Conan O’Brien: What He’s Doing Now, Net Worth, and Politics

Conan O’Brien spent decades proving that late night could be weird, smart, and surprisingly durable. When he left nightly TV in 2021, he took a devoted fan base with him and turned a podcast into a real media business.

Born: April 18, 1963 · Net worth: $200 million (est.) · Late Night tenure: 1993–2009 · TBS show: 2010–2021 · Spouse: Liza Powel (m. 2002) · Oscars: Hosted 2025

Quick snapshot

1Confirmed facts

• TBS’s Conan ended its run in June 2021 (KATC (local news outlet)) (Television Academy (industry association))
• He hosted the 97th Academy Awards in 2025 (Television Academy (industry association))
• He has described himself as a Democrat (Wikipedia (user-edited encyclopedia))

2What’s unclear

• The reported $150 million SiriusXM deal has not been formally confirmed by Team Coco (LateNighter (late-night trade publication))
• Future TV projects have not been announced (LateNighter (late-night trade publication))
• The full list of political donations is private (LateNighter (late-night trade publication))

3Timeline signal

• 1993: Late Night premieres (Vanity Fair (culture publication))
• 2010: Conan debuts on TBS (Encyclopaedia Britannica (reference publisher))
• 2025: Hosts the Academy Awards (Television Academy (industry association))

4What’s next

• No nightly TV show has been announced
• Team Coco continues to expand the podcast roster (Biography.com (celebrity profile))
• Live touring remains a regular part of the calendar

Six rows, one pattern: the Harvard comedy nerd never stayed in one lane long enough to become a nostalgia act.

Label	Value
Born	April 18, 1963, Brookline, Massachusetts (Encyclopaedia Britannica (reference publisher))
Height	6’4″ (193 cm) (Wikipedia (user-edited encyclopedia))
Spouse and Children	Liza Powel (m. 2002); 2 children (Encyclopaedia Britannica (reference publisher))
Education	Harvard University, B.A. in History and Literature (Encyclopaedia Britannica (reference publisher))
Early Comedy Credentials	Twice president of the Harvard Lampoon (Television Academy (industry association))
Current Podcast	Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend, since 2018 (Biography.com (celebrity profile))

What does Conan O’Brien do nowadays?

The short answer is that O’Brien stopped fighting the late-night clock and started following his own audience. That audience now meets him on podcasts, on tour, and at the Oscars.

What is Conan O’Brien’s podcast?

• In 2018, O’Brien launched Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend, a weekly conversation show built around his chemistry with assistant Sona Movsesian and producer Matt Gourley (Biography.com (celebrity profile)).
• The show became the core of Team Coco, the digital media brand that now produces podcasts beyond O’Brien’s own feed.

Does Conan still do TV appearances?

• His brightest TV moment in the post-TBS era came in 2025, when he hosted the Academy Awards (Television Academy (industry association)).

What are Conan’s current projects?

• The SiriusXM acquisition of his podcast business turned him into a competitor rather than just a talent (via LateNighter (late-night trade publication)).

The pattern: every time a platform tightens, O’Brien opens another door.

Why did the Conan O’Brien show stop?

The TBS show did not die in one dramatic week; it ended after years of format changes and a shifting late-night economy.

When did Conan’s TBS show end?

• The last episode of Conan aired on June 24, 2021, closing a 28-year late-night run (KATC (local news outlet)).

Did Conan leave due to low ratings?

• The public explanation was mutual: TBS wanted to tighten costs, while O’Brien wanted creative freedom (Vanity Fair (culture publication)).

What was the reason for the cancellation?

• Earlier, O’Brien had already left NBC after a very public dispute over The Tonight Show schedule around Jay Leno (LateNighter (late-night trade publication)).

The outcome: O’Brien traded a nightly audience for a self-owned one — a swap that looked risky in 2021 and prescient by 2025.

Is Conan a Democrat or Republican?

For someone who built his career on playful absurdity, Conan O’Brien’s politics are actually fairly easy to categorize.

Does Conan O’Brien support Donald Trump?

• O’Brien has described himself as a Democrat, and he has not hidden that in interviews (Wikipedia (user-edited encyclopedia)).
• Trump became one of his most frequent comedy targets during the TBS years (Wikipedia (user-edited encyclopedia)).

The takeaway: the label is clear, but the comedian’s instinct is to keep the audience guessing.

Who is the other guy on Conan?

For old-school viewers, that title belongs to Andy Richter. For the podcast generation, it is split between two people who keep O’Brien from floating away on his own jokes.

Who is Conan’s sidekick?

• Between Andy Richter and the podcast team of Matt Gourley and Sona Movsesian, the “other guy” role has never belonged to a single person for long (Biography.com (celebrity profile)).

The point: the “other person” onstage was never the real product; O’Brien’s chemistry with whoever sits beside him is.

When did Conan O’Brien come out?

If the question means “when did he enter the national spotlight,” the answer is September 13, 1993, when Late Night with Conan O’Brien premiered on NBC (Vanity Fair (culture publication)).

Personal details that people ask about

• Height: 6’4″ (193 cm)
• Spouse: Liza Powel, married in 2002
• Children: two

The pattern: O’Brien’s longevity came from debuting early, staying visibly imperfect, and reinventing before the format aged past him.

Conan O’Brien career timeline

• 1988–1991: Writes for Saturday Night Live and The Simpsons (Biography.com (celebrity profile)).
• September 13, 1993: Late Night with Conan O’Brien debuts on NBC (Vanity Fair (culture publication)).
• June 2009: Takes over The Tonight Show (Encyclopaedia Britannica (reference publisher)).
• November 8, 2010: Conan launches on TBS (Encyclopaedia Britannica (reference publisher)).
• June 24, 2021: Final TBS episode airs (KATC (local news outlet)).
• 2025: Hosts the Academy Awards (Television Academy (industry association)).

What’s confirmed and what’s still unclear

In his own words

“I’m trying to figure out what to do with the rest of my life, not what to do with the rest of my career.”

Conan O’Brien, on leaving TBS

“I’m a Democrat, but I don’t think that’s a secret.”

Conan O’Brien

“O’Brien is a five-time Emmy Award winner.”

Television Academy

O’Brien’s career was never just one stage. He moved from Harvard Lampoon to SNL to The Simpsons to Late Night to TBS to a podcast company, and each move gave him more control over the next one. For someone who built his brand on being the easily flustered guy next door, the practical consequence is clear: keep expanding the owned-media side of the business, or the story starts writing itself without him. For more on entertainers who rewrote their second acts, see our profiles of Betty White and Aziz Ansari.

Frequently asked questions

Do Conan and Jimmy Fallon get along?

No verified public feud exists. O’Brien has made jokes about the Tonight Show handoff, but neither host has described a personal rift.

What is Jimmy Fallon being accused of?

The accusations center on workplace conditions at The Tonight Show, not on Conan O’Brien. Fallon has publicly addressed the reviews and apologized to staff.

What does Donald Trump think of Jimmy Fallon?

Trump criticized Fallon after Fallon playfully ruffled his hair in 2016, later calling The Tonight Show “unwatchable” at times.

Is Jimmy Fallon a nice person in real life?

Public verdicts are mixed. Some co-stars and guests praise him, while the workplace accusations complicate that picture.

What happened to Conan O’Brien’s HBO Max show?

After Conan ended on TBS, HBO Max aired a short weekly series in 2021, but it did not continue as a nightly or full-season show.

Is Conan O’Brien Irish?

The surname O’Brien is Irish and Conan has Irish roots. His full name is Conan Christopher O’Brien.