What is Conan O’Brien’s IQ?
First two-term president in a 134-year-old magazine’s history. The number people repeat compares him to Stephen Hawking for no stated reason.
O’Brien graduated Harvard magna cum laude and became the first person in 134 years to lead the Harvard Lampoon for two terms. The 160 that circulates for him has no test behind it at all.
Conan O’Brien’s estimated IQ
- A.B., History and Literature, Harvard College, 1985, reported magna cum laude.
- First president in the Harvard Lampoon’s 134-year history to serve two consecutive terms.
- Senior thesis, “The ‘Old Child’ in Faulkner and O’Connor,” coined the term “literary progeria.”
- Sustained, peer-recognized output across writing and hosting for four decades — Emmy wins spanning 1989 to 2024, the 2025 Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, and a 2026 Harvard honorary doctorate.
No IQ or standardized test score has ever been published for O’Brien. This range is inferred from a completed, honors-level Harvard record, not from any test.
- Born
- April 18, 1963, Brookline, Massachusetts
- Education
- A.B., History and Literature, Harvard College (1985), magna cum laude
- Known for
- Late Night with Conan O’Brien; Conan; writing “Marge vs. the Monorail”
- Lampoon
- First two-term president in the magazine’s 134-year history
- Honors
- Mark Twain Prize (2025); Harvard honorary doctorate (2026)
What an IQ of 135–150 actually means
Set the claim aside for a moment. If someone genuinely scored in this range, here is what that would represent.
Average is 100 by construction, and about two-thirds of people fall between 85 and 115. Take the test to place your own score on this scale.
| Score range | Classification | Share of people | What it indicates |
|---|---|---|---|
| 85 – 114 | Average | ~68% | The range most people fall into. |
| 115 – 129 | Above average | ~13.6% | Roughly one person in seven. |
| 130 – 144 | Gifted | ~2% | The threshold most high-IQ societies use. |
| Above 144 | Highly gifted | ~0.1% | Figures above this range are extrapolated from the curve rather than measured. |
Percentages are approximate and describe a normal distribution. The same number means different things on tests with different standard deviations.
Thirty questions gives you a measured position on this exact scale — your score, your percentile and the ability breakdown behind it.
Find out in 30 minutes →Who Conan O’Brien is
Conan Christopher O’Brien was born April 18, 1963, in Brookline, Massachusetts, to a physician father and lawyer mother. He was valedictorian of Brookline High School and won a national writing contest as a senior before enrolling at Harvard, where he majored in History and Literature and was elected president of the Harvard Lampoon for two consecutive terms — unprecedented in the magazine’s history.
After graduating in 1985, he wrote for HBO’s Not Necessarily the News, then joined Saturday Night Live as a writer in January 1988, sharing a 1989 Emmy. He moved to The Simpsons as a writer-producer in 1991, writing the widely acclaimed episode “Marge vs. the Monorail.” In 1993 he became a first-time on-camera host with Late Night with Conan O’Brien, followed by The Tonight Show in 2009 and Conan on TBS from 2010 to 2021.
He received the Kennedy Center’s Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in March 2025 and hosted the 97th Academy Awards the same month. In 2026, Harvard awarded him an honorary Doctor of Arts and invited him to deliver its 375th Commencement address.
By Elora Mercer, Celebrity Research WriterFigures checked by Leon Falkner, Data & Research AnalystReviewed by Aarav Vardhan, Editor-in-Chief · Last reviewed August 2026
Conan O’Brien: the documented record
The estimate above rests on this record. Every entry here is a matter of public fact, which is more than can be said for the number itself.
- 1981Valedictorian, Brookline High School.
- 1985Graduates Harvard, A.B. History and Literature, after an unprecedented two-term Lampoon presidency.
- 1988Hired as an SNL writer by Lorne Michaels; shares a 1989 Emmy.
- 1991–93Writer-producer on The Simpsons; writes “Marge vs. the Monorail.”
- 1993Late Night with Conan O’Brien premieres — his first on-camera hosting role.
- 2025Receives the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor; hosts the 97th Academy Awards.
- 2026Harvard awards an honorary doctorate and names him Commencement speaker.
Where the 160 figure came from
Following a claim back to its first appearance is the part almost nobody does — and it is what most people are actually asking.
160 is the number attached to O’Brien across celebrity-IQ aggregator sites — several of them pairing it with the figure popularly attached to Stephen Hawking, as if that comparison were evidence. celebrityiqs.com states the number outright with no test, examiner or date, and discloses elsewhere on its own site that its scores are “for entertainment purposes only.” No independent source ties O’Brien to an actual test.
The real record is Harvard’s. O’Brien graduated in 1985 with an A.B. in History and Literature, reported magna cum laude, after a senior thesis — “The ‘Old Child’ in Faulkner and O’Connor” — that coined the term “literary progeria.” Separately, and more unusually: the Harvard Crimson’s own institutional retrospective calls him the first president in the Harvard Lampoon’s 134-year history to serve two consecutive terms.
That two-term Lampoon presidency is the strongest single data point on this page — a specific, dated, institutionally verified distinction rather than a vague “he seems smart” impression. It is also nowhere near a test score, which is exactly why 160 keeps circulating instead: it sounds more precise than what is actually documented.
How we read a number →Confirms degree, year and honorary doctorate.
Source of the “first two-term Lampoon president in 134 years” claim and the thesis title.
Career timeline.
Independently traced the circulating 160 figure to no cited source.
Source of the uncited 160 figure.
No source ties O’Brien to an actual test.
The sources behind our estimate
The figures that circulate for Conan O’Brien, what we were able to confirm, and where the two diverge.
160 circulates widely — several sites pair it with the figure often attached to Stephen Hawking.
celebrityiqs.com lists “IQ: 160” with no test, examiner or date, and carries its own disclaimer that its numbers are “for entertainment purposes only.” No source ties O’Brien to an actual test.
The documented Harvard record supports the lower half of that spread; 160 is repeated without a source across multiple aggregator sites.
Want a number that does hold up? Every figure on this page is somebody’s claim. Take the 30-question test and get a percentile you can check rather than a figure you have to trust.
Conan O’Brien — frequently asked
What is Conan O’Brien’s IQ?
No test result has ever been published. The 160 that circulates online carries no test, examiner or date.
Did Conan O’Brien graduate from Harvard with honors?
Yes — A.B. in History and Literature, 1985, widely reported as magna cum laude.
Was Conan O’Brien really president of the Harvard Lampoon twice?
Yes — per the Harvard Crimson, the first person in the magazine’s 134-year history to serve two consecutive terms.
What was Conan O’Brien’s senior thesis about?
“The ‘Old Child’ in Faulkner and O’Connor,” which coined the term “literary progeria” for characters who mature too fast.
Does a long TV career count as evidence of high IQ?
It is evidence of sustained, recognized achievement — Emmy wins spanning four decades and the 2025 Mark Twain Prize — not a test score.
Where does the “160” figure for Conan O’Brien actually come from?
Aggregator sites that state it with no test, examiner or date, one of which pairs it with the figure popularly attached to Stephen Hawking.
How does my IQ compare with Conan O’Brien?
You can find out in about fifteen minutes. The IQ Metrics assessment is 30 questions, scored on the same 100-mean scale used throughout this page, so your result and the estimate above are at least expressed in the same units — one measured, one inferred. Once you have a number, the leaderboard shows where it would sit, and how we score and norm it explains the benchmarking.
Where does this estimate come from?
From the documented record rather than a test — the method is named above and set out in full under how we read a number. Compare it against the other actors profiles, starting with Natalie Portman.
- Take the 30-question IQ test — get a measured score and percentile of your own
- Average IQ by country — how the scale behaves across populations
- How IQ Metrics scores its assessment — the method behind our own number
- More on how IQ testing works — reliability, error and what a score can and cannot say
- More actors profiles — same field, same method
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Photograph by Toglenn, CC BY-SA 3.0. Background removed for the portrait above. · Photograph by Toglenn (2018), CC BY-SA 4.0. Background removed for the portrait above. · Photograph by Sam Shaw (1954), public domain. Background removed for the portrait above.
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