How ‘The Office’ Cast Has Changed Over the Years: Then and Now

Steve Carell was making waves in the comedy world long before The Office aired in 2005, with appearances as a cast member on The Dana Carvey Show and as a correspondent on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. His first major film role came in 2004, when he played Brick Tamland in Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy.

But the following year was perhaps one of the biggest years for Carell. In 2005, he starred in The 40-Year Old Virgin and The Office, cementing him as a comedy legend in popular culture.

Speaking about his time on The Office on the Office Ladies podcast, Carell said, "I think we were all so happy and thankful for the time that we got to work on the show and to be with one another. It was really just a special thing. And we were aware of how special it was in the moment."

Steve has largely opted for more dramatic roles since The Office ended. Since 2014, he has starred in The Morning Show, The Big Short, Beautiful Boy, and Foxcatcher, and The Four Seasons, among other projects.

But you know what they say: Once a comedian, always a comedian. He's also starred in the Despicable Me franchise as the voice of Gru sand in the TV series Space Force, which he co-created with The Office creator Greg Daniels. He's also added stage acting to his resume, with a starring role in Uncle Vanya on Broadway in 2024.

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Jenna Fischer played Pam Beesly, who begins the series as a mild-mannered receptionist at Dunder Mifflin. She shared in an interview that casting director Allison Jones advised her "don't come in looking pretty" in the audition and "dare to bore me," since the character is written to be a bit of a wallflower. During her audition, Fischer said, they asked the character if she liked being a receptionist and she said simply "No." Everyone in the room started laughing, and the rest is history.

Prior to getting the role of Pam Beesly, Jenna was close to quitting acting. Her manager and acting coach convinced her to give it one more year, and that was the year she got the role of Pam.

Jenna, along with her friend and castmate Angela Kinsey, launched the Office Ladies podcast in 2019. The podcast, which is all about The Office, regularly features interviews with cast members and crew, as well as funny conversations between real-life best friends Jenna and Angela. It has more than 400 million downloads, according to Audacy, and more than a million followers on Spotify.

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John Krasinski played Jim Halpert on The Office. You can't say he wasn't committed: To prepare for the role, he actually visited the city of Scranton, Pennsylvania (where the show takes place) and met with employees of a paper company. He also took some shaky drive-by footage of the city, which made it into the show's title sequence.

In addition to acting in every single episode of the show, he also produced and occasionally directed episodes of The Office.

Who knew smart, sweet Jim Halpert would grow up to be an action hero? In recent years, John has starred in the action thriller TV series Jack Ryan and in the horror/thriller movies A Quiet Place and A Quiet Place II. Krasinski also directed and wrote the Quiet Place movies, which star Emily Blunt, his wife of 15 years.

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Rainn Wilson played Dwight Schrute, the dedicated assistant to the regional manager of Dunder Mifflin. Prior to being cast on The Office, Rainn had been in movies including Galaxy Quest, Almost Famous, and Six Feet Under.

Rainn revealed later he actually didn't always love being on The Office. "When I was in The Office, I spent several years really mostly unhappy because it wasn't enough," Wilson said on Bill Maher's Club Random podcast. "I was making hundreds of thousands. I wanted millions, and I was a TV star, but I wanted to be a movie star. It was never enough." To combat these feelings, he said he took "a deep dive into spirituality," which led him to write the book Soul Boom: Why We Need a Spiritual Revolution.

In addition to writing his book about spiritual revolution, Rainn has continued to work in film and television with roles in Star Trek: Discovery, Blackbird, Lessons in Chemistry, and Mom. He also launched an interview podcast on YouTube called Soul Boom w/Rainn Wilson, where he interviews people about meaningful topics related to spirituality, mental health, psychology and more.

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Leslie David Baker played office curmudgeon Stanley Hudson on The Office. Prior to being cast on the show, Leslie David Baker had small roles in shows including Scrubs, Malcolm in the Middle, and That '70s Show.

He had been stuck in traffic on the way to his audition for The Office. "I was kind of sweaty, my clothes were rumpled, and I was cranky," he later said in an interview. "The character was written the way I was feeling that day, and I just let 'er rip. Two weeks later I got a call: 'You got the pilot.'"

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Leslie has continued to stay busy in the years since The Office wrapped. He's had roles in Jackpot!, Austin & Ally, Raven's Home, Key and Peele and Life in Pieces. He's also starred in commercials for Honey Nut Cheerios alongside Office castmate Phyllis Smith.

Brian Baumgartner, who played Kevin Malone on The Office, had only had a few small TV roles prior to The Office. On his podcast, An Oral History of The Office, he shared that he had told his agent he wanted to audition. His agent reportedly said "They're looking for unknown people, but not like you unknown."

He initially went in to audition for the role of Stanley. The casting director told him there was another role they were looking to cast, which is how he became Kevin.

In addition to hosting and producing The Oral History of The Office, Brian has also had many TV and film roles in the years since The Office wrapped. Most recently, he played a fictionalized version of himself in Suits: LA. He's also appeared in Mike & Molly, Criminal Minds, Hot in Cleveland, Chicago Fire, and The Goldbergs.

Angela Kinsey played Angela Martin, Dunder Mifflin's uptight accountant. Fans may be surprised to know that she spent 12 years of her childhood living in Jakarta, Indonesia, where her father worked as a drilling engineer.

She initially auditioned for the role of Pam, but producers thought she was "a little too feisty" to play Pam. They told her about a small role in the pilot for "a really stuffy accountant," which is how she became the Angela character we know and love today.

In addition to co-hosting the Office Ladies podcast with Jenna, she's starred in many shows since The Office ended, including Haters Back Off!, Fresh Off The Boat, Never Have I Ever, and Better Things.

She and Jenna also released a book in 2022, called Office BFFs: Tales of The Office from Two Best Friends Who Were There.

Kate Flannery played Meredith Palmer, a hard-partying member of the team at Dunder Mifflin. By the time The Office debuted in 2005, Kate had already had roles on major comedy projects like Curb Your Enthusiasm, Saturday Night Live, and The Bernie Mac Show.

Like many of the cast members, Kate initially auditioned for a different role. She came in to audition for the part of Jan Levinson, but casting director Allison Jones said "I think you’re right for the show. I don’t know if this is the part, but I think you’re right for this."

Kate's comedy career continues to thrive. She's had roles in tons of TV series and movies in recent years, including Young Sheldon, New Girl, and Brooklyn Nine-Nine. In 2019, she competed on Dancing With The Stars, where she made it through eight rounds before being eliminated.

If you ask us, Phyllis Smith (who plays Phyllis Vance on the show) has one of the most interesting stories. In the 1970s and 80s, she worked as a cheerleader for the St. Louis Cardinals and a burlesque performer. A knee injury forced her to quit, and she later worked in Hollywood as a casting associate. She was working as part of the casting team on The Office when the director offered her the role of Phyllis, which was created for her.

You might have noticed Phyllis' distinctive voice in the films Inside Out and Inside Out 2, in which she plays the role of Sadness. Since The Office wrapped, she's also had roles in The Middle, The OA, and Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar.

Creed Bratton played the character of Creed Bratton, the office's resident weirdo. The real-life Creed is an actor and musician who was a member of the rock band The Grass Roots in the 1960s. His first TV roles were in 1975, and he has been acting consistently ever since.

Of his time on the show, he said in a recent interview, "People think I was always stoned or that was me as a human and I was just ad-libbing. But it was the writers’ words. I did speak to the writers about my past, although I can’t discuss the Black Ops stuff I did because there’s no statute of limitations for murder. So let’s just let that go.

Creed has released 10 solo albums, the most recent of which, Tao Pop, was released in 2024. In an interview with the L.A. Times published in 2024, he shared that music and acting consume most of his time, but he also writes poetry and is working on a book about the Buffalo Soldiers and Native Americans. Safe to say he's keeping busy!