Rainn Wilson

With his deadpan comic style, this stage-trained actor evoked painful laughter as a pompous assistant on the Emmy-winning sitcom The Office. Before snagging his seminal gig, Wilson spent a number of years on stage tackling Shakespeare roles, working at some of the country's most prestigious regional theaters as well as on Broadway. In the late '90s, he began popping up in small film parts and TV guest spots, usually as odd or eccentric characters, until a recurring role as a mortician trainee on the lauded HBO drama Six Feet Under solidified his status as a funny, if creepy, guy. In 2005, he not only landed on The Office, but he also made his directorial debut with the short film The New Bozena, based on a clown and sketch show he had previously done off-Broadway. Wilson eventually segued his small-screen success into big-screen roles, playing the lead in The Rocker and voicing the villainous alien in Monsters vs. Aliens. He also launched the website SoulPancake.com, a forum for open discussion on a range of topics. ~ Rovi