Conan O'Brien has spent years joking about fatherhood, but his two kids have mostly stayed out of the public eye.
Conan O'Brien's kids, daughter Neve and son Beckett, were born in Seattle-area years that followed his January 2002 wedding to wife Liza Powel O'Brien, with Neve arriving on Oct. 14, 2003, and Beckett following on Nov. 9, 2005. The former late-night host has spoken about them often, but the family has kept most details private.
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Conan O'Brien's Kids and How the Family Began
Conan and Liza got married on Jan. 12, 2002, in Seattle, her hometown. Liza worked in advertising when the two first met, and she later became a playwright who has written a dozen plays over her career. The couple settled into married life and welcomed Neve less than two years later, followed by Beckett about two years after that.
O'Brien has rarely treated his home life as material for his public comedy persona. Instead, he has described his wife and kids as people who keep him grounded. In one interview, he said his family is "funny and very real," adding that they never cared much that he was on television. That line has followed him through years of talk show appearances and podcast interviews, becoming something of a running theme in how he talks about parenting.
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Neve O'Brien's Path From Childhood Jokes to Yale
Neve, born in October 2003, is the older of Conan O'Brien's two kids. Reporting tied to her LinkedIn profile says she started at Yale University in 2022 and was expected to graduate in 2026. She has also been identified as an illustrator for the Yale Daily News Magazine, giving the public a rare glimpse into her creative interests outside her father's shadow.
Conan has told a few stories about Neve over the years that hint at her sense of humor. During a 2012 forum at the John F. Kennedy Library, he recalled how she once teased him about his short run as host of The Tonight Show, a joke that landed right before he launched his new show, Conan, on TBS. He has also mentioned that she once wanted to be a singer. More recently, in a March 2023 episode of his podcast, Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend, he talked about going to Coachella with Neve, where she introduced him to musician Michelle Zauner of Japanese Breakfast. The story showed a shift from talking about Neve as a child to spending time with her as a young adult with her own taste in music.
Beckett O'Brien's Reputation as the Family's Tech Kid
Beckett, born in November 2005, is the younger of Conan O'Brien's kids. His father has described him for years as someone obsessed with computers and technology from a young age. When Beckett was about eight years old, O'Brien joked that his son was "like a little Steve Jobs," noting that the boy was intense, argumentative, and always looking for loopholes around rules at home.
That comparison stuck, and it still shows up in stories about the family today. O'Brien once recalled that Beckett chose Steve Jobs as his hero for a school dress-up day, which fit the pattern his father had already noticed. Unlike with Neve, there is no widely reported detail about Beckett's current school, job, or career plans. Most of what the public knows about him still comes from his father's anecdotes rather than his own public record.
How Conan O'Brien Talks About Fatherhood Today
O'Brien has used interviews and podcast appearances over the years to paint a consistent picture of his kids as smart, funny, and unimpressed by fame. On an episode of Dads: The Podcast in February 2020, he called his children "very smart" and "very good people," a simple but telling description from a father who built his career on jokes. In 2021, he said he was happiest just spending time with his wife and kids, calling them hilarious and smart in the same breath.
He has also leaned into self-deprecating humor about parenting, once saying that "kids kick your a– every day," a line that captures how fatherhood forced him to separate his television persona from real life at home. Friends and interviewers have noted that his family has always been his toughest audience, the people least impressed by his talk show success.
What Comes Next for the O'Brien Family
There is no announced public event tied to Neve or Beckett right now. The most likely future updates involve Neve's time at Yale and whatever creative work follows her illustration background, along with whatever path Beckett eventually chooses as he moves further into adulthood. Neither has stepped into the entertainment industry the way their father did, and nothing in current reporting suggests that will change soon.
For now, Conan O'Brien's kids remain mostly private young adults, known to the public mainly through their father's stories. That arrangement seems to suit the family just fine, based on how consistently O'Brien has described them as people who care more about being themselves than about his fame.
