How Conan O’Brien Is Prepping to Host Oscars After Parents’ Deaths, L.A. Fires

Conan O’Brien is making ready to host the 97th annual Academy Awards by taking the whole lot “a day at a time.”

It’s been a tricky few months for the comic, 61, who, a month after being introduced because the host of the 2025 Oscars in November, misplaced each his dad and mom three days other than each other.

While his Pacific Palisades house was spared within the ongoing Los Angeles wildfires that started on Tuesday, Jan. 7, O’Brien is all too conscious of the destruction they’ve left behind for thus many.

The PEOPLE Puzzler crossword is right here! How shortly are you able to clear up it? Play now!

“It has been so much occurring in a really brief time, and there is a lot that occurred in my private life beginning in December that was intense, after which going into this month with the fires and prep for what’s developing,” he tells PEOPLE on the Sundance Film Festival premiere of If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, held on the Library Center Theatre in Park City, Utah, on Friday, Jan. 24.

The actor’s father, Dr. Thomas O’Brien, died at 95 on Dec. 9, after “his health had been failing,” The Boston Globe reported.

His mom, Ruth Reardon O’Brien, died “peacefully” at 92 on Dec. 12, in response to an obituary shared by the Bell-O’Dea Funeral Home in Brookline, Mass.

O’Brien tells PEOPLE, “It’s been a time the place I simply take it a day at a time,” which is the “recommendation” he is been providing to others in Los Angeles.

He recollects talking to the girl who drove him to the Park City, Utah premiere concerning the ongoing fires and studying that she was really from Los Angeles and her residence “burned to the bottom.”

“It’s the time to be asking different individuals how they’re doing, listening to them,” says O’Brien.

“In that respect, among the issues I’m doing, like come right here at Sundance for [the] movie or the Oscars award present developing, can appear foolish and trivial, however they’re additionally essential on the similar time as a result of we hold going,” he continues. “We hold going. We hold making stuff.”

As of Friday, Jan. 24, the Palisades Fire has burned 23,448 acres and is 77% contained. The Eaton Fire is 95% contained after burning 14,021 acres, whereas the Hughes Fire is 56% contained after burning 10,396, per the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire).

.Never miss a narrative — join PEOPLE’s free every day publication to remain up-to-date on the very best of what PEOPLE has to supply​​, from celeb information to driving human curiosity tales. 

The 97th Oscars will air stay on Sunday, March 2, at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT on ABC from the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood.

Click right here to be taught extra about methods to assist the victims of the L.A. fires.