B.J. Novak played Dunder Mifflin employee Ryan Howard during The Office's long network
run, but he hasn't latched onto an equally high-profile project since the series left
the air.
That doesn't mean he's been sitting idle, however.
This is what B.J. Novak has been up to.
While he definitely isn't appearing on TV quite as much, B.J. Novak never left television.
The year after The Office ended, Novak had a cameo on the comedy Community and a recurring
role on Aaron Sorkin's The Newsroom playing Lucas Pruitt, the owner of the company airing
News Night.
Along with a bit of voice work for the animated show Arthur, Novak enjoyed a recurring role
as Mindy's ex-boyfriend Jamie on The Mindy Project and played a satirical version of
himself on two episodes of the musical romantic comedy series Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.
"Well… back to the old ecstasy factory!"
Novak is also doing a lot more work behind the camera, particularly in terms of his work
on The Mindy Project.
Just as he did for The Office, Novak has worked as writer, director, and producer on The Mindy
Project, which isn't surprising considering his long history with the show's creator and
star, Mindy Kaling.
B.J. Novak was showing interest in more film work long before The Office shut its doors,
winning small roles in 2007's comedy Knocked Up, the buddy drama Reign Over Me released
the same year, the 2012 political satire The Dictator, and most visibly as one of the few
lucky survivors of Quentin Tarantino's 2009 bloodbath Inglourious Basterds.
With the exception of the series finale, Novak wasn't around for The Office's last season,
and his film credits are probably a big clue as to why.
Novak was busy in 2013, The Office's final year, doing more work on the big screen.
He reprised his role as Baker Smurf in 2013's The Smurfs 2.
That year he also had a small role in the comedy The Internship and a meatier role in
the comedy-drama Saving Mr. Banks.
The latter film revolves around the development of 1964's classic Mary Poppins; Novak plays
songwriter Robert Sherman who, with brother Richard Sherman, co-wrote the film's songs.
The following year Novak played Alistair Smythe in Amazing Spider-Man 2, a character who may
have eventually gotten some spotlight if that franchise hadn't died, Smythe is the supervillain
called the Spider Slayer in the comics.
More recently, Novak appeared in 2017's The Founder, about the creation of McDonald's,
as Harry J. Sonneborn, the McDonald's Corporation's first president and CEO.
In 2013, B.J. Novak signed a two-book deal with publisher Alfred A. Knopf, and the following
year his literary career premiered with the short story collection One More Thing: Stories
and Other Stories.
The book enjoyed a six-week stay on New York Times' Hardcover Fiction Bestseller List.
"The concept is that I wrote a book, so now I'm all pretentious."
"People think you're pretentious anyway."
The Washington Post's Jen Chaney described Novak's writing as being gifted with a style
"...part Steven Wright and part Charlie Kaufman, married with a sharp ear for (and satire of)
contemporary pop culture."
The next book B.J. Novak wrote targeted an entirely different audience.
Released after One More Thing: Stories and Other Stories in 2014, his children's book
The Book With No Pictures spent 55 consecutive weeks on the New York Times Picture Book Bestseller
List.
If you're wondering how a children's book that advertises it doesn't have pictures might
appeal to children, well…
"BLORK!
Wait, what?
That doesn't even mean anything!"
The beginning of the book explains, quote, "Everything the words say, the person reading
the book has to say.
No matter what."
The rest of the book, in large colored letters, then forces the presumably adult reader to
say ridiculous things that get the kids laughing like, quote, "I am a monkey who taught myself
to read," or, quote, "My head is made of blueberry pizza."
In May 2015, news broke that B.J. Novak and Mindy Kaling were going to collaborate on
yet another project, and this one wasn't going to be on television.
The same month The Mindy Project was canceled by Fox and subsequently picked up by Hulu,
the New York Daily News reported that Novak and Kaling had signed a $7.5 million deal
to write a book "about their off-and-on romance."
The following month, Kaling talking to Vanity Fair about the deal, saying that she and Novak
didn't, quote, "know all that much about it" yet.
She explained that they were still in the early stages with the book and that they weren't
completely sure where they were going with it save for the fact that, according to Kaling,
it would be, quote, "great and funny."
In spite of what some may have assumed from the New York Daily News story, however, Kaling
said that while she and Novak would be talking about their romantic relationship as well
as their friendship, that the book, quote, "won't be a tell-all."
So far, nothing has materialized as a result of the deal, but keep your eyes on your local
bookstore.
After he appeared as McDonald's first president and CEO Harry J. Sonneborn in 2017's The Founder,
in a totally Ryan Howard-esque move, Novak decided to make life imitate art.
Just like his Founder character, Novak is hoping to become an innovation supporter…of
meat.
Novak told WWD's Kristen Tauer:
"This sounds sci-fi.
Do you know about the companies that are using meat stem cells to clone meat in a lab?"
Novak went on to describe the process, saying it was possible to take the cell of an animal
and, quote, "grow and grow and grow it."
Meaning that, as opposed to the high numbers of animals butchered for meat now, quote,
"you could just get one unlucky cow and feed the world forever."
Novak said he supports a number of companies doing the work and singled out Memphis Meats
as one of them.
Man, Dwight would be so jealous…
"I can get you exotic meats.
Hippo steaks, giraffe burgers."
"We'll talk."
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