Michael Koman | |
|---|---|
 Koman at the 2011 San Diego Comic-Con | |
| Occupation(s) | Writer, comedian |
| Known for | |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 2 |
Michael Koman is an American comedian and television writer and producer. His notable credits include writing for Late Night with Conan O'Brien for seven years, and serving as co-creator, writer, and executive producer for Nathan for You , which aired for four seasons. [1]
Koman grew up in San Diego and developed a strong interest in comedy from a young age. His early outlets for this interest included the sketch comedy show SCTV, which he watched enthusiastically; the collection of classic vinyl comedy albums held at UCSD's library, to which he listened extensively; and The Comedy Store club near his home in La Jolla, where he secured an after-school job while he was still in high school. This job led to Koman performing his own short stand-up sets. [2]
Koman's screenwriting career began with a job submitting sketches for MADtv . This opportunity materialized in 1999 after Koman, who was attending college in Los Angeles and occasionally performing at The Improv there, wrote and produced with his friend and fellow comic Todd Glass a sketch show called "Todd's Coma". Veteran comic actor Fred Willard appeared in the show, staged at the HBO Workspace (now the National Comedy Theatre), and Willard's manager later sent a tape on Koman's behalf to MADtv, whose producers were seeking to hire young writing talent. [2]
While at MADtv, Koman worked closely with Greg Cohen, who had written previously for Late Night with Conan O'Brien. On Cohen's recommendation, Koman was hired to write for O'Brien's show. Between 2001 and 2008, Koman collaborated with fellow Late Night writers including Brian Stack and Andrew Weinberg, helping to create recurring characters and bits such as "The Interrupter" and "Hannigan the Traveling Salesman". He also developed the concept behind the frequently reprised "Walker, Texas Ranger Lever" and spearheaded a parody of Aaron Sorkin's Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip called "Studio 6A" (in reference to Conan's television studio in 30 Rockefeller Plaza), thus satirizing a program that was itself dramatizing a fictional version of the often satirical show Saturday Night Live . [3] When the show filmed a special episode in Finland following the discovery of O'Brien's rabid fan base there, [4] [5] Koman and Weinberg, together with head writer Mike Sweeney, accompanied the host and helped generate the material. [6]
During his tenure at Late Night, Koman also occasionally appeared in on-air sketches. In one sketch, he played an accountant for the show who proposed a nonsensical solution to the gay marriage debate, which made headlines in American media in 2004. [7] In another sketch, on May 16, 2007, O'Brien confronted Koman at home after the latter had called in sick to work. Koman was ultimately dragged into the studio for the live taping and publicly humiliated (with his obviously willing participation). [8] This segment also precipitated a rekindling of the ongoing romance between Koman and his future wife, Ellie Kemper, who had been both a writers' staff intern at the show and a regular performer in its sketches. [9] [10] Around the time of the release of the first-generation of Apple's iPhone in 2007, Late Night ran a fake advertisement purporting to show how multifunctional the new device was, with Koman and Kemper appearing together in this sketch. [11]
In 2008, Koman left Late Night with the approaching transition in NBC's late-night programming that would in the following year launch the short-lived and tumultuous Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien. Koman, reluctant to relocate with the rest of the Late Night staff from New York City to Los Angeles, accepted the role of head writer for Important Things with Demetri Martin . Martin was another alumnus of the Late Night writing staff, and Koman viewed the new role as an opportunity to challenge himself with greater responsibility and outside the familiar confines of Rockefeller Center. [2] After a brief stint writing for The Colbert Report in August 2008, [12] Koman began work on Martin's show. Among the writers soon hired there was Nathan Fielder, with whom Koman quickly formed another writing partnership. [13]
Koman's next original TV series had him reviving his former writing partnership with Weinberg and teaming up with director Jason Woliner. Eagleheart , starring Chris Elliott as an outlandish US Marshal modeled in part on the titular hero of Walker, Texas Ranger , ran on Adult Swim for three seasons (2011–2014) and was backed by O'Brien's production company Conaco. [14] [15]
Toward the end of his direct involvement with Eagleheart, which concluded with his co-writing of its third and final season, Koman turned his attention to work on Nathan for You. [16] Fielder had been solicited by Comedy Central to develop a pilot and had invited Koman to resume their working relationship. The concept for the show eventually coalesced around the pitching of business strategies to small companies; citing Fielder's education in business management, the show would invest heavily in unique and elaborate schemes to improve the popularity or profitability of its star's clients and would document all the consequences of such intervention. Although the show's ideas and the approaches Fielder (or his persona) took in each episode were planned by a team of writers led by Fielder and Koman (and later Carrie Kemper, Koman's sister-in-law), scripted jokes were mostly eschewed (outside of Fielder's intermittent voiceover narration). [2] Fielder called an end to the show after its fourth season, which was broadcast in 2017. [17]
During the run of Nathan for You, Koman helped create and write for The Jack and Triumph Show , starring Jack McBrayer and Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, a puppet voiced and operated by Robert Smigel. The multi-camera sitcom was inspired by a remote segment filmed at Chicago's The Wieners Circle for the TBS instantiation of O'Brien's late night talk show (called simply Conan ). [2] The show comprised seven episodes that all aired in 2015. [18] Koman was also involved in Triumph's Election Watch 2016 , produced by Funny or Die.
Following the end of Nathan for You, Koman returned to New York, where he began writing for Saturday Night Live during the summer of 2017. [12] In so doing, he earned his ninth Emmy Award nomination for his contributions to variety show writing ensembles. He previously won the award once, as a member of the Late Night writing team in 2007. He has also won six Writers Guild of America awards throughout his career. [19]
Koman married actress and comedian Ellie Kemper on July 7, 2012. [20] The two had met backstage at Late Night with Conan O'Brien and had even appeared together in at least one sketch. Kemper shared the story of their engagement on The Ellen DeGeneres Show in early 2012. [21] While Koman is Jewish, the couple has two sons, born in 2016 and 2019 respectively, whom they are raising according to Kemper's Roman Catholic faith. [9] [22] [23] [24]
Late Night with Conan O'Brien is an American late-night talk show hosted by Conan O'Brien. NBC aired 2,725 episodes from September 13, 1993, to February 20, 2009. The show featured varied comedic material, celebrity interviews, and musical and comedy performances. Late Night aired weeknights at 12:37 am Eastern/11:37 pm Central and 12:37 am Mountain in the United States. From 1993 until 2000, Andy Richter served as O'Brien's sidekick; following his departure, O'Brien was the show's sole featured performer. The show's house musical act was The Max Weinberg 7 and led by E Street Band drummer Max Weinberg.
Robert Smigel is an American actor, comedian, writer, director, producer, and puppeteer, known for his Saturday Night Live "TV Funhouse" cartoon shorts and as the puppeteer and voice behind Triumph the Insult Comic Dog. He also co-wrote the first two Hotel Transylvania films, You Don't Mess with the Zohan, and Leo, all starring Adam Sandler.
Triumph the Insult Comic Dog is a puppet character created, puppeteered, and voiced by actor/comedian/director Robert Smigel. As his name indicates, Triumph's comedic style is almost exclusively insult comedy. A Montenegrin Mountain Hound, Triumph often is seen with a cigar in his mouth, which usually falls out of it when he starts talking. He first appeared in 1997 on NBC's Late Night with Conan O'Brien, and also appeared on The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien from time to time, as well as the short-lived TV Funhouse, TBS's Conan, Adult Swim's The Jack and Triumph Show, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, and The Daily Show. Smigel and Triumph have been ejected from several events for Triumph's antics, including the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, the Honolulu line for auditions for American Idol, and the 2004 Democratic National Convention.
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Conaco, LLC is the television production firm owned by entertainer Conan O'Brien. The name is a portmanteau of the words "Conan" and "Co", an abbreviation of company. The name is also a parody of the petroleum oil company Conoco. It has produced programs primarily for NBCUniversal and Warner Bros. Discovery, including O'Brien's Late Night,Tonight Show, and Conan. David Kissinger, former NBCU executive and the son of Henry Kissinger, has been president since 2005.
Brian Stack is an American actor, comedian, and writer best known for his sketch comedy work. He worked on all three late-night talk shows hosted by Conan O'Brien including Late Night with Conan O'Brien and The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien on NBC, and Conan on TBS. Stack left Conan in April 2015 to join the writing staff of the CBS series The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
Conan Christopher O'Brien is an American television host, comedian, writer, and producer. He is best known for having hosted late-night talk shows, beginning with Late Night with Conan O'Brien (1993–2009) and The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien (2009–2010) on the NBC television network, and Conan (2010–2021) on the cable channel TBS. Before his hosting career, O'Brien was a writer for the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live from 1988 to 1991, and the Fox animated sitcom The Simpsons from 1991 to 1993. He has also been host of the podcast series Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend since 2018 and starred in the 2024 travel show Conan O'Brien Must Go on Max.
Brian McCann is an American actor, comedian and writer. He is best known for his sketch comedy work on the late-night talk show Late Night with Conan O'Brien and more recently on The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien and Conan.
Andrew Blitz is an American comedian, writer, producer and actor best known for his sketch comedy and writing work on the late-night talk show Late Night with Conan O'Brien. He has received nine Emmy Award nominations.
Allison Silverman is an American comedy writer and producer, known for her work on Russian Doll, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, and Late Night with Conan O'Brien. She was the head writer and executive producer for The Colbert Report until 2009. In 2011, she was an executive producer and writer of Portlandia. She is co-creator of the comedy series Schmigadoon!, and was a writer for the television series At Home with Amy Sedaris, The Office, and The Daily Show.
The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien is an American late-night talk show that featured Conan O'Brien as host from June 1, 2009, to January 22, 2010, as part of NBC's Tonight Show franchise. O'Brien had previously hosted NBC's Late Night with Conan O'Brien, which followed The Tonight Show with Jay Leno for 16 years, until his brief succession after Leno.
Elizabeth Claire Kemper is an American actress, best known for her roles of Erin Hannon in the sitcom The Office (2009–2013) and Kimmy Schmidt in the sitcom Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (2015–2019). She has also appeared in films, notably Bridesmaids (2011), 21 Jump Street (2012), Sex Tape (2014), and Home Sweet Home Alone (2021). In 2018, she released her debut book, My Squirrel Days.
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Deon Anthony Cole is an American comedian, actor and screenwriter. He is best known for his role in the sitcom Black-ish (2014–2022), which earned him nominations for two NAACP Image Awards and two Screen Actors Guild Awards. On June 25, 2020, he became the second panelist to win the Doris Award on the ABC version of To Tell the Truth. He stars in Average Joe.
Nathan for You is an American satirical docu-reality comedy television series starring Canadian comedian Nathan Fielder. The series was created by Fielder and Michael Koman and premiered on February 28, 2013, on the American cable television network Comedy Central. The series is based upon the premise of Fielder, playing a fictionalized, off-kilter version of himself, trying to use his business background and life experiences to help struggling companies and people, frequently offering them outlandish and prohibitively expensive strategies, parodying the methods of marketing and management consultants. Twenty-seven of the show's 32 episodes follow this structure as applied to one or more businesses in the Southern California area, with five other episodes/segments departing from the business advice format to showcase other comedic premises.