He is best known for his tenure as a writer on the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live from 2009 to 2015, and as a featured player for one season.
He attended the University of Michigan, where he majored in film-video and was the founder and editor of a monthly comedy newspaper named The Anti-Daily.
He trained at the Second City in Chicago, eventually joining the company's mainstage, where he performed for one year as a part of "America: All Better".
His short films "Grow a Guy" and "The Jay-Z Story" were each given the title card, "A Mike O'Brien Picture" in season 40.
[10][11][12] In 2015, O'Brien released a sketch comedy album entitled Tasty Radio, which features Bill Hader, Fred Armisen, Jason Sudeikis, Vanessa Bayer, Seth Meyers, John Mulaney, Jorma Taccone, John Lutz and Scarlett Johansson.