B.J. Novak
Biography
Born in Newton, Massachusetts, B. J. Novak is an American comedian, actor, writer, and producer who began in stand-up after graduating from Harvard, where he contributed to the Harvard Lampoon. Variety named him one of its Ten Comedians To Watch in 2003, and that same year he started appearing on MTV's Punk'd. His breakout role came as Ryan Howard on the NBC sitcom The Office, on which he also wrote and produced; for that work he received two Screen Actors Guild Awards, a Writers Guild of America Award, and five Emmy nominations for comedy series. He went on to appear in films such as Reign Over Me (2007), Inglourious Basterds (2009), Saving Mr. Banks (2013), The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014), and The Founder (2016). Novak created the anthology series The Premise (2021), made his feature directing debut with Vengeance (2022), and wrote the books One More Thing and The Book with No Pictures.
47years old
Turns 48 on July 31in 263 days
- Born Newton
- Star sign: LeoThe sign runs July 23 to August 22
- Benjamin Joseph Manaly Novak (birth name)Also credited as B. J. Manaly Novak and Benjamin Joseph Manaly
Movie Career
- Films
- 8
- Career span
- 20 years2006 to 2026
Genres
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First role
B.J. Novak's first live stand-up performance took place at the Hollywood Youth Hostel on October 10, 2001, after he moved to Los Angeles following Harvard.
First role
Novak started his television acting work on MTV's Punk'd, serving as Ashton Kutcher's lead accomplice during the show's 2003 second season and pranking Hilary Duff, Rachael Leigh Cook, Usher and Mýa.
A role that slipped away
Novak departed The Office following the ninth-season premiere, "New Guys", yet he came back to guest-star in the series finale. On a 2021 podcast, he said he turned down the season 9 showrunner job because his "fire for the job had burned out".
Behind the camera
Novak is credited with writing 15 episodes, among them "Diversity Day" and "Local Ad", which were nominated by the Writers Guild of America.
A first
As of January 2021, Novak's The Book with No Pictures had been on the New York Times Best Seller Picture Books List for 174 weeks, and 34 of those weeks were at number one.
B.J. Novak movies on Netflix
Best known for
The films on Netflix they are best known for, with the part played in each.
Worked with
B.J. Novak shares two films with Paul Giamatti, and one with each of the others. Pick a number on the chart or a name in the list to see the films they share.
Films together
Paul Giamatti's page
Donald Sutherland's page
Stanley Tucci's page
Tom Hanks's page
Meryl Streep's page
David Koechner's page
John Lee HancockDirector, 2 films, 2013 to 2016
All films by John Lee Hancock
Box office
What B.J. Novak's films earned in cinemas worldwide.
Combined worldwide box office
$1.9 billion
8 of the 8 films have a worldwide figure.
Of the 8 films: 8 worldwide figure.
- 8Worldwide figure
Highest grossing
The eight biggest films earned 100% of the total. The bars are drawn to scale.
- 1$717M37.4% of the total
- 2$691M36.1% of the total
- 3$321M16.8% of the total
- 4$113M5.9% of the total
- 5$24M1.3% of the total
- 6$22M1.2% of the total
- 7$22M1.1% of the total
- 8$4.2M0.2% of the total
Awards
One award and honor.
| Year | Award | Film | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Other honors | |||
| Writers Guild of America Award | Won | ||
Online
Official profiles and reference pages.