Birth of Conan O'Brien in Brookline, Massachusetts

Conan Christopher O'Brien was born on April 18, 1963, in Brookline, Massachusetts. His father, Thomas Francis O'Brien, was a physician and professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, specializing in epidemiology. His mother, Ruth O'Brien, was an attorney and partner at the Boston firm Ropes & Gray. O'Brien has three brothers and two sisters. He attended Brookline High School, where he served as the managing editor of the school newspaper, The Sagamore. He was a congressional intern for Congressmen Robert Drinan and Barney Frank, and in his senior year won the National Council of Teachers of English writing contest with his short story 'To Bury the Living'. After graduating as valedictorian in 1981, O'Brien entered Harvard University. He lived in Holworthy Hall during his first year and in Mather House during his three upper-class years. He majored in history and literature, and graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1985. O'Brien's senior thesis, entitled 'Literary Progeria in the Works of William Faulkner and Flannery O'Connor', concerned the use of children as symbols in the works of Faulkner and O'Connor. During college, O'Brien briefly played drums in a band called the Bad Clams and was a writer for the Harvard Lampoon humor magazine. During his sophomore and junior years, he served as the Lampoon's president. At this time, O'Brien's future boss at NBC, Jeff Zucker, was serving as president of the school newspaper The Harvard Crimson.