Lorne Michaels

An iconic Canadian television and film producer, Lorne Michaels is best known for co-creating and producing the legendary NBC sketch comedy series "Saturday Night Live" (NBC, 1975-), as well as dozens of other films and television shows. Born and raised in Toronto, Michaels got his start in show business by working as a broadcaster for CBC Radio in the mid-1960s. He moved to Los Angeles in 1968 to write for the comedy shows "The Beautiful Phyllis Diller Show" (NBC, 1968) and "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In" (NBC, 1968-1973). In the early 1970s Michaels moved back to Canada to star in, along with his comedy partner Hart Pomerantz, the comedy series "The Hart and Lorne Terrific Hour" (CBC, 1970-71) on Canadian television. That show, however, ended after a single season. Michaels returned to America in the early '70s and continued writing comedy for various television shows. Then in 1975 he co-created, along with Dick Ebersol and Herb Schlosser, the NBC sketch comedy series "Saturday Night Live." The show skewered everything from pop-culture to politics and proved to be a breeding ground for topic comedic talent, like John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray, Gilda Radner, and various others. "Saturday Night Live" was hugely popular in the 1970s, with several of its stars going on to have huge movie careers. Michaels left the show in 1980 to focus on producing films, but returned to show in 1985 where he remained. Throughout Michaels' tenure on "Saturday Night Live," the show was the launching pad for some of the biggest stars in entertainment, including Adam Sandler, Dana Carvey, Will Ferrell, Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph, Amy Poehler, Andy Samberg, and Kate McKinnon. In addition to producing "Saturday Night Live," Michaels became the producer of NBC's "Late Night" (NBC, 1982-), beginning in 1993, and "The Tonight Show" (NBC, 1954-), beginning in 2014. Furthermore, his Broadway Video production shingle produced dozens of film comedies and television shows that starred "SNL" alums, most notably "Wayne's World" (1992), "Tommy Boy" (1995), "Mean Girls" (2004), "30 Rock" (NBC, 2006-2013), and "Shrill" (Hulu, 2019-). In the fall of 2019 "Saturday Night Live" premiered its 45th season, with Michaels, who was 74, still serving as executive producer.