Conan O'Brien has had quite the illustrious career, between hosting late night talk shows, performing stand-up comedy and launching his own media company, Team Coco. Well, as Conan prepares to host the 2025 Oscars on March 2, he likely will have one person who's been with him since the beginning — his wife of 25 years, Liza Powel.
As plenty of romances go in the spotlight, Conan and Liza have the world of TV to thank for their humble beginnings. Back in 1999, Conan was filming a segment for his talk show Late Night With Conan O'Brien, and the segment was filmed at a New York advertising agency. As Conan recalled on The Michelle Obama Podcast in September 2020, he noticed Liza among the employees and felt compelled to learn more about her.
"I walk into this room of 11 people, so we're sitting here with the creative team at FCB [Foote, Cone & Belding], and everyone here is in black, which is, I guess, a New York advertising thing," he shared at the time. "I immediately start talking to her [Liza], and then I'm not even trying to be funny ... I'm just trying to find out more about this woman."
After striking up a conversation with Liza, Conan got her info and they began dating. By January 2002, the two decided to tie the knot in Liza's hometown of Seattle. When Liza's parents spoke to The Seattle Times about their son-in-law in 2010, they revealed that it was only a year or so after Liza introduced Conan to them before they wed. But as Conan noted on his Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend podcast, he and Liza truly sealed the deal thanks to running into a famous actress at a Seattle museum.
"I think my wife and I were newly married — or maybe not even married yet — and you came running up to me and were really nice to me," Conan told Claire Danes when she appeared as a guest in June 2023. "My wife was like, 'You know Claire Danes?' I was like, 'Yes, I do.' That may have sealed the deal for me. That may have gotten me my wife of 21 years."
Shortly after Conan and Liza wed, the two's family began to grow. The couple welcomed their daughter Neve in October 2003, and by November 2005, they completed their family with their son Beckett's birth. And given how Conan is a comedian by heart, people have gotten to know his kids thanks to them occasionally being the subjects of his online dad jokes.
All kidding aside, though, Conan and Liza's relationship isn't just a romantic one. The two often work together at Team Coco, and Liza has even hosted, narrated and written episodes for a non-fiction podcast called Significant Others on the network. And while Liza admitted to Newsweek in July 2022 how she doesn't have all the skills Conan's obtained about interviewing throughout his time in Hollywood, she feels that working alongside him comes with its own benefits.
"That's something that Conan has always been really good about is collecting nice people around him and appreciating them and benefiting from what they have to offer," she said at the time. "Most of the time, people seem very happy to be working with him and I'm certainly benefiting from that."
Nevertheless, Conan is well aware of the power and knowledge Liza brings to both their working and personal relationship. In fact, when his Max TV series Conan O'Brien Must Go won a 2024 Creative Arts Emmy award for Outstanding Writing for a Nonfiction Program, he made sure to thank Liza for all the support she gives him behind the scenes.
“I want to give it up to my hardworking team on #ConanObrienMustGo and to my wife Liza, who always encourages me to leave the country," he wrote in a post on Instagram in September 2024.
We absolutely love a power couple!
As the entertainment and news associate editor for Good Housekeeping, Adrianna (she/her) writes about everything TV, movies, music and pop culture. She graduated from Yeshiva University with a B.A. in journalism and a minor in business management. She covers shows like The Rookie, 9-1-1 and Grey's Anatomy, though when she’s not watching the latest show on Netflix, she’s taking martial arts or drinking way too much coffee.
