Conan O’Brien will forever be able to look back on the day he met his wife — because it was all caught on camera.
But the 61-year-old comedian, the host of the 97th Academy Awards this evening, has so far refused to ever rewatch the footage.
O’Brien has been married to his wife Elizabeth ‘Liza’ Powel O’Brien since 2002. They met in 2000, and O’Brien had already established himself as a popular comedian and writer by then. However, Liza was not familiar with his work as she was not a regular viewer of his shows.
At the time that he and Powel met, Conan was still hosting his iconic talk show Late Night With Conan O’Brien.
The couple’s paths crossed when Liza appeared in a sketch for Conan’s NBC talk show. This serendipitous meeting was captured on tape, immortalizing their first interaction. Despite Liza’s initial lack of knowledge about Conan’s career, their connection blossomed into a lasting relationship.
Fast forward to the present, and O’Brien is still making waves in the entertainment industry. Most recently, he was involved in the preparations for the Oscars ceremony in Hollywood, a prestigious event that he helped to organize. Through the years, O’Brien and Liza have built a strong partnership based on mutual respect and shared experiences.
Conan O’Brien, who hosts the 2025 Academy Awards tonight, and his wife Liza Powel O’Brien had a meet-cute on his talk show Late Night in 2000; pictured Sunday at the Oscars in Hollywood
Their first time laying eyes on each other was captured on tape for Conan’s show, but Liza revealed Conan has never rewatched the tape, even though she has many times; seen in 2016 in Beverly Hills
The happy couple are pictured on their wedding day in Seattle in 2002
In January 2000, Liza was employed at the advertising agency Foote, Cone & Belding, the talk show host later recalled to Michelle Obama on The Light Podcast.
The producers for Late Night had contracted the agency for help with a sketch Conan was planning in which he would air a parody of a commercial for Hilton Furniture, which had sold ads to air during his time slot in the local Houston, Texas, market.
The commercials were practically a parody from the start, as they featured the store’s owner, Hilton Koch, waving a chainsaw and cutting off part of a bedpost with it while urging customers to visit the store.
Because of the advertising agency’s connection, the comic visited their offices to shoot part of the sketch, in which they invited the Hilton to film a new ad.
Liza was featured early in the sketch when Conan visited the office and chatted with members of the creative team about how the agency worked.
Later, she popped up again in a conference room as she introduced the ad that the agency had come up with to Conan.
‘We end up talking in the lobby, and she said everything a woman is not supposed to say, leading off with, “Yeah, I saw my gynecologist recently, and my gynecologist said I need to start having children in the next two to three years, if I really want them to be healthy,”‘ Conan recalled while chatting with Michelle Obama.
‘And me, rather than be panicked, I’m thinking, “Yes, you should have children. Your children should be my children,”‘ he continued.
O’Brien, 61, reported for duty on Wednesday as he helped to roll out the red carpet ahead of Sunday’s 97th Academy Awards ceremony at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood
Conan filmed a comedy segment at the ad agency where Liza used to work, but he fell for her instantly after chatting with her; seen in 2019 in LA
Liza told the story in her own way in 2022 on the Inside Conan podcast, which is hosted by the Conan’s writers Mike Sweeney and Jessie Gaskell and is part of his network of podcasts.
At the time, she revealed that she had watched the clip, which is easily accessible on YouTube, several times over the years.
But that wasn’t the case for her husband.
‘He won’t watch it,’ she declared, before revealing that reason Conan has steered clear of rewatching the meet-cute because he’s too attached the the idealized version in his mind.
‘He wants to remember it instead…’ she explained. ‘He says he prefers his memory to whatever the truth is.’
Conan and Liza’s connection was so strong that they were soon dating, and they walked down the aisle in January 2022 in a ceremony held in her hometown of Seattle.
They made sure to pay tribute to the unusual way that they met, with Liza revealing on Inside Conan that they ‘invited Hilton to the wedding.’
The happy couple didn’t waste any time on starting the family they’d wanted since they first met.
The couple, who married less than two years later, entwined their careers. In addition to working as a playwright, Liza hosts a history podcast for Conan’s podcast empire; pictured on Late Night with Conan O’Brien
In October 2003, they welcomed their daughter Neve (seated next to Conan), now 21, and their son Beckett (seated next to Liza), now 19, followed in November 2005; pictured in 2016 in LA
In October 2003, they welcomed their daughter Neve, now 21, and their son Beckett, now 19, followed in November 2005.
In 2024, Liza recalled Conan’s metaphor for how children test the strength of their marriage while chatting with Jameela Jamil on her I Weigh podcast.
‘When they’re producing cars on the assembly line, there’s a machine that takes every, whatever, 200th car and picks it up and shakes it to see if anything comes loose,’ she recalled, via the Today Show. ‘It’s sort of a way they quality test their product. So that’s what having kids does to your to your relationship. It just picks the whole thing up and shakes it, and it’s rattling and s*** is falling off.
‘And it is incredibly stressful — stressful in so many ways that you can see coming and in ways that you can’t see coming,’ she shared.
Since getting married, Liza has been an integral part of her husband comedy empire. She hosts and writes the Team Coco podcast Significant Others, a comic history podcast that highlights lesser-known figures who had important connections to major movers and shakers.
Conan gushed about his wife’s podcast shortly after its release on his own podcast, Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend. ‘I really love it,’ he enthused. ‘And I’m excited about it and very proud, as your goofy partner in life, that you have made this really cool podcast that we’re going to share with people.’
Liza has proven herself to be a multi-talented figure, and in addition to working as an ad executive and hosting a history podcast, she has established herself as a playwright.
Among her full-length plays are Lucky, which received a Zoom reading as part of Echoe Theatre LabFest 2022 amid the coronavirus pandemic; Apostrophe, which was workshopped at the Ojai Playwrights Conference FOUNDRY project in 2020 and produced at the Whidbey Island Center for the Arts in 2022; and The Great Experiment, which received a workshop production at Los Angeles’ Geffen Playhouse in 2019.
Oscar nominees 2025 full list – see who received nods for this year’s Academy Awards
Best Picture
Anora
The Brutalist
A Complete Unknown
Conclave
Dune: Part Two
Emilia Pérez
I’m Still Here
Nickel Boys
The Substance
Wicked
Emilia Pérez leads this year’s Oscar nominees with 13, including for best picture, actress, supporting actress and director
Best Director
Jacques Audiard — Emilia Pérez
Sean Baker — Anora
Brady Corbet — The Brutalist
Coralie Fargeat — The Substance
James Mangold — A Complete Unknown
Actress in a Leading Role
Cynthia Erivo — Wicked
Karla Sofía Gascón — Emilia Pérez
Mikey Madison — Anora
Demi Moore — The Substance
Fernanda Torres — I’m Still Here
The Substance has been nominated for numerous Oscars, including Best Actress for Demi Moore
Actor in a Leading Role
Adrien Brody — The Brutalist
Timothée Chalamet — A Complete Unknown
Colman Domingo — Sing Sing
Ralph Fiennes — Conclave
Sebastian Stan — The Apprentice
The Brutalist came in second place with 10 nods, including for best picture, actor (Adrien Brody), supporting actor (Guy Peare) and supporting actress (Felicity Jones)
Actress in a Supporting Role
Monica Barbaro — A Complete Unknown
Ariana Grande — Wicked
Felicity Jones — The Brutalist
Isabella Rossellini — Conclave
Zoe Saldaña — Emilia Pérez
Actor in a Supporting Role
Yura Borisov — Anora
Kieran Culkin — A Real Pain
Edward Norton — A Complete Unknown
Guy Pearce — The Brutalist
Jeremy Strong — The Apprentice
Animated Feature Film
Flow
Inside Out 2
Memoir of a Snail
Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl
The Wild Robot
Cinematography
The Brutalist — Lol Crawley
Dune: Part Two — Greig Fraser
Emilia Pérez — Paul Guilhaume
Maria — Ed Lachman
Nosferatu — Jarin Blaschke
Original Screenplay
Anora — Sean Baker
The Brutalist — Brady Corbet & Mona Fastvold
A Real Pain — Jesse Eisenberg
September 5 — Moritz Binder, Tim Fehlbaum; co-Written by Alex David
The Substance — Coralie Fargeat
Adapted Screenplay
A Complete Unknown — James Mangold and Jay Cocks
Conclave — Peter Straughan
Emilia Pérez — Jacques Audiard with Thomas Bidegain, Léa Mysius and Nicolas Livecchi
Nickel Boys — RaMell Ross & Joslyn Barnes
Sing Sing — Clint Bentley, Greg Kwedar; Story by Clint Bentley, Greg Kwedar, Clarence Maclin, John ‘Divine G’ Whitfield
Achievement in Production Design
The Brutalist
Conclave
Dune: Part Two
Nosferatu
Wicked
Achievement in Sound
A Complete Unknown
Dune: Part Two
Emilia Pérez
Wicked
The Wild Robot
Original Song
El Mal – Emilia Pérez
The Journey – The Six Triple Eight
Like A Bird – Sing Sing
Mi Camino – Emilia Pérez
Never Too Late – Elton John: Never Too Late
Original Score
The Brutalist — Daniel Blumberg
Conclave — Volker Bertelmann
Emilia Pérez — Clément Ducol and Camille
Wicked — John Powell and Stephen Schwartz
The Wild Robot — Kris Bowers
Live-Action Short Film
A Lien
Anuja
I’m Not a Robot
The Last Ranger
The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent
Animated Short Film
Beautiful Men
In the Shadow of the Cypress
Magic Candies
Wander to Wonder
Yuck!
Documentary Feature Film
Black Box Diaries
No Other Land
Porcelain War
Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat
Sugarcane
Flow is nominated for both International Feature Film and Animated Feature Film
Documentary Short Film
Death by Numbers
I Am Ready, Warden
Incident
Instruments of a Beating Heart
The Only Girl in the Orchestra
International Feature Film
I’m Still Here (Brazil)
The Girl With the Needle (Denmark)
Emilia Pérez (France)
The Seed of the Sacred Fig (Germany)
Flow (Latvia)
Kieran Culkin has dominated the supporting actor categories in recent weeks for Jesse Eisenberg’s drama A Real Pain
Makeup and Hairstyling
A Different Man
Emilia Pérez
Nosferatu
The Substance
Wicked
Achievement in Costume Design
A Complete Unknown — Arianne Phillips
Conclave — Lisy Christl
Gladiator II — Janty Yates and Dave Crossman
Nosferatu — Linda Muir
Wicked — Paul Tazewell
Achievement in Film Editing
Anora — Sean Baker
The Brutalist — David Jancso
Conclave — Nick Emerson
Emilia Pérez — Juliette Welfling
Wicked — Myron Kerstein
Anora is nominated for several Oscars, including best picture, actress, supporting actor, director, screenplay and editing
Visual Effects
Alien: Romulus
Better Man
Dune: Part Two
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
Wicked
