Brian Baumgartner (born November 29, 1972) is an American actor. He is best known for playing

Kevin Malone Kevin Malone is a fictional character in the American television series ''The Office''. He is portrayed by Brian Baumgartner. Kevin's counterpart in the UK TV series is Keith Bishop, who shares Kevin's lack of communication skills, musical int ...

, a character in the

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

sitcom ''

The Office ''The Office'' is a mockumentary sitcom created by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, first made in the United Kingdom, then Germany, and subsequently the United States. It has since been remade in ten other countries. The original series o ...

'' (2005–2013).

Early life and career

Born in

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

, Baumgartner attended Holy Innocents' Episcopal School. He attended and graduated from

The Westminster Schools The Westminster Schools is a Kindergarten –12 private school in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, founded in 1951. History Westminster originated in 1951 as a reorganization of Atlanta's North Avenue Presbyterian School (NAPS), a girls' school ...

in 1991, one year before his co-star on ''The Office''

Ed Helms Edward Parker Helms (born January 24, 1974) is an American actor and comedian. From 2002 to 2006, he was a correspondent on Comedy Central's ''The Daily Show with Jon Stewart''. He played paper salesman Andy Bernard in the NBC sitcom '' The Offi ...

graduated. During his time at The Westminster School, Baumgartner competed in competitive speech events, drama, reaching the national finals his senior year. Between his junior and senior year of high school, Baumgartner also attended

Northwestern University Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world. Charte ...

’s National High School Institute, where he focused on theater. He later attended

Southern Methodist University , mottoeng = "The truth will make you free" , established = , type = Private research university , accreditation = SACS , academic_affiliations = , religious_affiliation = United Methodist Church , president = R. Gerald Turner , ...

, where he majored in theater and graduated in 1995. He later moved to

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

and served as Artistic Director of Hidden Theatre in

Minneapolis Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...

, where he received multiple awards for artistic and acting excellence. Later, Baumgartner performed regionally at the Guthrie Theater,

Berkeley Repertory Theatre Berkeley Repertory Theatre is a regional theater company located in Berkeley, California. It runs seven productions each season from its two stages in Downtown Berkeley. History The company was founded in 1968, as the East Bay's first resident p ...

, Children's Theater Company, and Theatre de la Jeune Lune. Baumgartner has had roles on the television shows ''

Jake in Progress ''Jake in Progress'' is an American sitcom television series broadcast on ABC from March 13, 2005 to January 9, 2006. Created by Austin Winsberg, the show was originally conceived as a real-time comedy; the first season was to show the first date ...

'', ''

Arrested Development The term "arrested development" has had multiple meanings for over 200 years. In the field of medicine, the term "arrested development" was first used, ''circa'' 1835–1836, to mean a stoppage of physical development; the term continues to be use ...

'' and ''

Everwood ''Everwood'' (known as ''Our New Life in Everwood'' in the United Kingdom) is an American drama television series created by Greg Berlanti. Berlanti, Mickey Liddell, Rina Mimoun, Andrew A. Ackerman and Michael Green served as executive produce ...

''. He served as a celebrity talent scout on ''

Last Comic Standing ''Last Comic Standing'' was an American reality television talent competition show on NBC that aired from June 1, 2003, to August 9, 2010, then again in 2014 and 2015. The goal of the program was to select a comedian from an initially large group ...

'' with his ''The Office'' co-star

Kate Flannery Kate Destiny Flannery (born June 10, 1964) is an American actress. Following her early theatre work, Flannery had her screen breakthrough playing Meredith Palmer on the NBC series ''The Office'', which won her two Screen Actors Guild Awards. Sh ...

and starred with

Robin Williams Robin McLaurin Williams (July 21, 1951August 11, 2014) was an American actor and comedian. Known for his improvisational skills and the wide variety of characters he created on the spur of the moment and portrayed on film, in dramas and come ...

Mandy Moore Amanda Leigh Moore (born April 10, 1984) is an American singer, songwriter and actress. She rose to fame with her debut single, "Candy (Mandy Moore song), Candy", which peaked at number 41 on the Billboard Hot 100, ''Billboard'' Hot 100. Her de ...

and John Krasinski in ''

License to Wed ''License to Wed'' is a 2007 American romantic comedy film directed by Ken Kwapis. Starring Robin Williams, Mandy Moore and John Krasinski with Christine Taylor, Eric Christian Olsen and Josh Flitter in supporting roles, the film tells the story o ...

''. In June 2007, Baumgartner won a

Daytime Emmy Award The Daytime Emmy Awards, or Daytime Emmys, are part of the extensive range of Emmy Awards for artistic and technical merit for the American television industry. Bestowed by the New York–based National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences ...

for Outstanding Broadband Program - Comedy for his work on '' The Office: The Accountants''

webisode A webisode (portmanteau of "web" and "episode") is an episode of a series that is distributed as part of a web series or on streaming television. It is available as either for download or in streaming, as opposed to first airing on broadcast or c ...

s. His co-stars

Angela Kinsey Angela Faye Kinsey (born June 25, 1971) is an American actress. She played Angela Martin in the sitcom ''The Office'' (2005–2013) and appeared in the sitcoms '' Your Family or Mine'' (2015) and ''Haters Back Off'' (2016–2017). Since ''The ...

and

Oscar Nunez Oscar Nunez (born November 18, 1958), sometimes credited as Oscar Nuñez, is a Cuban-American actor. He is best known for his role as the Dunder Mifflin accountant Oscar Martinez on NBC's ''The Office''. He was a member of The Groundlings and l ...

also shared the award. He also appeared in Ingrid Michaelson's music video for "Time Machine". Baumgartner is an accomplished golfer. In 2020, he hosted and executive produced ''An Oral History of The Office'', a podcast for Spotify that featured interviews with his ''The Office'' co-stars. In 2021, he hosted and executive produced a podcast for iHeart: ''The Office Deep Dive with Brian Baumgartner.'' This podcast features the full-length, in depth interviews with the cast and crew of ''The Office'' originally heard in ''An Oral History of The Office.''

Filmography

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Baumgartner, Brian 1972 births 21st-century American male actors American male film actors American male television actors Living people Male actors from Atlanta Southern Methodist University alumni The Westminster Schools alumni American podcasters