B.J. Novak's Life And Career Outside Of 'The Office' Explained

Summary

• Novak's career has included stand up, writing for The Office, and a successful film career post-sitcom success.
• Rumors of a falling out between Novak and Kaling were squashed by Kaling, confirming their close relationship.
• Novak's talents extend beyond acting and comedy to include writing books, creating an iPhone app, and directing films and TV shows.

B.J. Novak will always be remembered as Ryan Howard from The Office but he has enjoyed an accomplished career both before and after his tenure on the hit sitcom. Novak has done prank shows, Oscar-nominated films, and is now a well-established author in the literary world.

From writing to acting, Novak is more than just the famously unlikeable character he played. His books are bestsellers, his TV shows are hits, and his personal life, funny enough, reflects some of the bits he and others wrote into The Office.

Updated May 2024: A rumor swirled in recent months that B.J. Novak and Mindy Kaling had a falling out. Kaling was quick to squash the rumor that looked to come out of nowhere. Kaling affirmed what fans believed was that she and Novak were on great terms. Novak is a part of Kaling's family given how close she and Novak are, not to mention that he is the godfather of Kaling's kids. Many fans have speculated that the reason why Kaling has not revealed the identity of the father of her children that Novak may indeed be the father.

8 B.J. Novak Started His Career By Doing Stand Up

Novak graduated from Harvard and moved to Los Angeles where he worked as a stand-up comedian

Novak had a prestigious education before going into comedy. He graduated from Harvard University in 2001. Like many in Hollywood before him, B.J. Novak has humble beginnings as a stand-up comedian. He moved to L.A. and started touring the circuit in 2001, and he was quickly noticed. Variety even named him one of their "Ten Comedians To Watch" in 2003.

Novak soon found work writing for shows on the WB before it merged with UPN and became The CW. He also appeared on Comedy Central and Late Night With Conan O'Brien.

Fun fact: Novak went to the same high school as one of his future co-stars of The Office. Both Novak and John Krasinski attended Newton South High School in Newton, Massachusetts.

7 B.J. Novak Was Ashton Kutcher's Accomplice On Punk'D

Novak was recognized by Ashton Kutcher, which led to Novak working on Punk'd

While building his stand-up career, big names began to take notice of his talent besides Comedy Central and Conan. Novak was hired to join Ashton Kutcher's celebrity prank show Punk'D as his accomplice for Season 2 in 2003. He pranked unsuspecting stars like Hillary Duff, Usher, and Rachel Leigh Cook.

Novak and Kutcher would work together again on more serious projects several years later.

6 People Forget B.J. Novak Wrote For The Office

Novak was not only an actor on The Office but was an award-winning writer on the show as well

The Office's executive producer Greg Daniels hired Novak to be one of the writers of the show after seeing him perform at a comedy club. He was also cast to play Ryan Howard, a character who started as the office's temp but soon evolved into a shameless corporate climber who eventually, falls on hard times because of his criminal behavior.

In 2006, he won a Writer's Guild Of America Award for his work on The Office and he was nominated for Emmys for writing every year from 2007 to 2011. Novak also won a Screen Actor's Guild Award for The Office in both 2006 and in 2007.

5 B.J. Novak Started A Film Career Thanks To The Office

Novak was a part of several big box office films thanks to his exposure from The Office

Everyone knows The Office was a smashing success and soon after, the cast found themselves getting impressive work in Hollywood. Novak began his film career in 2006 in Unaccompanied Minors, and he played a doctor in Judd Apatow's classic Knocked Up. That same year he did the drama Reign Over Me and in 2009 he hit the jackpot. He was cast as Smithson Utivich in Quinten Tarintino's WWII film Inglorious Basterds, which ended up being nominated for several awards.

Novak has continued to work both in front of the screen and behind. His most recent TV and film projects, according to IMDb, include:

Additionally, Novak wrote and created projects. He even directed his first film, Vengeance, which he produced as well.

4 B.J. Novak Published His First Book In 2013

B.J. Novak has become a successful author, having written three books and writing forwards for other authors

Novak also began to branch out from acting and comedy thanks to the success of The Office. In 2013, he signed a major book deal with Alfred A. Knopf's publishing house. His first book, a collection of short stories, came out in 2014 and was titled One More Thing: Stories and Other Stories.

Novak also signed a deal with Penguin House to publish his children's book The Book With No Pictures. He then followed up that book with the successful book, My Book With No Pictures.

3 B.J. Novak Co-Created An iPhone App

B.J. Novak launched The List in 2015

Here is a fun fact about the actor-turned-author. In 2015, Novak and app developer Dev Flaherty co-created The List app for iOS. The List app was as it sounds. It was just a collection of lists, similar to this one being read right now! It was nominated for a Webby and soon after was rebranded to li.st and programmed to work with Android phones. It went offline in 2017.

2 B.J. Novak Has Written For Magazines And Started A Career As A Director

Novak wrote for several print publications and has directed films and TV series

Since he began to take his writing career seriously, Novak has not just written for TV and his books, but in print publications as well. Those publications include:

• Playboy
• The Harvard Lampoon
• The New Yorker

As mentioned earlier, Novak also directed for the first time in 2022, when he wrote and directed the film Vengence starring himself and his old Punk'd buddy, Ashton Kutcher.

Novak is also the executive producer, writer, and occasionally the director of the FX show The Premise, a comedy anthology series that has featured stars like Ed Asner, Beau Bridges, and George Wallace.

1 B.J. Novak And Mindy Kaling Dated In Real Life

B.J. Novak and Mindy Kaling dated from 2004 to 2007

It is common knowledge that Novak's character on The Office, Ryan, has an on-and-off-again romance with Mindy Kaling's office character, Kelly. What fans might not know is that Novak and Kaling dated in real life.

Fans continue to speculate what really went on between the two, but either way, they remain good friends. Novak has even acted and written for Kaling's show The Mindy Project.

Novak is also the godfather to Kaling's children.