The definitive biography of Lorne Michaels, the man behind America’s most beloved comedy show. 

“An engrossing look at the man behind the curtain.”—Publishers Weekly

Over the fifty years that Lorne Michaels has been at the helm of Saturday Night Live, he has become a revered and inimitable presence in the entertainment world. He’s a tastemaker, a mogul, a withholding father figure, a genius spotter of talent, a shrewd businessman, a name-dropper, a raconteur, the inspiration for Dr. Evil, the winner of more than a hundred Emmys—and, essentially, a mystery. Generations of writers and performers have spent their lives trying to figure him out, by turns demonizing and lionizing him. He’s “Obi-Wan Kenobi” (Tracy Morgan), the “great and powerful Oz” (Kate McKinnon), “some kind of very distant, strange comedy god” (Bob Odenkirk).

Lorne will introduce you to him, in full, for the first time. With unprecedented access to Michaels and the entire SNL apparatus, Susan Morrison takes readers behind the curtain for the lively, up-and-down, definitive story of how Michaels created and maintained the institution that changed comedy forever.

Drawn from hundreds of interviews—with Michaels, his friends, and SNL’s iconic stars and writers, from Will Ferrell to Tina Fey to John Mulaney to Chris Rock to Dan Aykroyd—Lorne is a deeply reported, wildly entertaining account of a man singularly obsessed with the show that would define his life and have a profound impact on American culture.

“Offers an engrossing story about Michaels’ rise, celebrity, and philosophy of comedy . . . [Susan] Morrison does a fine job of revealing a leader who keeps his cards close to the vest, which is both a temperament and a survival tactic. A top-shelf showbiz biography.”—Kirkus Reviews, starred review

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Susan Morrison is the articles editor of the New Yorker. She is the former editor in chief of the New York Observer and an original editor of SPY magazine. She lives in New York City.

Emily Nussbaum is a staff writer at the New Yorker, where she’s worked since 2011, originally as the magazine’s television critic. In 2016, she won the Pulitzer Prize for criticism. Previously, she was the culture editor for New York, where she created the Approval Matrix. She is the author of I Like to Watch: Arguing My Way Through the TV Revolution, which was a finalist for the PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband, Clive Thompson, and their two children.