American TV host, comedian and writer Conan O’Brien, 62, is hosting the Oscars, for the second year running, after his return was announced just two days after last year’s event
The biggest night of the year for Hollywood is upon us, and the host of this evening’s 98th Academy Awards is American TV host, comedian and writer Conan O’Brien. Conan, 62, is at the helm of this year’s Oscars, for the second year running, after his return was announced just two days after his success of the 2025 ceremony.
Over the past 20 years, the likes of Chris Rock, Regina Hall, Jimmy Kimmel and Amy Schumer have secured themselves the top job. Here we look at this year’s Oscars host, Conan, who previously hosted the Emmys in 2002 and 2006.
Just two days after he hosted last year’s Oscars, Conan was announced to be returning in 2026. Academy CEO Bill Kramer and its president, Janey Yang, said it was an “honour” to work with Conan in 2025, saying that he was “the perfect host – skilfully guiding us through the evening with humour, warmth and reverence.”
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Conan joked at the time: “The only reason I’m hosting the Oscars next year is that I want to hear Adrien Brody finish his speech,” taking a jab at The Brutalist star’s speech after he won Best Actor.
Outside of his Oscars hosting, Conan has been involved in pretty much every section of the media. At the moment, he has been working on his podcast, Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend, since 2018, where he chats with celebrities.
He has also been working on Conan O’Brien Must Go, a travel series where he visits fans he met through his spin-off podcast, Conan O’Brien Needs a Fan. He also founded Team Coco, a media brand that produces his content – it was acquired in 2022 by SiriusXM.
Conan is also set to make his film debut in the movie If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, so who knows – he may be a future nominee at the Academy Awards. Previously, he cut his teeth as a writer in the late 1980s, writing for Saturday Night Live and then The Simpsons.
He is best known State-side for hosting Late Night with Conan O’Brien between 1993 and 2009, The Tonight Show from 2009 to 2010 and Conan from 2010 to 2021. Conan spoke before the 2026 Oscar nominees were announced in January, telling fans they could expect “a lot of magic” from tonight’s show.
He said: “We have a lot of possibilities. Early on, you just generate possibilities for the show: ‘What might we do?; You have to wait and see which movies are nominated, what’s in the zeitgeist, so there’ll be a lot of ideas that come in late. Sometimes those are the best ideas.”
He added: “There’ll be some explosions, CGI will be used. I see this second Oscars as an opportunity to take things up a notch.”
Who is Conan O’Brien’s wife?
Conan married his wife, Elizabeth Ann ‘Liza’ Powel in 2002, after they met in 1999, when she was a copywriter at ad agency Foote, Cone & Belding. She appeared in a sketch on Late Night with Conan O’Brien, with the pair hitting it off, and dating for almost 18 months.
The couple tied the knot in Liza’s home city of Seattle, and had two children, daughter, Neve, 22, and son Beckett, 20. The couple fought to raise their children out of the public eye, with Conan explaining in 2014: “I don’t take my children to premieres. I don’t want my kids living in a zero-gravity environment just because I happened to get lucky. I think I’m a good dad, but I don’t want them around show business.”
How much is Conan O’Brien paid for the Oscars?
Although no official amount has been revealed about a fee for the Oscars, Jimmy Kimmel previously claimed he was paid $15,000 to host the awards – so it’s likely Conan will be receiving similar. Wanda Sykes, who hosted the Oscars in 2022 with Regina Hall and Amy Schumer, appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! in March 2022.
They were discussing their roles, with Jimmy saying: “I got paid $15,000 to host the Oscars. And there was one of me! You know it probably sounds like a lot for one night, but it’s months of work leading up to it. You’re getting robbed.”
Jimmy also revealed in August 2024 that he turned down the Oscars job for 2025, telling Entertainment Weekly: “It’s hard and it’s a lot of work and the show suffers a little bit to be honest.
“When I’m focused on the Oscars, I’m less focused on the show. And I just decided I didn’t want to deal with that this year. It was just too much last year. You wind up pushing everything off till after the Oscars, then you have to do everything you promised to do after the Oscars after the Oscars.”
Conan O’Brien’s net worth
It seems the fee for the job of hosting the Oscars would be of little interest to Conan, who is worth an eye-watering $200 million, according to CelebrityNetWorth.com. After his years of presenting, podcasts, media brand and now acting – he is not short of cash.
His wise move of selling Team Coco to SiriusXM in 2022 reportedly earned him a tidy $150 million, and he reportedly receievd a $32.5 million settlement form NBC after leaving The Tonight Show in 2010. Outside of his media money-making, Conan has made a fortune from real estate, after investing in various properties in New York and California.
The Oscars will air on ITV1 and ITVX tonight at 10.15pm
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