Andy Richter

About

Paul Andrew Richter (born October 28, 1966) is an American actor, comedian, writer, and talk show announcer. He is best known as the sidekick for Conan O’Brien on O’Brien’s talk shows: Late Night, The Tonight Show on NBC, and Conan on TBS. He was also the star of the Fox television series Andy Richter Controls the Universe. He voiced Mort in the Madagascar film franchise and Ben Higgenbottom in the animated television series The Mighty B! on Nickelodeon. Since June 2019, Richter has hosted his own podcast, The Three Questions with Andy Richter, on the Earwolf network. In 2026, Richter played a supporting role in the supernatural horror film Obsession.

Richter, the second of four children, was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, to mother Glenda Swanson (née Palmer), a kitchen cabinet designer, and father Laurence R. Richter, who taught Russian at Indiana University for more than 32 years. Richter was raised in Yorkville, Illinois. He graduated from Yorkville High School in 1984, where he was elected Prom King. His parents divorced when he was 4 and his father later came out as bisexual. He is of Swedish and German descent.

In the late 1980s, Richter attended…