Conan O'Brien

American talk show host picked to replace David Letterman as host of NBC's "Late Night." He had little prior performing experience as a staff member of "The Simpsons," known for his crack-up sense of humor. One week before show time he was notified of his appointment for "Late Night," going in one day flat from Average Guy to Certified Celebrity. He made his debut on 13 September 1993 with an estimated salary of over a million a year.

Conan's dad, Thomas O'Brien, is an associate professor at the Harvard Medical School, and his mom, Ruth, is a retired lawyer. The third of six kids, he kept his family in stitches. Being funny and making people laugh was how he made friends, and plenty of them.

At Harvard he studied American history and literature and was twice president of the famous humor magazine, the Harvard Lampoon. After graduating magna cum laude in 1985 he headed for Los Angeles with fellow Lampooner Greg Daniels, where they wrote for HBO's "Not Necessarily the News." He spent three years in New York writing for "Saturday Night Live" but returned to L.A. in 1991 to produce and write for "The Simpsons." Having picked up an itch to get into performing, O'Brian auditioned for "Late Night" with the urging of SNL producer Lorne Michaels. With virtually no on-camera experience, O'Brien was roundly criticized after his on 13 September 1993 debut and execs at NBC were not much more enthusiastic. They gave him contracts in 13-week increments and bombarded him with memo's on how to move his hands and comb his hair. At one low point he told the head writer "I don't want to be a trivia question."

Luckily for O'Brian he listened to advice from Johnny Carson to "just be yourself." Called the most amazing turnaround in TV history, the real O'Brien finally emerged with his quickness, mischievous humor and his amusement at things. His current audience is numbered at 2.6 million households rivaling Letterman's NBC numbers.