The Real Life Partners Of The Office Cast
The Office has been over since 2013, but the show has lived on through streaming and seems to have become even more beloved in the years since; there's a new generation of fans who are rooting for Jim Halpert and Pam Beesly's love story. Yes, on paper (see what we did there?), the series is about Michael Scott and his antics at Dunder Mifflin Paper Company, but it also happens to be about the handful of sweet relationships that are woven into the sitcom's fabric. We know the ins and outs of the fictional characters' love lives, but what about the real life partners of The Office cast?
For one thing, we don't know too much about the relationship status of Mindy Kaling, who played Kelly Kapoor on the award-winning show. In October 2020, Kaling shared she gave birth to her second child, but the father's identity remains a big ol' mystery. Sure, some speculate she and The Office co-star BJ Novak are still together, but the two insist they are just friends. Just really good, really close friends. In 2019, Kaling told Good Housekeeping, "He's the godfather to my daughter, he comes over like once a week."
As it turns out, the rest of the cast have interesting relationship histories as well, and this is what we know about them.
Steve Carell fused two metals with a hot torch
Steve Carell, who played the hapless and hilarious Michael Scott on the workplace mockumentary, has been married to his wife Nancy Carell for a long time. The couple tied the knot back in 1995, and they went on to have two children.
If Nancy looks familiar to you, that's because she should — she appeared on The Office! Nancy played Michael Scott's girlfriend, Carol Stills, in the series, which means she hung around the Dunder Mifflin crew for several episodes. (Clearly, things worked out way better between Nancy and Steve than they did for Carol and Michael.) The Office hasn't been her only acting gig: Nancy has also had small roles in movies including Anger Management, Bridesmaids, and The 40-Year-Old Virgin. Plus, she and Steve created Angie Tribeca, the TBS comedy starring Rashida Jones.
They've found great success in glitzy world of television, but that doesn't mean the Carells are exempt from basic chores. In a 2012 Good Housekeeping interview, Steve said his wife loves it when he empties out the dishwasher. "For some reason she has a terrible aversion to it, so when I do it, she loves me that much more," he shared. Suffice to say, this partnership sounds stronger than a tall glass of Michael's orange vod-juice-ka.
John Krasinski has his Halpert-ily ever after
John Krasinski has built quite a career for himself, and the same could be said about his other half. As Us Weekly reported, the actor who played Jim Halpert for nine seasons married Emily Blunt in 2010. The two tied the knot at a private ceremony in Como, Italy, where they were surrounded by family and famous friends like George Clooney. In February 2014, Krasinski announced on Twitter that they welcomed daughter Hazel into the world. Two years later, he revealed their second child, Violet, was born that June.
Like her husband, Blunt is a successful actor in her own right; her extensive filmography includes The Devil Wears Prada, Gnomeo & Juliet, and Edge of Tomorrow. Oh, and let us not forget that she and Krasinski worked together on acclaimed horror film A Quiet Place. They teamed up again for the movie's sequel, which is due to hit theaters in 2021. As they told The Hollywood Reporter in 2018, they felt it was the perfect project to finally work on together.
"It was the only idea that had come our way that seemed bigger than our marriage," Blunt shared. "The narrative of our marriage was not going to overwhelm this movie and this amazing opportunity for him as a director, as a filmmaker, as a writer. I knew this was a big swing for him."
Rainn Wilson's unbearably cool wedding story
Rainn Wilson, who played assistant (to the) regional manager Dwight Schrute on The Office, has been married to fiction writer Holiday Reinhorn since 1995. They wed in a nontraditional wedding on Kalama River in Washington. According Wilson's memoir, The Bassoon King, Reinhorn arrived on a raft and they ended the ceremony by jumping into the cold river with their dog. "It was a bizarre and profound expression of our love," he wrote. "And a hell of a lot of fun."
Since then, Reinhorn and Wilson have welcomed one child, a son named Walter McKenzie WIlson. In 2019, Rainn told Fatherly that their dynamic had changed in recent years. "My son is fourteen now and I've been done with The Office for five years," he said. "And, yeah, I've been much more involved in his life in the past five or six years. I drive him to school in the morning. It's tough and challenging though with a job like mine. Not as much stuff shoots in LA anymore."
Jenna Fischer moved on after her Myspace split
Way back when The Office viewers first met Pam Beesly, actor Jenna Fischer was married to director James Gunn. In 2007, Fischer and Gunn separated after six years of marriage, sharing a statement at the time via Gunn's former Myspace page (via The Los Angeles Times) that read, "The enthusiasm we have for each other's lives, spirits and careers is real — we have been each other's cheerleader and friend during the past six years and continue to be so now and in the future."
Fischer told Redbook that she didn't date much following her divorce from Gunn, but she ended up connecting with someone at — you guessed it! — at the office. (And by "at the office" we mean "on a set.") In 2010, Fischer married Lee Kirk after they fell in love while working together on the movie The Giant Mechanical Man. Kirk is a filmmaker whose other credits include Billie Joe Armstrong flick Ordinary World, Pants On Fire, and The Office. He and Fischer have two children.
"In the midst of all that, I was having weekly script dinners with Lee, and I realized, 'I'm looking at basically the perfect man. It doesn't get better than this,'" she recalled to Redbook.
Angela Kinsey found love outside of the Office universe
Here's another The Office star who knows what it's like to go through a divorce. Angela Kinsey was once married to Warren Lieberstein — the brother of Paul Lieberstein, who played Toby Flenderson. And what do you know, Paul's brother also worked on The Office: Warren was a writer and producer on the hit sitcom.
In 2010, TVGuide reported Kinsey and Warren split, citing "irreconcilable differences." While their marriage didn't pan out, Kisney and Warren have made an effort to co-parent their child, Isabel. "Our daughter is growing up seeing two people who care about each other," she told HuffPost in 2013. "We may not be a traditional family on paper but we are a family and I tell her that familes come in all shapes and sizes, but [a family is] love and I see her really flourishing because she sees two people treating each other with respect."
Following her divorce from Warren, Kinsey has moved on. In November 2016, Kinsey married Josh Snyder, a former Days of Our Lives star and professional baker. His other acting work includes Shopgirl, One Tree Hill, and Without a Trace.
Ed Helms keeps his marriage a mystery
Ed Helms, who played a cappella aficionado Andy Bernard, keeps his marriage and his personal life under wraps as much as possible. As Showbiz Cheatsheet points out, fans do know he has a wife and child, but he has never referred to either of them by name. Moreover, no one knows who they are or what they look like. However, Helms did share a funny story about his wife and Demi Moore when he was on Jimmy Kimmel Live in 2019.
"I get a call from my publicist, and she says, 'Uh, I think I know the answer to this but just double-checking, you're not in a romantic relationship with Demi Moore, are you?'" he recalled. "And I was like, 'No, I'm happily married. I'm on vacation with my family, what are you talking about?!'"
Moore and Helms worked together on Corporate Animals, and apparently, some tabloid erroneously claimed the two of them struck up a romance on the set. Helms knew he had to clue in his wife before she read the gossip somewhere. And wow, did she have a surprising reaction to the news: "Before I can say anything, [my wife and mother-in-law] go, 'Demi Moore, high five!...Can you believe this tabloid thought that you and Demi Moore could be a couple? I mean that is insane!"
He continued, "I was like, 'I'm glad nobody is upset or like threatened here but like, can't you be a little upset? This is hurting my feelings now!'"
Ellie Kemper met her husband at work
Ellie Kemper, who played Erin Hannon to charming perfection, has been married to Nathan For You co-creator and Emmy-winning writer Michael Koman since 2012. The two met while working on Conan O'Brien's talk show. "I was an old intern, and he was a young writer," she told Vanity Fair in 2014. "There was a part of me that was like No time for love! I have to focus on my career!" As it turned out, Kemper could do both; she's had a successful marriage and a successful career ever since.
While their courtship sounds like a match made in comedy heaven, their engagement wasn't exactly something out of a storybook. "I was not surprised or anything when he asked me because I told him to propose," Kemper recalled on an episode of The Ellen Degeneres Show. He obliged, she accepted, and it all worked out.
Kemper and Koman have two sons, James and Matthew. Kemper rarely shares photos of her family or her personal life on Instagram, but in 2019, she did celebrate Matthew's one-month milestone with a quick snap of herself wearing him on her chest in a baby carrier, showing off only the back of his head.
Kate Flannery's long-term partner danced into her heart
Though Kate Flannery's character, Meredith, was divorced and lived a wild life in Scranton, never wanting to be tied down, Flannery herself has actually been in a long-term relationship with boyfriend Chris Haston. They met on the set of The Office when Haston was working as a photographer for NBC, and the rest, it seems, is history, though they haven't tied the knot or gotten engaged (yet). In an interview with reporters (via People) in 2019 while she was competing on Dancing With The Stars, she gushed about their relationship, calling him "the greatest."
"Chris and I, we've been together for 13 years," she said. "I'm a late bloomer in love, in career, in everything. I say later is better because you're more calm, wiser, you get to enjoy it all with more gratitude."
Flannery doesn't open up too much about her relationship, but she did tell Closer Weekly that her time on DWTS has inspired them to pick up a hobby as a couple. "Chris is now excited to start dancing and I want to keep it up!" she said. No word on whether or not they plan to ever get hitched, but it looks like these two are definitely in it for the long haul.
Melora Hardin has a bold type
Melora Hardin is much more successful in relationships than her The Office counterpart (sorry, Michael Scott). The real Jan Levinson has been married to fellow actor Gildart Jackson since 1997, who is probably best known for his role as Gideon in the supernatural series Charmed. You may also recognize him from Castlevania, The Young and the Restless, or Providence.
Not only do they both work in the same industry, but they've also worked together... and that happens to play a big part of this couple's origin story. According to People, they met at a wrap party for a movie she worked on, and they just clicked. Hardin and Jackson got married and now have two daughters. Oh, and they also play a married couple on The Bold Type. Hardin frequently shares photos of her husband and children on Instagram, and it looks like they're always having a pretty good time hanging out as a family.
Catherine Tate's beau popped the question
Catherine Tate's time on The Office was short — she joined the cast to play Nellie Bertram in 2011 after Carell left his role as Michael — but her role was a memorable one. (For starters, we will never let go of the scene where she tried to eat a taco for the very first time.) Tate also happens to be another one of the members of the show's ensemble who's in a happy relationship. Tate got engaged to screenwriter Jeff Gutheim in 2019, and it's not clear if they have tied the knot since. Gutheim is best known for working on movies including Crackerjack, Crash Test Dummy, and Full of It.
While Gutheim himself has three children from a previous marriage and Tate has a daughter named Erin with ex Twig Clark, the couple do not have any children together. They tend to keep their relationship pretty private, though, so we wouldn't expect to see them sharing any intimate details about their lives together anytime soon — or their future wedding plans, if they aren't married already.