Late Night Host Conan O’Brien Named 2026 Harvard Commencement Speaker

Comedian and television host Conan C. O’Brien ’85 will deliver the keynote addresses at Harvard’s 375th Commencement Ceremony in May, the University announced Thursday morning.

O’Brien will address the Class of 2026 during the ceremony’s Morning Exercises in Tercentrary Theatre on May 28.

One of the most recognizable figures in American late-night television, O’Brien first rose to prominence as a writer for Saturday Night Live and The Simpsons, earning an Emmy before becoming host of Late Night with Conan O’Brien on NBC in 1993. His late-night career spanned nearly three decades and included stints hosting The Tonight Show and the TBS program Conan.

Known for his self-deprecating, offbeat style, O’Brien built a devoted following through absurd sketches, celebrity interviews, and recurring comedy bits alongside longtime sidekick Andy Richter.

In recent years, O’Brien has expanded beyond late-night television. His travel programs “Conan Without Borders” and “Conan O’Brien Must Go” have followed the comedian to destinations including Austria, Norway, Ireland, and South Korea. His interview podcast, “Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend,” has become one of the most popular in the genre.

In 2025, he received the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, one of the nation’s highest honors in comedy. And on Sunday, he will host the Academy Awards for the second year in a row.

In a press release announcing the selection, Harvard President Alan M. Garber ’76 called O’Brien a “singular and outstanding American humorist.”

“His work, deeply rooted in close listening and keen observation, creates joyful connections between and among ideas and people,” Garber added.

O’Brien’s comedy days trace back to his undergraduate years, where he spent two years as president of the Harvard Lampoon, a semi-secret Sorrento Square social organization that used to occasionally publish a so-called humor magazine. O’Brien has joked before about hosting raucous Lampoon parties despite being a teetotaler himself.

A native of Brookline, Massachusetts, he graduated from Harvard in 1985 with a degree in History and Literature.

His senior thesis — titled “Literary Progeria in the Works of Williams Faulkner and Flannery O’Connor” — resurfaced decades later when a fan handed him a photocopy just before a performance.

“I knew then it was time to die,” O’Brien later joked.

This is not the first time O’Brien will take center stage before a class of graduating seniors. In a virtual 2020 commencement ceremony, he addressed Harvard’s graduates from his Los Angeles backyard, donning shorts and a robe.

Though largely an irreverent speech — replete with pandemic-era jokes about Pelotons, pass-fail grading, and Zoom bombers — O’Brien commended graduates for their “resilience” in the face of economic, political, and social turmoil.

He also addressed the College class of 2000 during its Class Day, encouraging them to pursue their goals relentlessly — and to wholeheartedly embrace failure.

“Let me assure you that you never really leave Harvard,” he said in his Class Day remarks. “The Harvard fundraising committee will be on your ass until the day you die.”

He will take the stage in Tercentenary Theater one year after a tense Commencement ceremony that unfolded as a federal judge weighed the University’s ability to continue hosting international students amid an escalating clash between Harvard and the Trump administration.

That year’s keynote speaker, Abraham Verghese, took aim at the White House in his 20-minute-long address, decrying what he called a “cascade of draconian government measures.” And he praised Garber, his former colleague, for opposing the government’s pressure campaign.

In his own address, Garber was twice interrupted by standing ovations — a remarkable show of support from a crowd that had booed him just a year before for blocking 13 undergraduates from graduating because of their involvement in a pro-Palestine encampment.

Other recent Commencement speakers include Nobel Peace Prize-winner Maria A. Ressa, actor Tom Hanks, U.S. Attorney General Merrick B. Garland ’74, and former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.

—Staff writer Elise A. Spenner can be reached at [email protected] or on Signal at elisespenner.82. Follow her on X @EliseSpenner.

​​—Staff writer Hugo C. Chiasson can be reached at [email protected] or on Signal at hcc.35. Follow him on X @HugoChiassonn.