Lorne Michaels

Television producer and screenwriter
Honoree

The 44th Kennedy Center Honors
2004 Winner

The Mark Twain Prize for American Humor

Lorne Michaels is an award-winning producer and writer, best known as the creator and executive producer of Saturday Night Live, the most Emmy®-nominated show in television history.

Born in Toronto in 1944, Michaels attended the University of Toronto and later began his television career in Canada and Los Angeles. He arrived in New York in 1975 to begin SNL.

Michaels’ television credits as an executive producer also include The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Late Night with Seth Meyers, 30 Rock, Portlandia, and Kids in the Hall, among others. His motion picture credits include Three Amigos, Wayne’s World, Tommy Boy, Mean Girls, and MacGruber, to name a few. His TV specials have featured Lily Tomlin, Steve Martin, the Rutles, Flip Wilson, the Rolling Stones, the Beach Boys, Randy Newman, Neil Young, Simon and Garfunkel, and Adele. On Broadway, he produced and directed Gilda Radner – Live From New York and recently produced Mean Girls, the Tony®-nominated Broadway musical based on the hit movie.

Michaels’ 93 Emmy® nominations are the most ever for an individual. He received the 2004 Mark Twain Prize for American Humor and in 2013 earned the rare honor of an individual Peabody Award. In 2016, Michaels was awarded a Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor. He was made a Companion of the Order of Canada in 2018.

Recent Kennedy Center history: Lorne Michaels received the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in 2004. Additionally, he was part of the guest cast paying tribute to Mark Twain Prize recipients Dave Chappelle (2019), Tina Fey (2010), and Steve Martin (2005).