Nick Offerman Bio: In His Own Words – Video Exclusive, News, Age, Photos

Nick Offerman, an American actor, comedian and writer, is best known for his role as Ron Swanson on NBC’s Parks and Recreation.

NICK OFFERMAN BIO: AGE, EARLY LIFE AND EDUCATION

Offerman was born in Joilet, Illinois on June 26, 1970 (age: 51), but raised in Minooka, Illinois by his mother Cathy, a nurse, and father Rick, a middle school social studies teacher. He has two sisters, Carrie and Laurie, and a brother named Matt, who were all raised Catholic. The family lived comfortably in their middle-class upbringing. Offerman is of English, Irish, German, Swiss-German and other European descendences.

Ray Offerman, his grandfather, owned a farm where Offerman spent a lot of time as a kid. There he learned how to work the land and use tools. Additionally, Offerman credits his grandfather, who was a natural comedian and a local mayor of his town, as his greatest comedic influence.

In high school, Offerman played the saxophone and a couple of different sports. He graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign in 1993, where he earned his bachelor’s of fine arts in acting. The same year, Offerman co-founded Defiant Theatre, which was a Chicago-based experimental theatre company before it disbanded in 2004. However, it was named Best Experimental Theatre by Chicago Magazine in 1999.

During college, Offerman made ends meet by using his carpentry skills to create props for local theater houses and installing roofing.

NICK OFFERMAN BIO: CAREERS IN ACTING, WRITING, CARPENTRY

Offerman’s first big break was his role as Ron Swanson in Parks and Recreation, which ran from 2009 to 2015, but it took years of smaller gigs to get there. He’s known to play masculine characters, deliver jokes with an expressionless face, surprise others with smooth dance moves and of course, for the mustache.

In 1996, Offerman landed his first small-time role in the movie Chain Reaction, starring Keanu Reeves and Morgan Freeman. His two scenes were cut from the final production, but Offerman received much better pay than what he received doing carpentry and roofing. Also, the role helped him earn his Screen Actors Guild card, a worldwide union leadership for film and television principals and background performers.

The next year, Offerman secured another small role in the movie Going All the Way, starring Ben Affleck. The director of the film was impressed with Offerman’s talent and pushed him to move to Los Angeles to officially start his career. When Offerman arrived, he continued his carpentry to help pay bills while performing guest stints on ER, 24, Gilmore Girls, The King of Queens, Will & Grace and The West Wing. 

In 2004, Offerman auditioned to play Michael Scott in The Office. The role was given to Steve Carell, but one of the producers, Michael Schur, kept Offerman in mind for future roles. Five years later, Schur launched his own show, Parks and Recreation, and granted Offerman his role as the libertarian Ron Swanson, director of the parks and recreation department of the fictional town of Pawnee, Indiana.

Since landing a spot on the cast of Parks and Recreation, Offerman has done work in adult swim Children’s Hospital, The Simpsons, Bob’s Burgers among many others. Additionally, Offerman was the voice of Metalbeard in The Lego Movie (2014) and Gavin in Ice Age: Collision Course (2016). Offerman acted in and produced the movie Somebody Up There Likes Me (2012).

He will be co-hosting an unscripted reality craft competition show with Amy Poehler. The series is to be premiered on July 31, 2018, on NBC.

Offerman has released three quasi-autobiographical books. In 2013, Paddle Your Own Canoe: One Man’s Fundamentals for Delicious Living was published. Gumption: Relighting the Torch of Freedom with America’s Gutsiest Troublemakers, the sequel to Paddle Your Own Canoe, hit the stands in 2015. Offerman’s most recent book, Good Clean Fun: Misadventures in Sawdust at Offerman Woodshop was published in 2016. This one takes a look at his experiences and passion for carpentry at the woodshop he opened in East Los Angeles. Additionally, it includes step-by-step instructions on how to construct wood projects with pictures that Offerman refers to as “wood porn.” Offerman and his wife Megan Mullally recently collaborated on a book titled The Greatest Love Story Ever Told to be released on October 2, 2018.

Even with his success in Hollywood, Offerman clearly never abandoned his passion for carpentry. He opened Offerman Woodshop, where he and his team produce handcrafted furniture, pinball machines, canoes as well as other fun items.

NICK OFFERMAN BIO: RECOGNITION

Offerman has received several awards during his acting career. He earned Television Critics Association Award for Individual Achievement in Comedy for his performance on Parks and Recreation in 2011. Additionally, he won the Behind the Voice Actors Award for Best Vocal Ensemble in a Feature Film for The Lego Movie (2014) with his cast.

Also, Offerman was nominated for the Critics’ Choice Television Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Movie/Miniseries for his performance on FX’s Fargo. He was nominated five years in a row for the Gold Derby Award for Comedy Supporting Actor for his performance on Parks and Recreation. 

NICK OFFERMAN EXCLUSIVE VIDEO ‘HEARTS BEAT LOUD’

Nick Offerman and Brett Haley sat down with uInterview to discuss Offerman’s leading role, which was written specifically for him, in the film Hearts Beat Loud.

Offerman described his role in the film, which centers on a father and daughter songwriting duo.

“I play Frank Fisher, I am rather sad, I own a failing vinyl store in Redhook Brooklyn. I’m the single dad of a very beautiful, talented daughter. We jam we have jam sessions playing music around the house. My mother is also in the movie played by Blythe Danner, and we have a relationship that’s becoming strained because she’s starting to show signs of dementia a little bit.”

Offerman said he admires the way Haley, one of the producers, writes scripts for the supporting characters in his films.

“Something I love about Brett’s movies, of which I’ve seen three now, is he treats his supporting characters really generously — so he doesn’t just write a bus driver with a couple lines,” Offerman said. “Everybody has something to chew on, you know? So when you do that, when you write real, fleshed out characters, then you can get talent of that level to show up.”

Hearts Beat Loud will be in theaters on June 8, 2018.

Offerman also revealed the moment he realized he enjoyed entertaining an audience. As an altar boy in at the Catholic church in his hometown, he was carrying the wine when he gave a “review” of it through his facial expression, to which the crowd laughed.

“I thought, ‘Oh, that was pretty enjoyable when I did something and made everyone laugh,'” Offerman said.

However, being from a small town his dreams were often shut down.

“I grew up in a rather cultural vacuum, small town in Illinois in the 70s and 80s, so even when I became aware by doing plays at school that I wanted to be an actor, the world told me ‘you really can’t get there from here,'” Offerman said. “But I knew that was something I really wanted to do, so I managed to blaze a trail from my town to the stages of Chicago.”

NICK OFFERMAN: WIFE MEGAN MULLALLY, SOCIAL MEDIA, QUOTES

Offerman married Megan Mullally, an actress who plays Karen Walker on Will & Grace, on September 20, 2003. He guest-starred on Will & Grace in 2001 and again in 2018. The two went on a live comedy tour in 2016 where they used their sex life as humorous material.

Offerman is currently 47-years-old and is 5’11” tall. He’s on Instagram as @nickofferman and Twitter as @Nick_Offerman.

Quotes:

“Megan and I agree that successful dancing is 99 percent the face you make. If you’re at a wedding reception and you’re dancing like a maniac on the dance floor? As long as you’re making the right face, no one will fault you. If you’re taking yourself too seriously, that’s when you can look like a jackass. Even then, I would highly recommend making a jackass of yourself over sitting at your table wishing you were working it out to Kool & The Gang.”

“Something about stentorian authority figures has always made me laugh. I also noticed that lots of the performers I was working with had a big, obnoxious energy that I quickly realized I could never match – and that when they finally finished being loud, with one well-placed remark I could also achieve some sort of comic victory.”

“Make the rest of your life happy. For me, when I started dating Megan, my auditions became so much better, because I knew that when I came home from the audition I got to kiss her. I didn’t give a damn about the audition nearly as much, and that gave me a sense of confidence.”