Television
ByMichileen Martin/
When you get to know an actor in the role of a specific character on a specific TV show, it can be difficult to imagine her as anything else; even as herself. That can be particularly tough with actors from the American version of The Office —not only because the show was so well-loved, but because its giving actors and characters the same first names made it just a little bit tougher to separate the actor from the role.
For eight years, Angela Kinsey played Angela Martin on The Office — an unfriendly, tightly-wound accountant with creepy obsessions toward her small army of cats and her posters with babies dressed like adults. For nearly a decade, Angela ruled Dunder Mifflin's Party Planning Committee with an iron fist, fired her puritanical judgments towards anyone and everyone, and set aside her moral righteousness to set series favorites Dwight (Rainn Wilson) and Andy (Ed Helms) against one another.
Regardless of our expectations, Kinsey seems determined to not be typecast. In the years since the finale ofThe Office, Kinsey has starred in feature films, written and starred in shorts, starred in numerous television projects, baked a lot of brownies, gotten married, continued to be an ally to the kitties her Officecharacter adored, and made vending machine fashion famous.
She starred in Haters Back Off
Three years afterThe Officeclosed its doors, Angela Kinsey starred inHaters Back Off as Bethany, mother of the clueless and talentless Miranda Sings.
Haters Back Offwas Netflix's experiment in transforming a YouTube sensation into a scripted television show. Miranda Sings was the YouTube creation of Colleen Ballinger, whose millions of online followers had already gotten to know the arrogant and hopeless Sings long beforeHaters Back Offstarted streaming.
Ultimately, the experiment didn't last. After two seasons, 16 episodes, and mixed reviews that complained that the humor Miranda Sings fans had come to enjoy in "short bursts" lost its edge in the comparatively long half-hour installments,Haters Back Off was canceled.
But while critics may not have fallen in love withHaters Back Off, many singled out Kinsey's performance asthereason to watch. Robert Lloyd of theLos Angeles Timessaid Kinsey"owns the show," adding that she "takes the series from a twisted lark to something deeper and grander" and that her portrayal of Bethany was full of "sadness and hope and ragged dignity."
Understandably, Kinsey was pleased with the critical reaction. In 2016 she told Gold Derby, "It feels really great because I think a lot of times as a character actress — and that's what I am, a character actress, I've never been the leading lady — you sort of are in the background a little bit, so it's nice when the character actor gets to anchor a show emotionally."
Tying the knot - and not to Andy or Dwight
Getty Images
In August 2016, Kinsey announced on Instagram her engagement to her boyfriend Joshua Snyder. According to her account, Kinsey's then 8-year-old daughter Isabel told her she wanted to show Kinsey the fort she and Snyder's sons had made outside. Instead of a fort, a blanket was waiting by their pool. Snyder's sons brought her flowers and Snyder brought her an engagement ring. "The ring is an emerald," Kinsey wrote. "All three of our kids' birthstone."
The happy couple was married that November in Topanga, California. Guests were given custom copper mugs, and the wedding cake included a Lego cake topper created by their children.
Fans of The Office with goodmemories will either be disappointed or relieved to learn there were no reports of butter cow sculptures, anyactive slaughterhouses were stationed far from the wedding venue, and there wereno vows spoken in German in orderto foolthe brideinto involuntary union.
Helping alley cats
The Office'sAngela Martin's love of cats was inspired by Kinsey's own love for the animals. She regularly posts pictures of her own kitties to her Instagram account, but her generosity goes beyond showing how cute her cats are. Kinsey is a constant supporter of organizations and programs dedicated to helping cats. She's been an outspoken supporter of Friskies' charitable causes, as well as a champion for Alley Cat Allies.
In 2014, Kinsey told the blogI Have Catthat her work with charitable cat organizations started with what she was doing with her own free time. She said an old neighborhood of hers was crawling with stray cats, and that she would get them spayed and neutered before releasing them back into the neighborhood. "When I heard about Alley Cat Allies," Kinsey said, "it just seemed like a natural fit for what I was doing in my own neighborhood."
Kinsey also told the blog about how she brought her own love for cats into the creation of herOfficecharacter. "I actually improvised a line in the pilot where I invited everyone to a cat birthday party," she told the blog. She went so far as to pass out post-it note invites to the rest of the cast. Her line didn't make the final cut, but Pam (Jenna Fischer) mentioned it, and that survived.
Kinsey went on to say, "Brian [Baumgartner] (a.k.a. Kevin)taped his Post-It note invite onto the glass divider on his side of our desk pod and it stayed there for 9 years!"
Starring in a YouTube cooking show
In December 2016, Kinsey and husband Josh Snyder launched theirBaking With Josh & Angecooking show on YouTube.
The show was apparently Colleen Ballinger's idea, who gave it to the couple while Snyder was visiting Kinsey on the set ofHaters Back Off. Kinsey toldMashablethat her husband had brought her cookies, and this inspired Ballinger: "We were hanging out and Colleen was like, 'first of all, you guys are so cute,' and then said, 'I love baking channels you should do this, you should make a baking channel.'"
Though initially intimidated by the idea of having to deal with the necessary technology required for an Internet show,Kinsey and Snyder gave it a go and they seem to be doing pretty well.Baking With Josh & Angeboasts just a little under 50,000 subscribers — with 45 videos, and most of those ranging between 7 and 15 minutes long.
Making vegan brownies with Dwight
If you're used to thinking of Angela Kinsey as the stuck-up, self-righteous character she played on The Office, it's disarming and refreshing to see a much different personon Baking With Josh & Ange. And it might be even more refreshing, yet bizarre, to watch the YouTube show when Kinsey's TV husband baked with her alongside her real husband.
Rainn Wilson — a.k.a. The Office's Dwight Schrute– made a guest appearance on Baking With Josh & Ange in December 2017 to make somethingWilson's fictional counterpartwould absolutely choke on — vegan brownies.
Wilson told the pair it was only recently that he'd started eating vegan. It started out tough, he said, but ultimately he found he had more energy and slept better.
Though just a character, Dwight Schrute might be reaching out from the ether and manipulating Wilson just a bit. Wilson says in the video, "There was some cheese popcorn the other night and I had some. Or if I went to a sushi bar, I'll have, like, a piece of fish. I supplement my diet with cheese popcorn and occasional pieces of fish."
Judging by Wilson's facial expressions, the vegan brownie experiment may not have been a phenomenal success. Check out Wilson's face shortly after the 10-minute mark. He looks like he's about to angrily yell, "MICHAEL!"
Starring in The Hotwives of Orlando
With what Kinsey called "a super awesome roster of funny women"including Andrea Savage, Kristen Schaal, and Casey Wilson, Kinsey jumped on board for the Hulu Original mercilessReal Housewives parodyThe Hotwives of Orlando in 2014.
Kinsey's first season rolewas Crystal Simmons, an Orlando weather girl who considers herself a devout Christian but has never read the Bible because "it's written in Jewish." Kinsey told Collider, "I see Crystal as someone who approaches religion like it's a country club...She's not the sharpest tool in the shed.But she's a lot of fun."
In season 2, almost all the returning cast members assumed new roles with the Hotwives series transplanted to Las Vegas. Kinsey's new character was Stephanie, an uptight snob who created the "Anorexi-Yeah!" food line. Kinsey told the New York Post that in season 2, "I looked like a middle-aged hooker with a blazer."
Though according to the same interview it was co-star Andrea Savage, not Kinsey, who was genuinely mistaken for a hooker during filming — and propositionedby a casino patron. Savage told the hopeful customer, "Thank you, but no."
Starring in short films
Maybeworking on Baking With Josh & Ange along with Haters Back Off — a show based on much shorter YouTubevideos — has attuned Kinsey to shorter pieces, because one of the worlds she's been exploring since the end of The Office is the world of short film.
In 2016, she wrote and starred in Blacked Out.Directed and produced by Andres Angladewith a runtime of 13 minutes, the short film tells the story of a couple's crazy night during a citywide blackout. Kinsey's real-life husband Josh Snyder plays her partner, and the pair each have very different versions of the night's events. Seen on the teaser, fellow Office alumnus Creed Bratton also appears in Blacked Out.
The other short, Sherry, was released in 2018; Kinsey stars as the main character.Directed by Mary Gulino, Sherry is about"an unassuming receptionist at a dance studio" and the day she "seizes the opportunity to 'be brave.'"
Making a vending machine jacket famous
Apparently, you can buy clothes from vending machines now. You may not have known that, but Angela Kinsey did.
In March 2018, Kinsey posted a video and multiple shots of herselfon her Instagram account, announcing that she had bought a jacket from an airport vending machine.
Kinsey's followers and fans were so tickled by this that one actually created an Instagram account just for the jacket. The jacket's account has close to 30,000 followers — including, of course, Kinsey herself. So if you're ever feeling like you need a little humiliation, just remember — unless your Instagram account is also followed by tens of thousands — there are at least 30,000 people in the world who like a jacket more than they like you.
Kinsey seems just as entertained by the strangely-gotten jacket as her fans, and she isn't shy about capitalizing on its fame. She's continued to post pictures of herself online in the jacket at every opportunity. And one edition of Baking With Josh & Ange featured their new creation — vending machine jacket cookies.
Soon she'll be hating you
The world got to know Angela Kinsey from a workplace comedy sitcom, and anyone who missed that one is about to get another chance. In the meantime, Kinsey's about to learn selling paper in Scranton might not be the worst job in the world.
Days before Kinsey made her jacket famous, it was announced she would costar opposite Kat Denningsin a pilot for a new workplace comedy ensemble written by Brooklyn Nine-Nine writer Justin Noble and directed by Will Gluck.
Though no title has been released, the pilot — which was wrapped in 2018 — is based on the blog (and subsequent book) How May We Hate You?The blog and book were written by Anna Drezen and Todd Dakotah Briscoe — two hotel concierges who blogged about the unseen, frustratingside of hotel life. Kinsey was cast in the role of Dana, a "kind hotel employee" who is burdened with "the worst luck of all time." Dennings will play Ellie, who is forced to constantlyhide her contempt from the disgustingly wealthy guests.
