Paul Bevan Lieberstein (born February 22, 1967) is an American

actor An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is (), li ...

screenwriter A screenplay writer (also called screenwriter, scriptwriter, scribe or scenarist) is a writer who practices the craft of screenwriting, writing screenplays on which mass media, such as films, television programs and video games, are based. ...

television director A television director is in charge of the activities involved in making a television program or section of a program. They are generally responsible for decisions about the editorial content and creative style of a program, and ensuring the prod ...

and

television producer A television producer is a person who oversees one or more aspects of video production on a television show, television program. Some producers take more of an executive role, in that they conceive new programs and pitch them to the television net ...

. A

Primetime Emmy Award The Primetime Emmy Awards, or Primetime Emmys, are part of the extensive range of Emmy Awards for artistic and technical merit for the American television industry. Bestowed by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS), the Primetime ...

winner, he is best known as writer, as executive producer, and as supporting cast member

Toby Flenderson ''The Office'' is an American television series based on the British television comedy of the same name. The format of the series is a parody of the fly on the wall documentary technique that intersperses traditional situation comedy segments w ...

on the NBC sitcom ''

The Office ''The Office'' is a mockumentary sitcom created by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, first made in the United Kingdom, then Germany, and subsequently the United States. It has since been remade in ten other countries. The original series of ...

''. He served as the series'

showrunner A showrunner (or colloquially a helmer) is the top-level executive producer of a television series production who has creative and management authority through combining the responsibilities of employer and, in comedy or dramas, typically also th ...

from seasons

five 5 is a number, numeral, and glyph. 5, five or number 5 may also refer to: * AD 5, the fifth year of the AD era * 5 BC, the fifth year before the AD era Literature * ''5'' (visual novel), a 2008 visual novel by Ram * ''5'' (comics), an awa ...

to eight.

Early life

Lieberstein grew up in

West Hartford, Connecticut West Hartford is a town in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States, west of downtown Hartford, Connecticut, Hartford. The population was 64,083 at the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. The town's popular downtown area is colloquially ...

, the son of Judith and Stanley Lieberstein.New York Times
New York Times Wedding Announcement He is

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

. He attended

Conard High School Frederick U. Conard High School is a public high school in West Hartford, in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It opened in 1957, and was named after Frederick Underwood Conard, president of Niles-Bement-Pond Company and chairman of the local Board o ...

where he wrote his first sitcom with some friends and played the vibraphone in band. He then attended

Hamilton College Hamilton College is a private liberal arts college in Clinton, Oneida County, New York. It was founded as Hamilton-Oneida Academy in 1793 and was chartered as Hamilton College in 1812 in honor of inaugural trustee Alexander Hamilton, following ...

, where he joined

Chi Psi Chi Psi () is a fraternity consisting of active chapters (known as "Alphas") at 33 American colleges and universities. The mission of Chi Psi is to create and maintain an enduring society which encourages the sharing of traditions and values, res ...

and graduated in 1989 with a major in economics (he "wanted to be a

financier An investor is a person who allocates financial capital with the expectation of a future return (profit) or to gain an advantage (interest). Through this allocated capital most of the time the investor purchases some species of property. Type ...

of some kind"). Lieberstein wrote references to the fact that ''Office'' character

Andy Bernard Andrew Baines Bernard is a fictional character from the NBC comedy television series ''The Office (U.S. TV series), The Office'', portrayed by Ed Helms. He is introduced in Season 3 as the Regional Director in Charge of Sales at the Stamford br ...

was a

from

Cornell Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...

into the storyline of several episodes of the show. After college, Lieberstein moved to New York City, where his first job was as an auditor at Peat Marwick International, a job that lasted six months. He followed that with part-time work at his father's law firm, "working as little as ecould so ecould write".

Career

Lieberstein and a writing partner got an agent with William Morris and moved to

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

, living just off

Hollywood Boulevard Hollywood Boulevard is a major east–west street in Los Angeles, California. It begins in the east at Sunset Boulevard in the Los Feliz district and proceeds to the west as a major thoroughfare through Little Armenia and Thai Town, Hollywoo ...

. He landed his first writing job on ''

Clarissa Explains It All ''Clarissa Explains It All'' is an American teen sitcom created by Mitchell Kriegman for Nickelodeon. In the series, Clarissa Darling ( Melissa Joan Hart), is a teenager who addresses the audience directly to explain the things that are happenin ...

'', but was fired after one season when he and his writing partner split up. Lieberstein then had short stints in a few other writer rooms, including '' Weird Science'' and '' The Naked Truth'', before his brother-in-law

Greg Daniels Gregory Martin Daniels (born June 13, 1963) is an American screenwriter, television producer, and director. He has worked on several television series, including writing for ''Saturday Night Live'' and ''The Simpsons'', adapting ''The Office'' f ...

asked him to join the ''

King of the Hill ''King of the Hill'' is an American animated sitcom created by Mike Judge and Greg Daniels for the Fox Broadcasting Company. It aired its original non-syndicated run from January 12, 1997, to September 13, 2009, and centers on the Hills, an Am ...

'' staff. Lieberstein served as a co-executive producer for 25 episodes in Season 6 of ''

The Drew Carey Show ''The Drew Carey Show'' is an American television sitcom that aired on ABC from September 13, 1995 to September 8, 2004. Set in Cleveland, Ohio, the series revolved around the retail office and home life of "everyman" Drew Carey, a fictionalize ...

'', and also served as a supervising producer for two episodes in that season: the season opening "Drew Pops Something on Kate" (which he also wrote, along with "Drew and the Motorcycle" and "Drew and the Activist, Part I"), and "Buzzie Wuzzie Liked His Beer". Lieberstein also worked as producer on the third and final season of the television drama series '' The Newsroom''. In November 2017, it was announced that he would replace

Kevin Etten Kevin Etten is an American screenwriter and television producer. He began his career as a writer for ''The Late Show with David Letterman'', and then moved on to be the screenwriter and producer for notable television series including ''Reaper' ...

as showrunner of '' Ghosted''. In 2018, Lieberstein wrote and directed his first feature film, '' Song of Back and Neck'', which made it into

Tribeca Film Festival The Tribeca Festival is an annual film festival organized by TriBeCa Productions, Tribeca Productions. It takes place each spring in New York City, showcasing a diverse selection of film, episodic, talks, music, games, art, and immersive progra ...

. On April 3, 2020, he announced plans for a sitcom about office life while isolated due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

; the project eventually became the television film '' Out of Office''.

''The Office''

On June 12, 2008, ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' magazine reported that Lieberstein would become one of the

executive producer Executive producer (EP) is one of the top positions in the making of a commercial entertainment product. Depending on the medium, the executive producer may be concerned with management accounting or associated with legal issues (like copyrights o ...

s of ''The Office''. He worked in the writer's room from the start of the US adaptation and was asked by Greg Daniels to act as well, as Daniels wanted some of the writers to know what it was like on the other side of the camera. Lieberstein has said he "attended 'The Office' acting school" and was often thrown by

Steve Carell Steven John Carell (; born August 16, 1962) is an American actor and comedian. He played Michael Scott in ''The Office'' (2005–2011; 2013), NBC’s adaptation of the British series created by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, where Ca ...

's improv during scenes. On March 22, 2012, it was announced that Lieberstein would step down from his showrunner role to focus on a planned spin-off series featuring

Rainn Wilson Rainn Percival Dietrich Wilson (born January 20, 1966) is an American actor, comedian, podcaster, producer, and writer. He is best known for his role as Dwight Schrute on the NBC sitcom ''The Office'', for which he earned three consecutive Emm ...

as Dwight Schrute, tentatively called '' The Farm''. Lieberstein was set to be the showrunner, but in October 2012, it was announced that NBC was not accepting the series. In a

SuicideGirls SuicideGirls is an online community-based website that revolves around pin-up photography sets of models known as the Suicide Girls. The website was founded in 2001 by Selena Mooney ("Missy Suicide") and Sean Suhl ("Spooky"). Most of the site ...

interview, Lieberstein said that "as an actor, which is just a very small percentage of me, I don’t feel Toby while I’m writing. It’s the hardest of the characters to access".2006 interview with Paul Lieberstein
by Daniel Robert Epstein, at the

website In an interview for his alma mater, Hamilton College, he commented on the bigger picture:Roll Credits
, a profile of Lieberstein from the

website

Personal life

Lieberstein's sister Susanne was the president of programming for

YouTube Premium YouTube Premium (formerly Music Key and YouTube Red) is a subscription service offered by the video platform YouTube. The service provides ad-free access to content across the service, as well as access to premium YouTube Originals programming ...

(previously holding this position at MTV), and is married to screenwriter and producer

. His brother,

Warren Lieberstein Warren Keith Lieberstein (born September 20, 1968) is an American writer and producer. He has worked on shows such as ''Carpoolers'' and ''The Office'', to which he has extensive ties. He is the younger brother of Paul Lieberstein, the show's fo ...

, was married to his co-star

Angela Kinsey Angela Faye Kinsey (born June 25, 1971) is an American actress. She played Angela Martin in the sitcom ''The Office'' (2005–2013) and appeared in the sitcoms '' Your Family or Mine'' (2015) and ''Haters Back Off'' (2016–2017). Since ''The ...

. His cousin, Paul Faust, inspired and portrayed "Cool Guy Paul", as seen in ''

'' episode " Chair Model". Lieberstein was married for a second time, to Janine Serafin Poreba, on July 19, 2008, at the New York City restaurant Battery Gardens. They reside in the Brentwood neighborhood of

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

. Lieberstein has served on the advisory board of directors for

Young Storytellers Young Storytellers, formerly widely known as the Young Storytellers Foundation, is an arts education non-profit operating primarily in Los Angeles. Young Storytellers currently serves elementary, middle, and high school students in Southern Califor ...

, an arts education nonprofit organization based in Los Angeles.

Awards

Lieberstein's first Emmy Award was as a producer, sharing a 1999 Emmy for " Outstanding Animated Program (For Programming One Hour or Less)" for his work in ''

''. Lieberstein's work on ''The Office'' has resulted in numerous awards. In June 2007, Lieberstein shared in a

Daytime Emmy Award The Daytime Emmy Awards, or Daytime Emmys, are part of the extensive range of Emmy Awards for artistic and technical merit for the American television industry. Bestowed by the New York–based National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences ...

for "Outstanding Broadband Program – Comedy", for his work on ''The Office: Accountants'' webisodes. As an actor, Lieberstein shared in a 2006 Screen Actors Guild Award for "Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series"; as a writer, he shared a 2006 Writers Guild of America Award for the series, in addition to a WGA Award nomination for "The Coup". As co-executive producer, he shared a 2006

Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

for "Outstanding Comedy Series". Lieberstein received an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts degree from Hamilton College on May 22, 2011.

Filmography

Acting

Directing

Writing

Producing

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lieberstein, Paul 1967 births American male screenwriters American male television actors Television producers from New York (state) American television directors American television writers Living people Male actors from Connecticut People from Westport, Connecticut Hamilton College (New York) alumni Emmy Award winners Daytime Emmy Award winners Writers Guild of America Award winners 21st-century American male actors American male television writers Jewish American male actors Screenwriters from Connecticut Screenwriters from New York (state) Staples High School alumni 21st-century American screenwriters 21st-century American male writers Jewish American screenwriters 20th-century American screenwriters 20th-century American male writers Television producers from Connecticut 21st-century American Jews