For 153 episodes, BJ Novak endeared himself to one of television's most enduring fanbases as manic narcissist Ryan Howard in the American version of The Office, but what has "the temp" been up to since he left the iconic workplace comedy? While Novak is certainly best known for his time at Dunder Mifflin—and briefly, the Idle Hour Lanes bowling alley—the well-rounded multihyphenate has carved out an impressive career for himself in a wide variety of different creative fields.
The son of celebrity memoirist William Novak, BJ graduated from Harvard University in 2001 and got his start in entertainment doing stand-up comedy, before landing a lead role in MTV's Punk'd season 2. Fellow Harvard grad Greg Daniels liked his work and brought him on board for The Office starting with the pilot. During his time on the celebrated series, Novak was also a key writer and worked his way up the producer chain, eventually taking on an executive producer role for seasons 7 and 8.
Due to his commitments to the series in The Office's later years, Novak wasn't heavily involved in other projects until he stepped away. Earlier on he had minor roles in Unaccompanied Minors, Knocked Up, and Reign Over Me, and in 2009 played Pfc. Smithson Utivich in the Quentin Tarantino movie Inglorious Basterds. Since leaving The Office, however, Novak's career has spun off into some interesting directions, including becoming a New York Times Best Selling Author.
What Has BJ Novak Acted In Since The Office?
Shortly after leaving The Office, BJ Novak took his first voice acting role as Baker Smurf in the 2011 CG/live-action hybrid The Smurfs and had a cameo in Sacha Baron Cohen's The Dictator. In 2013 he had a minor role in Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson comedy The Internship, voiced Baker Smurf in The Smurfs 2, and portrayed legendary film composer Robert Sherman in the Mary Poppins biopic Saving Mr. Banks. While Alistair Smythe is a significant character in the Spider-Man world, Sony unfortunately only gave a nod to the character with Novak's limited on-screen time in The Amazing Spider-Man 2. More recently, he played Harry J. Sonneborn in the McDonald's biopic The Founder.
While many of Novak's film roles have been minor parts, his real strength remains in what he brings to his television roles. In 2013, life imitated art as Novak followed his fellow Office original Mindy Kaling to her new series The Mindy Project. While he was primarily a producer on season 1, he also played an early love interest for Kaling's lead protagonist that, while brief, featured the pair's natural on-screen chemistry at its best. In 2014 he had a reoccurring role as Lucas Pruit in The Newsroom, and later played himself in two episodes of Rachel Bloom's CW series Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.
What Has BJ Novak Written, Directed or Produced Since The Office?
As noted, Novak followed Mindy Kaling to The Mindy Project in 2012, serving as a consulting producer for most of season 1 and an executive producer for the show's pilot and 5 other episodes. In September 2021 he launched his own anthology series for FX on Hulu, The Premise, with each episode of the show taking a unique look at a real-world social issue before usually ending with a surprise twist. Novak is the executive producer and writer for the series, in addition to having directed the episodes "Moment of Silence" and "The Ballad of Jesse Wheeler". In addition to his work in film and television, BJ Novak signed a book deal shortly after leaving The Office and went on to publish a collection of short stories entitled One More Thing: Stories and Other Stories, as well as a children's book entitled The Book With No Pictures—both New York Times Best Sellers.