Phil Hartman's 2 Kids: All About Birgen and Sean (and How They Honor His Legacy)
- - - Phil Hartman's 2 Kids: All About Birgen and Sean (and How They Honor His Legacy)
Julie TremaineJuly 20, 2025 at 7:00 AM
Ron Galella Collection via Getty ; Bill Nation/Sygma via Getty
Phil Hartman attends the Planet Hollywood Grand Opening Celebration on October 22, 1991 in New York City ; Phil Hartman, his wife Brynn, daughter Birgen and son Sean pose for a portrait with Bugs Bunny in June 1995 Valencia, California.
Phil Hartman welcomed two kids, son Sean and daughter Birgen, before his death in 1998
When the SNL star was shot and killed by his wife, Brynn, their son was 9, and their daughter was 6
Now Hartman's daughter is honoring his legacy
Saturday Night Live legend Phil Hartman was one of the most beloved comedic actors of his generation when he died in a shocking crime.
His wife, Brynn, ended both their lives in a tragic murder-suicide on May 28, 1998, leaving behind their kids: 9-year-old Sean and 6-year-old Birgen.
The children went to live with Brynn's sister in Wisconsin and lived largely out of the spotlight until adulthood. "This is just a tragedy beyond description," Rita Wilson, Hartman’s costar in Jingle All the Way, told PEOPLE at the time. "Now two children are left without the two most important people in their lives, and with a lifetime of confusion."
On SNL, Hartman played characters like “Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer” and impersonated celebrities like Frank Sinatra and Bill Clinton. He was also a longtime voice actor on The Simpsons, and had just wrapped his fourth season of his sitcom NewsRadio when he was killed. Taking the sitcom, Hartman said, was a way to be able to spend more time with his young children.
“I think in my old age, I've come to realize just how precious everything is and I try to value the many blessings that have been bestowed upon me,” he said in a 1998 interview, just months before his death, per ABC News. “But there's also this sense of vulnerability if fortune took a turn for the worse, and that you live with the awareness that anything could happen in this world.”
Here is everything to know about Phil Hartman’s two kids and how they've maintained his legacy.
Sean Hartman, 37
Richard Corkery/NY Daily News Archive via Getty
Phil Hartman with his son Sean at party following screening of "Three Ninjas Kick Back" at Planet Hollywood.
Hartman and Brynn welcomed their son, Sean Edward Hartman, around June 1988.
Sean was "a particular source of pride" for Hartman because of his talent for visual arts, according to an interview former Groundlings member Tim Stack gave to the Los Angeles Times in 1998. Hartman started his career as a graphic designer, creating album covers for bands like Steely Dan, America, Poco and Crosby, Stills and Nash.
He was only 9 years old when his parents died, and he and Birgen were both in the family home when their dad was shot. During the massive police response and media circus that ensued, images of the kids being escorted out of the home circulated widely in the news.
"This a situation that occurred that redefines tragedy in every conceivable way," Stan Rosenfield said in a statement at the time, according to the Los Angeles Times. "There are two very young children and their needs must be attended to."
In the Hartmans’ will, they specified that custody of the children would go to Brynn’s sister Katharine Wright, who raised them in Wisconsin and Minnesota with her husband Mike. “They grew up as loved children,” Brynn’s brother Greg Omdahl told ABC News in 2019.
“I believe my sister would be very proud of how Sean and Birgen have grown up and the people they've turned into,” he added.
Birgen Hartman, 33
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Phil Hartman and Birgen Hartman during Nickelodeon's 1997 The Big Help in Los Angeles, California.
Hartman and Brynn welcomed their daughter, Birgen Anika Hartman, in February 1992.
“I remember him calling me when Birgen was born,” Lynne Stewart, Hartman’s costar on Pee Wee’s Playhouse, told ABC News in 2019. “He was very, very choked up ... He said, ‘She's the most beautiful baby in the world.’ ”
Many tributes after the Hartmans’ deaths spoke of their mutual devotion to their children. “When I watched the old home videos of Brynn and Phil and their kids, it really brought home what loving parents they were ... and what a great mother she was,” Omdahl told ABC News.
Birgen has shared that she had substance abuse issues in the past. On her 9-year “soberthday” in 2021, she posted an Instagram photo of a vista in Lake Como, Italy, captioning it, “I know the pandemic has been difficult for many, & resisting substance abuse can become an even greater challenge in times of isolation. Asking for help isn’t easy either. But you are deserving of love, health, & happiness.”
Today, she works as a consent educator, according to her LinkedIn. “My goal is to ensure that proper education about consent, safe and unsafe touch, and resources to receive external support are being offered to children, and that the adults in charge of their care are prepared to report any abuse disclosed to them,” her bio reads.
As a part of her work, Birgen testified before the Minnesota House of Representatives in 2022 and 2023 in support of the Beyond Bullying bill.
She doesn’t post often on social media, but Birgen does share about her family sometimes. In 2022, on what would have been Hartman’s 74th birthday, she jokingly posted on X, "My dad's 74th birthday today! Thanks for the personality disorder!"
In September 2018, Birgen married Brandon Dragos in Italy. On their first anniversary, she posted a photo of the couple on their wedding day on Instagram, captioning it: “Fun Fact: I fainted literally 20 seconds after this photo was taken... 🤷🏼♀️ happy anniversary my dude (in sickness and in health, am I right?!)”
She’s also proud of the work her dad has left behind and how relevant it still is today.
"It's great that people still love and remember my dad's characters on The Simpsons," she told The Hollywood Reporter in 2017. "Even after 20-plus years, I still see people quoting Lionel Hutz or sharing Troy McClure memes. The fact that those characters have carried themselves into the modern day and have remained relevant is just so cool to see, and I think my dad would have been proud of that."
on People
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
