When Kate Flannery exited The Office for the last time, she did so having created and embodied
Meredith, one of the funniest secondary characters on television.
But just what has Flannery been up to since leaving Meredith Palmer behind?
After nine long seasons, The Office left the air on a high note, with the iconic wedding
of two main characters, Dwight and Angela, a send-off that sat well with Flannery.
Speaking to the blog How to Be a Readhead, she explained:
"I am so proud of the ending of The Office.
I felt that everything was wrapped up so nicely.
It was sad and funny and thoughtful and everything you want in a finale…I am so sad, but I
am so proud.
It's a great feeling to be a part of such a respected and honored project."
The end of the show also made Flannery feel nostalgic and reflective, which she discussed
in an essay she wrote for Huffington Post.
She wrote:
"To be a part of an ensemble on TV is a gift.
I stopped counting lines.
I was disappointed at first when my lines would get cut but it dawned on me, I don't
need to be the meat.
I don't need to be the side dish.
I can be the onions.
It's good to be the onions."
"Don't fall in love with me, kid."
When it came to summing up The Office's appeal to fans and audiences around the world, Flannery
put it about as succinctly as you can.
She wrote:
"Abraham Lincoln said most people are as happy as they make up their minds to be...This show
made its mind up to have heart and soul and treat the audience like it had a brain."
Nowadays, Flannery gets to flex her musical muscles in her comedy lounge act the Lampshades,
in which she is joined by fellow actor actor Scot Robinson.
Flannery describes the act as:
"...a male/ female duo fresh from the cruise ship circuit, spinning pop and rock into comedy
gold as they work out the kinks in their amusingly tortured relationship."
The duo plays regularly, mostly in southern California comedy clubs, and for a number
of years they had a standing gig at the IO Theater in Hollywood.
Flannery says:
"It's been musically interesting.
We will gig out and host stand-up nights and we've done a lot of charity events and some
private parties.
It's a very portable show, so it's been really, really great for us.
We've gotten around a lot doing it and we've met a lot of people because of it."
In addition to the Lampshades, Flannery also sings and performs with Glee star Jane Lynch
in Lynch's comedy cabaret show See Jane Sing.
The pair's working relationship goes back to the early days of a stage show called The
Real Live Brady Bunch, when Flannery served as Lynch's understudy and acted in several
of the play's non-Brady roles.
And while much of See Jane Sing seems to be improvised, Lynch says this simply isn't the
case.
"I like to script every damn moment.
I build a cage but then I bounce around freely within the cage."
Flannery herself, however, does seem to keep things fresh.
"And she's loosey-goosey.
Yeah, nothing's the same twice for her, so, and that keeps me alive and going, 'What is
she gonna do now?'"
A film Variety called a "thoroughly ingratiating, touchingly heartfelt comedy," 4th Man Out
tells the story of Adam, a small-town car mechanic who, after a night of drinking, comes
out to his three lifelong friends, who are surprised to learn he is gay.
The bulk of the film finds them attempting to maintain the equilibrium in their friendship,
while helping Adam find a relationship of his own.
Flannery plays Adam's mother, Karen, and says the film is a product of an increasingly tolerant
audience and society.
In an interview with the film's cast, she told Hollywood Chicago:
"The world has changed so much, and younger kids have so much less judgement about everything...they
don't care to draw lines between people.
I think that is fantastic, and this movie is the evolution of coming out in America.
This is an amazing story that represents that change."
Parker Young, who plays one of Adam's friends in the film, agreed.
He said:
"Our generation is more aware of what we think about it as individuals, and we're not listening
to negative backlash when we don't agree with it."
Flannery maintains a robust presence on Twitter and Instagram, tweeting and posting photos
of a number of things, including her exploits offstage, her time spent with friends and
other celebrities, and her slate of current and upcoming projects.
She is also fond of retweeting fans' posts and a seemingly endless stream of memes, both
of The Office in general, and of her character Meredith specifically.
She doesn't always feel comfortable in the virtual realm, though.
In an interview with Google, Flannery noted that engaging with fans online can often be
pretty difficult.
"I have to be a little more self-concious than normally would be, and I just sort of
have to figure out, like, 'Okay, what...what am I really...who needs to know what?'"
In fact, she sees a problem with social media personalities in general.
"For me I just feel like, sometimes, there's such an ego-centric thing that happens with
the sense of celebrity, even at the smallest level."
In the years since The Office closed for good, Flannery has filled her onscreen time with
a range of different projects, most of them independently produced films and television
shows.
She plays the role of nosy next-door neighbor Mrs. Jenkins in Stuck, a 2017 movie in which
the main character, Darby, is sentenced to a month of house arrest in the same house
as her ex-boyfriend and his new fiancee.
Flannery also took a part in Fishbowl, California, a film about a drunk, chronically ill widow
who takes in an aimless twentysomething.
Finally, Flannery plays Principal Saperstein in the Hulu comedy series All Night, which
Deadline describes as centering:
"...on an overnight, lock-in graduation party in which a group of new grads will do whatever
it takes to make their remaining high school dreams come true."
While none of these projects have quite constituted an Office-sized hit, each has benefited hugely
from Flannery's wit and comedic chops.
And considering the current pace at which she's working, it's safe to assume that more
shows and movies will be added to the list in due course.
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