B. J. Novak
| B. J. Novak | |
|---|---|
 Novak at SF Sketch Fest 2008 | |
| Born |
Benjamin Joseph Manaly Novak July 31, 1979 Newton, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Alma mater | Harvard University |
| Occupation | Actor, comedian, screenwriter, author, director |
| Years active | 2001–present |
Benjamin Joseph Manaly "B. J." Novak (born July 31, 1979) is an American actor, stand-up comedian, screenwriter, author, and director. He is most widely known for being a writer and executive producer of The Office, in which he also played Ryan Howard.
Early life
Novak was born and raised in Newton, Massachusetts, the son of Linda (née Manaly) and author William Novak.[1][2][3] Novak's family is Jewish. His father co-edited The Big Book of Jewish Humor, and has ghostwritten memoirs for Nancy Reagan, Lee Iacocca, and others; his parents also established a Jewish matchmaking service.[4][5] Novak has two younger brothers, Jesse, a composer, and Lev. He attended Solomon Schechter Day School of Greater Boston for elementary school and middle school.[6] He went to Newton South High School with future Office costar John Krasinski,[7] and they graduated in 1997.[7] Novak graduated from Harvard University, where he was a member of the Harvard Lampoon and the Hasty Pudding Club. He majored in English and Spanish literature, and wrote his honors thesis on the films of Shakespeare's Hamlet.[8] Aside from the Lampoon, he occasionally staged and performed in a variety show called The B.J. Show with fellow Harvard student B. J. Averell.[7]
Career
Novak graduated from Harvard University in 2001. Afterward he moved to Los Angeles, California and began working in clubs as a comedian. His first live stand-up performance took place at the Hollywood Youth Hostel on October 10, 2001. He was named one of Variety's "Ten Comedians To Watch" in 2003.[9]
Novak was a writer for the short-lived The WB sitcom Raising Dad.[7] He performed on Comedy Central's Premium Blend and on Late Night with Conan O'Brien.[8][9]
Novak's television acting career began on MTV's Punk'd.[7] He was the lead accomplice to Ashton Kutcher on the show's second season in 2003, playing pranks on Hilary Duff, Rachael Leigh Cook, Usher, and Mýa.
The Office
After hearing Novak's opening joke at a comedy club, executive producer Greg Daniels decided he "wanted to do something with him":[7] Novak was subsequently cast as Ryan Howard.
On July 21, 2010, news reports indicated Novak had signed a contract to remain with the show for its seventh and eighth seasons; under the new terms, he would be made an executive producer midway through Season 7 and direct two episodes of the show. In a June 2009 interview with The Philadelphia Inquirer, Novak spoke about sharing the success of The Office with his Newton South High School classmate John Krasinski:[10]
"Sometimes when this feels too good to be true, I think that if this were all a dream, that would be what should have tipped me off. I'd wake up saying, "I was in this incredible TV show and it was a big hit and the star was John Krasinski from high school. Isn't that weird?"
Film career
In addition to his television credits, Novak has appeared in the films Unaccompanied Minors, Reign Over Me, The Internship, Knocked Up, The Smurfs and Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds.[11] He played composer Robert B. Sherman in Saving Mr. Banks (2013), and Alistair Smythe in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014).[8] He will have a supporting role in the 2016 film The Founder, which will star Michael Keaton in the biopic's leading role of Ray Kroc.
Book deal
On April 11, 2013, Knopf announced it had signed a seven-figure, two-book deal with Novak, with the first book slated to be a fictional collection of Woody Allen-like stories.[12]
On February 4, 2014 a book of 22 stories, One More Thing: Stories and Other Stories, was published and spent 6 weeks on the NYT Hardcover Fiction Bestsellers List.[13] Novak also signed a deal with Penguin's children's books label and wrote the title The Book With No Pictures, which was released in September 2014 and has spent more than a year as a best-seller on the New York Times Picture Books list, with 34 of those weeks charting the book as the #1 seller in the country.[14]
In May 2015, it was announced that Novak and Mindy Kaling had signed a book deal worth a reported $7.5 million to write about their long friendship and former relationship, though Kaling said in an interview that the book would "not be a tell-all."
Personal life
Novak has a close friendship with Mindy Kaling, whom he met through writing for The Office. The two dated on and off while writing and acting on the show, sometimes mirroring the on-again, off-again nature of the relationship between their respective characters Ryan Howard and Kelly Kapoor.[8] He served as a consulting producer for Season 1 of The Mindy Project,[15] and has appeared on the show 4 times although his formal producing role ended after the 1st season at his request. His brother Jesse composes the music for The Mindy Project and BoJack Horseman.[8] In mid-October 2015, an Apple iOS app that Novak co-created and developed with Dev Flaherty called the List App was released.
Bibliography
- Novak, B.J. (2014). One More Thing: Stories and Other Stories. ISBN 9780385351836.
- Novak, B.J. (2014). The Book With No Pictures. ISBN 9780803741713.
Filmography
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | Punk'd | Field Agent | Television series |
| 2005–2012, 2013 | Office, TheThe Office | Ryan Howard | Television series; 164 Episodes Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series (2006, 2007) Nominated: Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series (2008) Nominated: Prism Award for Best performance in a Comedy Series (2009) |
| 2006 | Unaccompanied Minors | Flight Attendant | |
| 2007 | Reign Over Me | Mr. Fallon | |
| Knocked Up | Unnamed Doctor | ||
| 2009 | Inglourious Basterds | Pfc. Smithson Utivich | Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture |
| 2011 | Smurfs, TheThe Smurfs | Baker Smurf | |
| 2012 | Dictator, TheThe Dictator | Uncredited | |
| 2013 | Mindy Project, TheThe Mindy Project | Jamie | Television series 4 episodes |
| 2013 | Internship, TheThe Internship | Male Interviewer | |
| 2013 | Saving Mr. Banks | Robert B. Sherman | |
| 2014 | Amazing Spider-Man 2, TheThe Amazing Spider-Man 2 | Alistair Smythe | |
| 2014 | Community | Mr. Egypt | Episode: "Basic Sandwich" (cameo) |
| 2014 | The Newsroom | Lucas Pruit | Television series 4 episodes |
| 2015 | Arthur | MC | Episode: "The Last Day" (voice) |
| 2016 | The Founder | Harry J. Sonneborn | |
| 2016 | Crazy Ex-Girlfriend | as himself | Episode: "Josh and I Go to Los Angeles" (cameo) |
| Year | Title | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 2001–2002 | Raising Dad | 2 episodes |
| 2005–2012 | Office, TheThe Office | Episodes written:
Writers Guild of America Award for Comedy Series (2006) |
| 2013 | Mindy Project, TheThe Mindy Project | 1 episode |
| Year | Title | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 2009 | Office, TheThe Office – Blackmail webisode series | 4 episodes |
| 2009 | The Office – "Scott's Tots" | aired 12/03/09 |
| 2011 | The Office - "The Seminar" | aired 01/27/11 |
| The Office - "The List" | aired 09/22/11 | |
| 2012 | The Office – "Trivia" | aired 01/12/12 |
| 2013 | The Mindy Project – "Mindy's Minute" | aired 02/19/13 |
| 2013 | The Mindy Project - "Santa Fe" | aired 04/09/13 |
Awards and nominations
| Year | Group | Award | Result | Work |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | Writers Guild of America Awards | New Series | Nominated | The Office |
| Episodic Comedy - for episode "Diversity Day" | Nominated | |||
| Comedy Series | Nominated | |||
| 2006 | Screen Actors Guild Awards | Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series | Won | |
| Writers Guild of America Awards | Comedy Series | Won | ||
| 2007 | Screen Actors Guild Awards | Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series[16] | Won | |
| Emmy Awards | Outstanding Comedy Series | Nominated | ||
| Writers Guild of America Awards | Episodic Comedy - for episode "Local Ad" | Nominated | ||
| Comedy Series | Nominated | |||
| 2008 | Screen Actors Guild Awards | Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series | Nominated | |
| Emmy Awards | Outstanding Comedy Series | Nominated | ||
| Writers Guild of America Awards | Comedy Series | Nominated | ||
| 2009 | Prism Awards | Performance in a Comedy Series | Nominated |
References
- ↑ Courtney Hollands (20 December 2007). "Molly Goodson has stars in her eyes - and on her blog". The Boston Globe. Retrieved 2009-03-06.
- ↑ Berman, Alyssa R.; Beborah B. Doroshow (2001-05-14). "BJ's Bring a Full House to Sanders". Harvard Crimson. Retrieved 2009-08-19.
- ↑ Novak, William (2006). The Big Book of Jewish Humor. Collins. p. vii. ISBN 0-06-113813-4.
- ↑ Getlin, John (1992-09-17). "Ghost to the Stars - William Novak Is the Invisible Writer Behind Memoirs by Lee Iacocca, Nancy Reagan and--Soon--Magic Johnson". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2009-08-19.
- ↑ Uriel Heilman (November 19, 2006). "Better than Pork, Isn't it? Jewish Joke Book turns 25". JTA. Retrieved 2009-03-13.
- ↑ "Class Notes - Solomon Schechter Day School". www.ssdsboston.org. Retrieved 2016-01-21.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 Christopher Muther (December 6, 2005). "Class reunion". The Boston Globe. Archived from the original on February 24, 2009. Retrieved 2009-03-06.
- 1 2 3 4 5 B. J. Novak at the Internet Movie Database
- 1 2 "B.J. Novak: Videos, Jokes, Tour Dates, Biography and more". Jokes.com. ComedyCentral. 2009. Archived from the original on March 19, 2009. Retrieved 2009-03-11.
- ↑ David Hiltbrand, "B.J. Novak gives at 'The Office' and out of it", Philadelphia Inquirer, June 11, 2009.
- ↑ Michael Ausiello, "Exclusive: B.J. Novak Takes 'Office' Leave", Entertainment Weekly, November 12, 2008.
- ↑ Julie Bosman, "B.J. Novak, Actor and Writer, Signs Two-Book Deal", nytimes.com, April 12, 2013; accessed September 21, 2013.
- ↑ "Best Sellers". The New York Times. 2014-03-30. Retrieved 30 November 2014.
- ↑ Towers, Andrea (2014-01-22). "On the Books: B.J. Novak lands children's book deal". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 30 November 2014.
- ↑ "B.J. Novak on his 'Mindy Project' arc, being BFF with Mindy Kaling, and returning to 'The Office'", ohnotheydidnt.livejournal.com, January 29, 2013.
- ↑ Andrew Krukowski, "'Sopranos,' 'The Office' Win SAG Ensemble Awards," TVWeek, January 27, 2008.
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to B.J. Novak. |
 Joey Fatone interviews Novak at the 14th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards (2008) |
- "The Office's BJ Novak: Uncut", an NPR interview from May 2008
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