Conan O’Brien Described Wife Liza as the ‘Perfect Person for Me’

Conan O’Brien, the host of the 2025 Academy Awards, has been married to wife Liza Powel O’Brien for 25 years and once referred to her as the “perfect person for me.”

O’Brien joined Michelle Obama’s podcast to talk about marriage in 2020. Michelle Obama said she wanted to talk to him about a relationship that “demands honesty and authenticity and being your full self,” marriage.

“My wife Liza is the perfect person for me, but I also had to meet her at the perfect time,” O’Brien told Michelle Obama. “I was ready for the moment. I was open to it. I was ready to meet her and then the Almighty gave her the stage direction to walk through the seen.”

O’Brien also described in detail the first time he met his wife, indicating that he was struck by her immediately.

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Conan O’Brien’s Wife Liza Powel O’Brien Is a Playwright & Podcaster

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He said she was the “Lebron James” of his life. According to TODAY, Liza Powel O’Brien has “an MFA in fiction from Columbia University’s School of the Arts,” and “her primary occupation is playwright.”

She is on Instagram, where she shares podcasts she has written and narrated. She has written plays including “Ruthie Goes Shopping,” “John Wayne Times,” “The Distinguished Gentleman” and “Apostrophe,” according to her website.

Her podcast “Significant Others” tells “stories of those who lived just outside the spotlight of history,” Powel O’Brien’s website says.

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Conan O’Brien Told Michelle Obama About the Moment He Met His Future Wife, Liza Powel O’Brien

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In late 1999, he had to shoot a “remote” at a top advertising agency while hosting “Late Night,” and he was just supposed to go into the room and “be a wise guy.”

Cameras were rolling, and he walked “into this room of 11 people,” he said.

“I immediately start talking to her, and then I’m not even trying to be funny,” O’Brien added. He said, “I’m just trying to find out more about this woman.”

He left the room and said he thought it “went pretty well.” He said, “we should probably get everybody’s name and number.” While breaking down the equipment, she walked out and they kept talking, O’Brien said.

Liza told him she needed to have kids in two to three years. Rather than being panicked, O’Brien said he thought, “Your children should be my children.” O’Brien was 36 when he met Liza and had been through a “bunch of relationships” and had “bounced around” cities and apartments.

Michelle Obama told O’Brien that it resonated with her when he said his wife “wasn’t a game player.”

O’Brien’s in-laws spoke about the couple in a 2010 interview with the Seattle Times.

“They’re doing great,” Jake Powel said of O’Brien and Powel’s daughter, who were “married at Seattle’s St. James Cathedral in 2002,” according to the Times.

“Conan really has, for the first time in a decade, had the chance to think about what he wants to do with his career.”

Powell’s dad is a “retired insurance man and jazz musician,” according to Jake Powel’s interview with The Times.

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Conan O’Brien Told Michelle Obama About Shopping for Engagement Rings With His Wife

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When they got engaged, O’Brien said that he and his wife went to a jeweler in Manhattan. “I swear it was two hours of talking about this ring,” he said. At the end of the conversation, he asked, “What about my ring?” And the woman said, “Oh yeah, that.” She took out a coffee cup, and many rings “came clattering out.”

O’Brien told Obama that there “is a generational gap” in discussing marriage. He said he grew up in a religious Irish-Catholic household, and marriage was never discussed. He was one of six kids, O’Brien said.

“It’s not about you. It’s about her,” he revealed.

For men, O’Brien said, they come to marriage a “little later.”

According to TODAY, O’Brien’s wife didn’t even know about his career when she first met him.

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