Nick Offerman on Auditioning for ‘The Office’ Pre ‘Parks and Rec,’ and Scoring Emmy Noms for ‘Death by Lightning’ and ‘Margo’s Got Money Troubles’

Nick Offerman is one of the great character actors of our time.

The 56-year-old is best known for playing Ron Swanson, the director of the Pawnee Parks and Recreation Department (and a man who hates government and loves bacon), on the beloved comedy series Parks and Recreation, which ran on NBC for seven seasons spanning 2009 through 2015, and for which he won the Television Critics Association’s Award for Individual Achievement in Comedy in 2011.

Since that show came to an end, he has been busy with a wide variety of other projects, from co-hosting, with his Parks and Rec costar Amy Poehler, the NBC craft competition show Making It (2018-2021), for which he received three Emmy noms for best host for a reality competition program, to giving a heartbreaking dramatic turn on the first season of the HBO drama series The Last of Us (2023), for which he won the best guest actor in a drama series Emmy.

But never has he had a year quite like the past one, during which he played key supporting roles on two major TV projects, garnering Emmy nominations for both. He is up for best supporting actor in a comedy series for Apple TV’s Margo’s Got Money Troubles, on which he plays a former wrestler trying to reintegrate into the life of his daughter; and best supporting actor in a limited or anthology series or movie for Netflix’s Death by Lightning, on which he plays a corrupt drunk who winds up as vice president of the United States.

Over the course of a conversation at the L.A. offices of The Hollywood Reporter, Offerman reflected on the people who shaped the person and artist he is today, from his mentor, Shozo Sato, to his wife of 26 years, actress Megan Mullally; how he landed on the radar of the creators of Parks and Rec back when they were still focused on their earlier show, the American version of The Office, and what the subsequent monthslong casting process for Parks and Rec was like for him; why, post-Parks and Rec, he yearned to play parts very different from Ron Swanson, and how he found them in The Last of Us, Death by Lightning and Margo’s Got Money Troubles; plus more.