Nick Offerman

Nick Offerman: biography

Nick Offerman is an American actor, writer, producer, director and comedian who was quite seriously professionally engaged in the wood processing in his young years. Offerman is known to the public due to his role of Ron Swanson in the sitcom Parks and Recreation for which he received the prize of Association of TV critics for his achievements in this comedy. The filmography of the actor includes tens of roles, and he enriches it every year.

Childhood and youth

The future actor was born on the 26th of June, 1970 in the city of Joliet, in Illinois. He spent his childhood in the suburbs of Chicago in Minooka where his parents moved when the boy was very small. His father Ric Offerman worked as a teacher at high school, and his mother Cathy Roberts worked as a nurse. In their family, there were three more children.

The grandfather Ray Offerman –a person with an amazing sense of humor. Has played an important role in the biography of the future actor. In childhood, the boy spent a lot of time on his grandfather's farm where he learned to work the land and to hold the carpenter's tools in his arms. While studying at high school, Nick played the saxophone, went in for sports and was engaged in the dramatic arts.

Having graduated from the school in 1989, he entered the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign and began to study the dramatic arts professionally. Here he had not only to demonstrate his acting talents, but also his carpenter’s skills which he had acquired on his grandfather's farm. The young man took part in the plays and sometimes he even made stage prop and scenery.

Having received a Bachelor’s degree in Arts in 1993 Offerman moved to Chicago with a couple of his friends. Here he has founded an experimental Defiant Theatre. They didn't earn enough from the performances, and to pay the bills the young man was working as a carpenter and gave choreography lessons.

Movies

In 1996 the beginning actor performed in two scenes of the thriller Chain Reaction with Keanu Reeves and Morgan Freeman in the main roles. Later the scenes with Offerman's participation were cut out, but he anyway received the fee for these scenes. This sum turned out to be more than the carpenter's earnings. As a benefit for this shooting, the actor was included into Screen Actors Guild.

In 1997 the actor took part in the episode of the series ER and the movie Forever Lulu. In the last film, he was working on the same movie set with Ben Affleck. The director of the movie Mark Pellington has estimated the potential of the aspiring actor and made him move to Hollywood to begin his movie career.

After the relocation to Los Angeles Offerman began to earn with the acting not at once and continued to make his living with the help of the carpenter's job. In 1998 the actor appeared in the episode of the remake of the movie Wings of Desire directed by Wim Wenders - City of Angels. Nicholas Cage and Meg Ryan have played the leading roles in the movie.

In 2002 Nick appeared in the episodic role of the officer in the thriller Murder by Numbers directed by Barbet Schroeder. He was working on the same movie set with the following movie stars: Sandra Bullock, Ben Chaplin, Ryan Gosling, Michael Pitt. The picture is partly based on real events.

All this time Offerman was shooting in a couple of the series at the same time. In 2003 he appeared in the role of the plumber in Will & Grace, in three episodes of 24, in The West Wing and The King of Queens. In 2004 the actor performed the role of Tom Mason in the episode of Deadwood. During the next years, the actor was engaged in the following series: Monk, Gilmore Girls, CSI: NY and others.

The actor received episodic roles until the moment when in 2009 the producers of The Office - Michael Schur and Greg Daniels offered Offerman regular though the secondary role in the series in the pseudo-documentary style under the title of Parks and Recreation.

According to the plot the actions take place in the fictional city of Pawnee, Indiana where there live the employees of the Department of Parks and Recreation. Nick performs the role of Ron Swanson – the parks director. Also, Amy Poehler, Rashida Jones, Aziz Ansari, Aubrey Plaza, Paul Schneider, and other actors played the roles in this series.

In 2012 the actor was offered to play the role of the Deputy chief Hardy in the picture 21 Jump Street. He successfully performed this role. In 2014 Offerman was working in the second season of the series Fargo. Coen brothers became producers and inspirers of this movie. In leading roles acted: Billy Bob Thornton, Martin Freeman, Kirsten Dunst, Ewan McGregor, and others.

Except for the roles in movies and series, the actor appears in the commercials. So, in 2015 and 2016 I he took part in the advertising company of whiskey. He was sipping the alcoholic drink from Lagavulin in the video from the series My Whisky Stories.

Personal life

Personal life of Offerman is tied with the comedy actress Megan Mullally. They got acquainted during the working process on the play The Berlin Circle. In 2003 they got married. It was love at first sight but from the part of Nick. Megan confessed that earlier she had love affairs with strong brutal men, who were rock drummers. And then all of a sudden she fell in love with her colleague.

Megan is 11 years younger than Nick. This fact makes the actor catch up with her in the professional sphere as well as in the personal. The spouses try not to leave each other for more than two weeks and consider this the secret of their happy marriage. They often pose together for Instagram photos.

"We are a couple who enjoys doing something together. When we do something, whether we are acting on the stage or writing a book lying in bed – it gives us pleasure and comfort", - Mullally and Offerman have told in one of the interviews.

In October of 2018, they have presented their joint book The Greatest Love Story Ever Told: An Oral History. In this book, they told their love story and disclosed some secrets of the happy marriage.

Nick Offerman at present

At the beginning of October 2018, there was premiered the thriller Anything Good in Bad Times at the El Royale in which Offerman performed the role of the dead criminal Felix O'Kelly. Jeff Bridges, Dakota Johnson, Jonah Hemma, Chris Hemsworth and other American actors appeared in the leading roles in this movie.

At present, the actor is engaged in a couple of projects. There was officially announced that he would participate in the shooting of the series Devs directed by Alex Garland. Offerman will play the role of Forrest – a mysterious leader of the confidential division. Except for him, Sonoya Mizuno, Stephen Henderson, Cailee Spaeny, Jin Ha and Alison Peele were included in the cast. The premiere is set for 2019.

Besides, the actor is working on the mini-series of Amazon Prime Video under the titles Good Omens which will be premiered in 2019. Offerman will embody the image of the American attache and the father of the child who is considered to be Antichrist. By the words of the actor, he couldn't refuse to take part in the shootings as he adores Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman's novel by which this series was shot.

Filmography

• 1997 – Forever Lulu
• 1997 – ER
• 1998 – City of Angels
• 1999 – The West Wing
• 2001 – Will & Grace
• 2005 – Miss Congeniality 2: Armed & Fabulous
• 2003 – 24
• 2009 – the Men Who Stare at Goats
• 2012 – 21 Jump Street
• 2015 – Fargo
• 2018 – Bad Times at the El Royale

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