What You Don't Know About Andy Cohen

Andy Cohen is no stranger to television viewers, thanks to his dual on-air roles as host of Bravo's irreverent late-night talk show "Watch What Happens Live" and his on-screen appearances moderating the often-contentious reunion specials for the network's various "Real Housewives" shows of which he's also executive producer.

An internship at "CBS This Morning," as he told Oprah Daily, ultimately led Cohen to a job at CBS News before he eventually landed at the Bravo cable network, rising through the ranks to become the network's head of programming. There, Cohen made his biggest mark on television, bringing the "Real Housewives" franchise and many other reality hits to the screen before eventually becoming a major on-air presence himself. 

Since then, Cohen has become a somewhat ubiquitous media personality, serving as host of two SiriusXM channels, as co-host of CNN's annual New Year's Eve celebrations alongside pal Anderson Cooper, as host of game show "Ex-Rated," and as host/producer of ambitious deep-dive docuseries "For Real: The Story of Reality TV." He also served as host of the "Love Connection" reboot for two seasons before its cancelation.

Read on to find out what you don't know about Andy Cohen, one of the hardest-working guys on television.

Andy Cohen didn't realize he would unleash one of television's most enduring franchises when he greenlit "The Real Housewives of Orange County," debuting in 2006. According to a Variety interview with Cohen, the show came about from Cohen's desire to produce a reality-TV version of the ABC drama "Desperate Housewives." That was when "RHOC" creator Scott Dunlop pitched an idea for an unscripted show that he described to The Orange County Register as "a satirical look at life in affluent gated communities" in California's Orange County. "I always thought it was a sociological time capsule of the nouveau riche," Cohen told Variety. Dunlop's original concept for the show, however, altered course when the recession hit in 2008, collapsing America's housing market and profoundly impacting some of the "RHOC" women's financial situations. 

This was particularly true of cast member Lynne Curtin, with the show documenting her eviction from her lavish home. "This was not the story that we were planning on telling," Cohen mused to Variety, "but this is what was really happening. That, to me, was a really stark example of our thesis proving its point."

Andy Cohen has many friends in the entertainment biz, but one friendship few would have predicted is his close relationship with musician John Mayer. So how did an openly gay TV executive and talk show host become BFF to the Casanova rock star whose many famous girlfriends have included Taylor Swift, Katy Perry, Jessica Simpson, and Jennifer Aniston? 

Mayer and Cohen "kind of met cute" through a mutual friend, Cohen said on his SiriusXM Radio Andy channel. As he recalled, Cohen bumped into a pal strolling with a tall, long-haired guy wearing a hat. The three men decided to do some shopping, when Cohen spotted "paparazzi down the block" and had an epiphany. "I turned to Ricky and I go, 'Is this John Mayer that we're with right now?'"

Cohen and Mayer hit it off and stayed in touch, eventually becoming so tight they've spent several vacations together. "This man has taught me to be more considerate. To check in more. To have as much fun asking questions as answering them," wrote Mayer of Cohen in an Instagram story, as reported by People. "To be thoughtful and kind and fun and consistent with my love and my friendship."

When it comes to his musical tastes, Andy Cohen is nothing if not eclectic — something he proved with the launch of his genre-spanning SiriusXM channel Andy Cohen's Kiki Lounge. While he enjoys artists ranging from Lady Gaga to Dolly Parton, one stands above all others in Cohen's musical pantheon: the Grateful Dead. In fact, Cohen has been a proud Deadhead since his junior year of high school, he revealed on "Late Night with Seth Meyers."

Back in 2015, Cohen and pal John Mayer hit the road to see the Dead's final live shows, writing about the experience for Entertainment Weekly. At one point, Cohen divulged, "I found myself in the middle of a Real Housewives of Grateful Dead reunion, featuring [bassist] Phil Lesh's wife, Jill, and [singer/guitarist] Bob Weir's wife, Natascha. They knew as much about me as I did their husbands, and that was awesome." Interestingly, Mayer went on to join Weir and Dead drummers Mickey Hart and Bob Kreutzmann to play guitar in their spinoff band, Dead & Co.

Cohen is transferring his obsession to son Benjamin. "We listen to a ton of Grateful Dead constantly," he said during an appearance on "The Kelly Clarkson Show." "We're not 'Baby Shark' people in this house."

While Andy Cohen's journey from the executive offices to television talk show host was certainly unorthodox, so, too, was his foray into acting. As Cohen's IMDb credits reveal, he's managed to carve out an auxiliary career by portraying himself in numerous TV series, ranging from "Riverdale" to "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt" and many more. Other acting work includes Lady Gaga's "G.U.Y." music video, playing the disembodied, floating head of Greek god Zeus.

Prior to that, Cohen made two brief appearances on "Sex and the City." As Cohen explained, via E! News, those tiny roles came about after he begged Parker, a good friend, to run lines with him. Finally, he "finagled an audition" to play a party planner in an episode. "I'll never forget the looks of horror on Sarah Jessica and [executive producer John Benjamin] Hickey's faces when I tried to act out a scene for them," he recalled. "I didn't get the part."

However, Cohen eventually did make it onto the show. "I did play shirtless guy next to Carrie in gay bar in [S]eason 4 and [a] Barney['s] shoe salesman in [S]eason 6," he said.

In addition to the Grateful Dead, Andy Cohen is a big fan of Lady Gaga. She returned the favor by dropping by "Watch What Happens Live." 

The extremity of Cohen's fandom wasn't apparent until he made a surprising revelation during a subsequent appearance on "The Howard Stern Show." During the chat, Cohen confirmed that Gaga answered nature's call by peeing in a trash can in her "WWHL" dressing room. As Cohen recalled, he thought some of the pop star's urine would be a great addition to the show's ever-growing collection of "pop culture memorabilia," ranging from "Lindsay Lohan's cigarette butt" to "a breast implant that was removed from a Real Housewife." With that in mind, he instructed a production assistant to retrieve the urine "and put it inside a fancy bottle."

When the PA discovered that urine becomes "toxic" when stored, the urine was instead used to create a perfume, which Cohen described as smelling "kind of like dressed-up pee with a floral note." The first person to be doused with the scent of "Eau de Gaga," Cohen revealed, was "Jackass" ringleader Johnny Knoxville. "It seemed appropriate," Cohen quipped.

Among his other various projects, Andy Cohen is also a published author, releasing his first book, "Most Talkative: Stories from the Front Lines of Pop Culture," in 2012. His follow-up, "The Andy Cohen Diaries" (subtitled "A Deep Look at a Shallow Year"), chronicled one star-studded year in his life. 

That book also inspired a new TV project, an animated series (with Cohen voicing himself) likewise titled "The Andy Cohen Diaries." "I'm so excited to start writing more adventures in my diaries, and animated, short installments represent the perfect format to bring these to life," said Cohen of the series in a statement to Deadline.

What made the show different from his other TV projects was its length: Airing on the Quibi streaming service — which offered content meant to be watched on a phone while on the go — episodes were under 10 minutes. Sadly, "The Andy Cohen Diaries" came to a screeching halt when Quibi proved to be a massive dud that shut down seven months after launching. When Quibi bit the dust, so did Cohen's animated show (although it can still be seen on Roku, which scooped up distribution rights to Quibi's programming).