Angela Kinsey plays the part of Angela Martin on the NBC hit show The Office. Angela Martin is the head of the accounting department for paper distributor Dunder Mifflin. Angela is often portrayed as judgmental, uptight, prudish and against lifestyles that go against her Christian belief’s. Angela frowns upon all frivolous activity in the office and is openly vocal about her disapproval of office receptionist Pam Beesly’s flirtation with coworker Jim Halpert. But despite all of that, Angela is in a secret relationship with Dwight Schrute that the pair go out of their way to mask. Angela also has a thing for posters of babies playing musical instruments, which Kinsey actually finds a little disturbing in real life.
Kinsey was born on June 25th 1971 in Lafayette, Louisiana. When Angela was 2 her family moved to Jakarta, Indonesia where they would live for twelve years. When Angela was 14 her family moved back to the United States and settled in Archer City, Texas. From her time living in Indonesia Angela was able to pick up Indonesian as a second language. She enjoys using her second language to talk to her sister’s when they don’t want anyone else to know what they are saying.
After graduating from high school Angela attended Baylor University in Waco, where she was a member of the Chi Omega sorority.
Some of Angela’s favorite things to do in her off time is spend a lot of time with her fellow cast members and have her own version of The Office get togethers. She said in an interview that she was always impressed with the way the cast members of Friends spent so much time together off set and she wanted to incorporate that same relationship with her fellow cast members. On a personal note she has become best friends with fellow cast mate Jenna Fischer, who plays Pam. Angela also enjoys shopping, a lot, and was proud of getting a dress she wore to the Emmy’s at the mall for $163. Kinsey also enjoys updating her MySpace blog with behind-the-scenes anecdotes of upcoming episodes of the series for the fans.
Kinsey started her acting career with parts in theater shows in and around Archer City, Texas. In 1994 she was accepted as Max Weinberg’s intern on Late Night With Conan O’Brien, and while in New York City for 2 years she took acting lessons. Around 1997 Angela moved to Los Angeles in the hopes of making it in Hollywood, but for a time she ended up working as an operator for 1-800-DENTIST. Angela has said she often draws upon her days in corporate America for her scenes and fashion sense in The Office.
Kinsey also did some guest appearances on shows such as Step By Step and the voice of Angela on 2 episodes of King of the Hill. She also took improvisation classes with The Groundlings and Improv Olympics. It was after her one-woman show at Improv Olympic that she started to get a lot of commercial work.
On the big screen Kinsey just finished filming License to Wed.
Kinsey had originally auditioned for the role of Pam Beesly on The Office, but producers ended up telling her she was “a little too feisty for Pam.” She was called back however to audition for the role of Angela Martin, which she ended up winning. One of her favorite parts of working on the office is working alongside her real life brother-in-law Paul Lieberstein who acts on the show as Toby and is also one of the writers.
