B.J. Novak
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B.J. Novak (born Benjamin Joseph Novak; July 31, 1979) is an American writer, actor, director, and producer best known for his work on the NBC mockumentary television series The Office, where he served as a writer, executive producer, and played the recurring character Ryan Howard. Born in Newton, Massachusetts — a city in the Greater Boston area — Novak has maintained strong connections to New England throughout his career. His work in television, film, and literature has earned him multiple Emmy Award nominations and established him as a versatile creative force in Hollywood.
Early Life
Benjamin Joseph Novak was born on July 31, 1979, in Newton, Massachusetts, to a Jewish family.[1] He grew up in the Greater Boston area and attended Newton South High School. He went on to study English and Spanish at Amherst College in Amherst, Massachusetts, graduating in 2001. During his college years, Novak performed stand-up comedy at clubs in Boston and New York City, honing a comedic voice that would shape his later writing and acting work.
Career
Early Career and The Office
After graduating from Amherst, Novak pursued stand-up comedy and writing in New York and Los Angeles. He landed his breakthrough when he was cast in the American adaptation of The Office, which premiered on NBC on March 24, 2005. Novak was among the show's original cast members and served simultaneously as a writer and, eventually, executive producer — an unusually broad creative role for a performer on a network series.
His character, Ryan Howard, began as an entry-level temp in Dunder Mifflin's Scranton branch and evolved over nine seasons into a figure whose erratic ambition drove some of the series' sharpest satirical threads.[2] Novak wrote or co-wrote dozens of episodes across the show's run, contributing to some of its most acclaimed installments. The Office concluded its original broadcast run in May 2013 after nine seasons; it has since found a second life on streaming, consistently ranking among the most-watched shows on Peacock and Netflix.
Novak received Emmy Award nominations recognizing both his writing and his acting contributions to the series. His dual role as cast member and writer on the same production was relatively rare in American television and gave him a depth of influence on the show's creative direction that went beyond what most performers achieve.
Film
In 2009, Novak appeared in Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds, playing Pfc. Smithson Utivich alongside Brad Pitt and Christoph Waltz. The film was a critical and commercial success, winning Waltz the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and earning eight total Oscar nominations.
His most significant film credit came in 2022, when he wrote and directed Vengeance, a darkly comedic thriller released by Focus Features. Novak also starred in the film, playing a New York media personality who travels to West Texas to investigate the death of a woman he barely knew. Vengeance premiered at the South by Southwest Film Festival in March 2022 and received generally favorable reviews, with critics noting Novak's sharp script and his ability to use genre conventions to probe class, media, and American identity. It marked a notable step in his transition from television writer to feature filmmaker.
Literature
Novak published One More Thing: Stories and Other Stories through Knopf in January 2014. The collection of short fiction and humor pieces drew broad critical attention; reviewers in the New York Times and The New Yorker noted its formal inventiveness and its debt to writers like Donald Barthelme and Woody Allen. The book demonstrated that Novak's writing ambitions extended well beyond the television comedy format.
Later that year, in September 2014, he published The Book with No Pictures, a children's book built entirely on wordplay and absurdist text, with no illustrations whatsoever. The concept — that a reader must say whatever appears on the page, no matter how silly — made the book a natural fit for read-aloud settings. It became a New York Times bestseller and has remained in print, selling millions of copies.[3]
Stand-Up Comedy
Novak has performed stand-up comedy throughout his career, beginning during his college years in the Boston area club circuit. He has appeared on late-night television programs and comedy festival lineups, and his stand-up work informed both his character writing on The Office and his prose fiction in One More Thing. Stand-up has remained an intermittent part of his professional life rather than its centerpiece, but it's a thread that runs through his output from his earliest work to the present.
Business Ventures
In 2025, Fox Entertainment acquired a stake in Chain, a fast-food concept developed by Novak alongside Gordon Ramsay and other partners.[4] The deal signaled an expansion of Novak's interests into branded entertainment and the food industry, two sectors that have seen increasing crossover with Hollywood in recent years.
Literary Advocacy
In May 2025, Novak hosted the PEN America Literary Gala at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.[5][6] PEN America is a leading organization in the defense of free expression and literary rights; Novak's hosting role reflected his standing as a writer with crossover appeal and a genuine investment in literary culture beyond the entertainment industry.
Boston Connections
Novak has remained publicly connected to the Boston area throughout his time in Hollywood. He has been spotted at Boston Celtics games, drawing attention from local fans.[7] As a native of Newton who built his career from roots in the Boston club comedy circuit, Novak is among the more prominent entertainment figures the region has produced in recent decades, alongside others who have moved between New England academic culture and the broader American media industry.
His connection to Amherst College has also remained active. The college has cited him among its notable alumni, and his career trajectory — from campus comedy to network television to literary publishing to independent film — reflects the range of creative paths taken by graduates of New England liberal arts institutions.
Emmy Nominations
Novak received Emmy Award nominations from the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for his work on The Office, with nominations covering both his writing contributions and his role as a producer on the series. The nominations placed him in the company of the show's other writer-producers, including creator Greg Daniels, and acknowledged the degree to which his dual function on the show shaped its creative output during its peak years.[8] ```