It's hard to distinguish between writer/actor/comedian B.J. Novak and his alter-ego Ryan Howard from The Office, notably because Novak hasn't done much else besides the NBC show. Sure, there were a couple episodes of Punk'd he was on, like that time he pretended to be a really bad driving instructor to Hillary Duff, and he was in that one scene in Reign Over Me, but for the most part B.J. is Ryan: a wunderkind who came out of nowhere and rose to the top and seems a little cocky about it. Sort of like NBC executive producer Ben Silverman, who Ryan is supposedly based on.
With The Office season premiere tomorrow, now is as good a time as any to look back at the solo work of the young man who just told The New York Times: "I don’t see the value in quote-unquote brilliant things that people don’t like, and I don’t see the value in things that people like that I don’t respect:"
It's so difficult: On the one hand, B.J. Novak is undeniably attractive in that smug, class clown to the jocks sort of way. On the other, you sort of want to tell the kid to STFU and earn his dues before his fall from grace ends up resembling his character's.
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pfft! I always had a crush on BJ Novak and all I can say from looking at that pic is that I have WAY more personality than that bitch! She looks like a statue.
Call me BJ!
While it is just a show, I do get the feeling that some of these people might be eerily similar to their characters in real life.
Chris: Just not Creed, right? The real-life Creed Bratton can't be that creepy.
that's ceri from 30 rock. she's amazing. also creed was in the grassroots back in the day. you know that amazing band that sang 'midnight confessions.' so i doubt he's actually weird and creepy and has never owned a refrigerator.
I met him when he performed at my school. He came right from the airport and gave a great performance and stayed after and took pictures with whoever wanted to get one. He had index cards with his jokes on them which he "sold" to whoever got to him first and all the money went to the charity that sponsored his performance at our school.
I thought he would be super douchey before I met him, but honestly, I was pleasantly surprised.
BJ Novak resembles Ben? pffffffffft…WTFE!