1963 at 1:38 p.m. to Dr. Thomas Francis O'Brien, a professor of medicine and physician, and Ruth O'Brien (née Reardon), an attorney, in Brookline, Massachusetts. He is 100% Irish, for his parents are both of Irish descent. Conan is the third of six children. He has two older brothers, two yonger sisters, and a younger brother: Neal (b. 1960), Luke (b. 1961), Jane (b. 1965), Kate (b. 1967), and Justin (b. 1972). He grew up with a love for television, but he didn't think that a person could have a career in show business. He often stayed up late at night to watch Johnny Carson with his father, who was a fan of the Tonight Show. Conan was quoted to have lived in the attic of the O'Briens' family home, while his siblings occupied most of the bedrooms in the house.

Conan attended Brookline High School. During this time, he served as managing editor of his school newspaper and interned for Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.). He graduated valedictorian in 1981. After high school, Conan attended Harvard University and lived in Holworthy Hall during his freshman year and in Mather House during the last three years of his college career. It was here that Conan met Greg Daniels (writer/producer), his long-time writing partner, and it was here that Conan wrote for the Harvard Lampoon humor magazine. He became the Lampoon's president when he was a junior, and then again when he was a senior, making him the second person in the magazine's history to serve as president twice, and the first person to have done it in 85 years. He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University in 1985 with a B.A. in American History and Literature.

LIFE AFTER HARVARD

Conan moved westward to Los Angeles after college, where he and Greg Daniels joined the writing staff of HBO's Not Necessarily the News, a remake of a British sketch show. While working for the show, Conan performed regularly with improvisational groups that include The Groundlings; he also took classes there as well. It was at The Groundlings that Conan met former girlfriend, Lisa Kudrow. During this two-year period, Conan earned money by doing such jobs as performing for a 7-year-old's birthday party and acting in infomercials. But, once again, his life is about to take another turn.

FROM SNL TO SPRINGFIELD (MONORAIL! MONORAIL! MONORAIL!)

In January of 1988, Conan moved to New York when he was hired to be a writer on Saturday Night Live by Lorne Michaels. Conan spent three (and a half) incredible years on the show. He wrote amazing and memorable sketches that ranged from "Mr. Short-Term Memory," which was performed regularly by Tom Hanks to "The Five-Timers Club," a sketch in which Conan also appeared as Sean, the door man. During the 1988 Writers Guild Strike that lasted from March 7 to August 7, Conan spent his time in Chicago, where he shared an apartment with Jeff Garlin and where he had the chance to go back and work in improv comedy once more. With fellow SNL writer Bob Odenkirk and Robert Simgel, they put on an improvisational comedy revue called Happy Happy Good Show; it was performed at the Vitory Gardens Studio Theater during the summer of that year. When the strike was over, SNL resumed. In 1989, Conan and the rest of SNL writers received an Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing in Comedy of Variety Series.
Conan left SNL in 1991 and spent time around New York in what he called "the career slump" before he was offered to be a writer on the Simpsons He was credited as a writer and co-writer of four episodes. One of the many famous Simpsons episodes has Conan's hands on it; "Marge Vs. the Monorail" was written by Conan and it is one of his favorite.

LATE NIGHT

In 1993, when Johnny Carson retired from the famous Tonight Show, Jay Leno was offered the job, and the bitter David Letterman moved his show to CBS, NBC was left without any show contents, without any materials, and without a host. Lorne Michaels was one of the many people who was in charge of finding the new face to the Late Night time slot. Lorne suggested Conan, and in April of 1993, Conan auditioned on the set of the Tonight Show with guests Mimi Rogers and Jason Alexander. Conan got the job. He resigned his postion on The Simpsons, despite the fact that his contact had not expired, and moved back to New York.
Late Night premiered on Septermber 13, 1993. It suffered low ratings and unfavorable critical reviews in its first three years. The show was on week-by-week renewal cycles, and one night, was closed to being cancelled. However, Conan's writing and comedic style improved and the show was praised as the greatest turn-around in television history. Conan became a poster boy for success on television. Late Night, as you all know, became a hit, and it still is.

PRIVATE LIFE

Conan is married to Liza Powell. The couple has two children, Neve (b. 2003) and Beckett (b. 2005).

Sources:    • IMDB.com    • Wikipedia.org    • CelebrityWonder.com    • FilmReference.com    • Ancestry.com    • TheCrimson.com    • ConanOfTheNight.com    • AV Club.com    • Yahoo! Movie

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