Benjamin Joseph Manaly Novak [ 1 ] born July 31, [ 2 ] is an American actor, comedian, screenwriter, and producer. Novak is known for starring as Ryan Howard in the NBC sitcom The Office — , for which he was also a writer and executive producer. He appeared in the films Inglourious Basterds , Saving Mr. Banks and The Founder He made his directorial debut in with the dark comedy thriller Vengeance , which he also wrote and starred in. Novak also appeared in The Mindy Project — and The Newsroom , and was the creator and executive producer of Hulu anthology series The Premise Novak graduated from Harvard University in , where he was a member of the Harvard Lampoon.
He majored in English and Spanish literature, and wrote his honors thesis on the films of Shakespeare's Hamlet. Show with fellow Harvard student B. His first live stand-up performance was at the Hollywood Youth Hostel on October 10, Novak's television acting career began on MTV 's Punk'd. An image of Novak entered the public domain as a stock photo and has been used on various international products, reportedly including a particular type of Calvin Klein cologne in Sweden.
After hearing Novak's opening joke at a comedy club, executive producer Greg Daniels decided he "wanted to do something with him. Novak's character goes through ups and downs throughout his work career and has an on-and-off relationship with Kelly Kapoor Mindy Kaling.
Novak was also a producer and writer on the show; he and Kaling, Greg Daniels, Michael Schur and Paul Lieberstein were its original writers. On July 21, , news reports indicated Novak had signed a contract to remain with the show for its seventh and eighth seasons. Under the new terms, he would be made an executive producer midway through Season 7, and would direct two episodes. He left The Office after the ninth-season premiere, "New Guys", but returned to guest-star in the series' final episode.
In a podcast interview on Dax Shepard 's show, he confirmed that he had been offered the Season 9 showrunner position, but declined it because he decided that his "fire for the job had burned out", and it was time for him to move on to other projects. Novak and his fellow "The Office" writers and producers were nominated five consecutive times for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series, from to Sometimes when this feels too good to be true, I think that if this were all a dream, that would be what should have tipped me off.
