The American version ofThe Officeassembled one of the most talented casts of comic actors, writers and directors in history. The show’s ensemble cast included 25 actors playing starring roles at some point in the series, as well as an army of talented supporting performers. Several of the show’s main cast had been involved in other major TV projects before featuring inThe Office, or were acting in other shows alongside their role in the sitcom. What’s more, after their jobs at Dunder Mifflin, several more stars ofThe Officewent on to appear in other successful TV shows.
It’s impossible to fit every starring role anOfficecastmember has played in a high-quality series before, during or after the landmark sitcom’s run in a list with just 10 spots. Some honorable mentions that haven’t made the cut include Kelly Kapoor actor Mindy Kaling’smain character in her eponymous romcom showThe Mindy Project, Jenna Fischer’s turn in the miniseriesYou, Me and the Apocalypsefollowing her time asThe Office’s Pam Beesley, and Amy Ryan’s brilliant recurring role inOnly Murders in the Building.
Jon Stewart’sThe Daily Showhas become one of American TV’s primary comedic institutionsduring its 29-year run. AlongsideSaturday Night Live, the satirical news show has produced some of the country’s greatest comic talent, the most celebrated of which are Stephen Colbert, John Oliver, and Samantha Bee.
Daily Showcorrespondent Matt Walsh went on to co-star in Parks and Recreation, another sitcom created by Greg Daniels, the developer and showrunner of the AmericanOffice.
The Daily Showcan also take a lot of credit for honing the comic chops of some ofThe Office’s biggest stars. Michael Scottactor Steve Carell appeared as a correspondent onThe Daily Showfrom the beginning of Jon Stewart’s run as host in 1999, alongside his future wife andOfficeco-star, Nancy Walls. Meanwhile, Ed Helms joinedThe Daily Show’s team of correspondents in 2002, four years before he first appeared inThe Officeas Andy Bernard.
Melora Hardin is an example of an actor who was already established and successful before she joined the cast ofThe Office. A year prior to her debut on the show as Michael Scott’s line manager and love interest Jan Levinson,Hardin already had a role in the acclaimed police procedural dramaMonk.
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Between seasons 3 and 8 ofMonk, the actor played eponymous hero AdrianMonk’s wife Trudy, whose unsolved murder haunts the detective throughout the series. Hardin’s role inMonkended the same year that she left the regular cast ofThe Office, in 2009, with Tony Shalhoub, who played Adrian Monk, receiving rave reviews for his performance in the show’s two-part finale.
Although Amy Ryan’s performance as depraved killer Jan Bellows inOnly Murders in the Buildingis hilariously unhinged, the role she’ll always be remembered for came years before her portrayal of Holly Flax inThe Office.Ryan stars as police detail Beadie Russell in HBO’s landmark crime seriesThe Wire, which features another of the sitcom’s cast as one of its lead performers.
Idris Elba’s portrayal of Bell, a ruthless drug lord who exudes quiet power, is one of the main reasons forThe Wire’s overwhelming success.
Idris Elba was already known for playingThe Wire’s gang leader Stringer Bellby the time he briefly joinedThe Office’s cast as Michael Scott’s nemesis Charles Miner in the show’s fifth season. Elba’s portrayal of Bell, a ruthless drug lord who exudes quiet power, is one of the main reasons forThe Wire’s overwhelming success. The series is now remembered as one of thebest TV crime dramas of all time, alongside the likes ofThe SopranosandBreaking Bad, which is no small achievement.
In many ways,Brooklyn Nine-Ninewas the natural heir toThe Office’s throne as the most popular American sitcom, when it arrived on Fox in 2013. Both shows are set in seemingly mundane and bureaucratic workplaces, onlyBrooklyn Nine-Ninehas the added element of action sequences involving the police officers whose lives it follows. The sitcom is fronted by Andy Samberg’s character Jake Peralta, a talented but lazy and ill-disciplined police detective who manages to involve his reluctant colleagues in various hijinks.
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While not a regular cast member,Officeactor Craig Robinson appeared inBrooklyn Nine-Nine, making repeat guest appearances across several seasons. He plays one of Jake Peralta’s main nemeses, the “Pontiac bandit”, a criminal obsessed with stealing Pontiac cars. It’s worth noting that several other cast members of The Office make cameo appearances inBrooklyn Nine-Nine, including Ed Helms, Oscar Nunez, and Meredith Palmer actor Kate Flannery.
The Officehad a major void to fill when Steve Carell left the show during its seventh season, so its showrunners called on Hollywood A-lister to provide a fresh spark. He did so in the form of Robert California, an enigmatic and somewhat sinister CEO characteristic of Spader’s cinematic roles. As soon as he was done playing California, Spader began his next major TV role as FBI informantRaymond “Red” Reddington in crime thriller seriesThe Blacklist.
James Spader hasn’t played a major role in any movie or TV show since starring inThe OfficeandThe Blacklist.
Reddington’s hunt for fellow criminals on the FBI’s most wanted list gradually picked up a head of steam with each new season ofThe Blacklist. By its final episodes, the series was one of the most acclaimed shows on television and a major global streaming hit for Netflix.
Another show that grew in stature during its lengthy stint on TV was the CBS sitcomMom, which starredThe Office’s Rainn Wilson. For many fans, it will be difficult to imagine Wilson playing any character other thanThe Office’s inimitable “assistant to the regional manager” Dwight Schrute. However, Wilson excelled as Trevor Wells, the downtrodden therapist inMom’s final three seasons, who helps one of the show’s protagonists, Bonnie Plunkett, cope with her mental health condition.
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Momis a sitcom fundamentally about the relationship between Bonnie and her daughter, Christy, who decide to return to each other’s lives after years of estrangement and work through their addictions together. Anna Faris and Alison Fanney are superb in the show’s main roles, turning a dark and difficult theme into a funny, warm and compassionate look at the importance of family.
One of the biggest shows to feature a formerOfficeactor in its lead role,Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidthas Erin Hannon actor Ellie Kemper in its title role as a former cult member recovering from her traumasin New York. The show feels as though it was made for Kemper, who adapts Erin’s sunny sincerity and emotional naivety to Kimmy Schmidt’s life situation as though the two are kindred spirits.
Actors Will Arnett and Rob Huebel have also appeared in bothThe OfficeandUnbreakable Kimmy Schmidtin brief cameo roles.
With30 Rock’s Tina Fey and Robert Carlockat its helm and Jon Hamm as its ghoulish villain,Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidtwent from strength to strength across its four seasons. It’s one of the post-Officesitcoms that’s truest to the spirit of the show which provided its lead actor.
Out of all the actors to have established themselves via their part inThe Office, Phyllis Smith was hardly the most likely to follow up her sitcom role with one of the best mystery TV shows of all time. Yet that’s exactly what happened in 2016, when the actor, who plays Phyllis Vance inThe Office, became a main cast member of TheOA.
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The OAfollows the story of Prairie Johnson, a girl who was missing for seven years before showing up with mysterious scars on her body. She refuses to reveal what’s happened to her, except to a few close confidantes, one of whom is Phyllis Smith’s character, school teacher Betty Broderick-Allen. It feels like the progeny ofDavid Lynch’s crime horror TV show,Twin Peaks, blending fantasy and realism, the banal and the surreal, with the kind of narrative dexterity that Lynch himself would have been proud of.
Mr. Iglesias
Following his bow asThe Office’s accountant Oscar Martinez, Oscar Nunez found another sitcom role right up his street in 2019, playing Carlos Hernandez inMr. Iglesias. The show is an old-fashioned high-school comedy except with the roles cleverly reversed, as its story centers on the bad behavior of teachers like protagonistGabriel “Fluffy” Iglesias, rather than their students.
Nunez portrays one of Gabriel’s chief antagonists, the uptight assistant principal of the school where he works.This is another great example of the glove fitting perfectly for an actor’s former role inThe Office, as it’s not too much of a stretch to imagine Oscar Martinez turning into Carlos Hernandez in later life.
Never Have I Everis one of the biggest sitcom successes of the past five years, thanks to its warts-and-all portrayal of high school life from an Indian-American perspective, and its sparkling performances across the board. The show is the brainchild ofOfficeactor Mindy Kaling, who based its story on her own adolescent experiences, alongside co-creator Lang Fisher.
Devi Vishwakumar got the happy ending she deserved inNever Have I Everand the landscape of American TV comedy would never be the same again.
The sitcom features a sublime cameo from another star ofThe Office, Angela Kinsey, who plays Ben Gross’ moronically pretentious and painfully uncaring mother, Vivian, in its first season. Three years later,Devi Vishwakumar got the happyending she deserved inNever Have I Ever, and the landscape of American TV comedy would never be the same again.
