Andy Dwyer is one of the most popular characters from Parks & Recreation, and while he’s best known for his music career, he had a variety of jobs throughout the series. Created by Greg Daniels and Michael Schur, Parks & Recreation premiered on NBC in 2009 and lived on for a total of seven seasons, coming to an end in 2015. Parks & Recreation had a rough start, as the writers struggled to find the right tone for the series and the characters, particularly Leslie, but subsequent seasons were better received.
Parks & Recreation follows perky bureaucrat Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler) and her friends and colleagues from the Parks Department in the fictional town of Pawnee, Indiana. Though Leslie was the lead of the series, many of her friends became big fan favorites, such as Ron Swanson (Nick Offerman), April Ludgate (Aubrey Plaza), and Andy Dwyer (Chris Pratt). The latter was originally planned to be a temporary character, but Pratt’s performance made the producers change their minds and so he became a series regular, eventually becoming part of the main cast.
Andy was dim-witted but lovable and always looked after his friends, even if he didn’t do much to help sometimes. He was also quite lazy at the beginning of the series, which is why Ann Perkins (Rashida Jones) broke up with him, but as the series progressed and Andy grew up, he began to take more responsibility, especially after he married April. Andy was introduced as the vocalist and guitarist of the band Mouse Rat, which went through many name changes, but once he broke up with Ann and was left homeless (living in a tent in the pit next to Ann’s house), he took a job as a shoeshiner at City Hall, where he bonded with the Parks Department crew, mostly with April and Ron. He briefly served as Ron’s assistant when April got sick with the flu, but his next proper job was as assistant to Leslie during her City Council campaign, as well as head of security, which motivated him to pursue a career as a police officer.
Although that didn’t turn out well, Andy took the job of weekend security guard at Pawnee City Hall, which was boring sometimes as the place was closed on weekends. In Parks & Recreation season 5, Ben Wyatt (Adam Scott) began to work for the Sweetums Foundation and asked Andy to be his assistant, which he accepted. This job took Andy to England, where he spent some time attending Sweetum’s charity work, while in real-life Chris Pratt was shooting Guardians of the Galaxy. Once he returned to Pawnee (and got over the jetlag), he found a new career path when Craig (Billy Eichner) asked him to perform for his nephew’s birthday, and so Andy began a career in the realm of children’s entertainment as Johnny Karate, which led him to have his own TV show, Johnny Karate’s Super Awesome Musical Explosion Show.
After that, it’s unclear what Andy’s next job was, as he moved to Washington D.C. to be with April, and the show never addressed Andy’s professional life again, focusing only on his family life. Given the success of Johnny Karate and Andy’s natural talent for entertainment, he most likely found a way to continue performing, either as an entertainer for a young audience or as a rockstar, as he did with Mouse Rat for years. Parks & Recreation left Andy’s future open to interpretation, but he surely found a way to make whatever job he took after that fun, even if he wasn’t the most skilled at it.