Benjamin Joseph Manaly Novak (born July 31, 1979 ) is an American actor, comedian, screenwriter, and producer. He has received five Primetime Emmy Award nominations and won two Screen Actors Guild Awards. Novak is known for starring as Ryan Howard in the NBC sitcom The Office (2005–2013), for which he was also a writer and executive producer. He appeared in the films Inglourious Basterds (2009), Saving Mr. Banks (2013) and The Founder (2016). He made his directorial debut in 2022 with the dark comedy thriller Vengeance, which he also wrote and starred in. Novak also appeared in The Mindy Project (2013–2016) and The Newsroom (2014), and was the creator and executive producer of Hulu anthology series The Premise (2021). He portrays Alistair Smythe in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014). In addition to his film career, Novak authored the books One More Thing: Stories and Other Stories (2014) and The Book with No Pictures (2014).

Early life

Novak was born on July 31, 1979, at Newton-Wellesley Hospital in Newton, Massachusetts. His parents are Linda (née ) and author William Novak. He is Jewish. His father co-edited The Big Book of Jewish Humor, and has ghostwritten memoirs for Nancy Reagan, Lee Iacocca, Magic Johnson and others. Novak has two brothers: Lev Novak and composer Jesse Novak. He attended Solomon Schechter Day School of Greater Boston and Brown Middle School. He went to Camp Ramah in New England in Massachusetts in the summers of his 6th, 7th and 9th grades. He attended Newton South High School with future The Office costar John Krasinski; they graduated in 1997. Novak edited one of the school newspapers, The Lion's Roar, and cowrote a satirical play with Krasinski. Novak graduated from Harvard University in 2001, where he was a member of the Harvard Lampoon. He majored in English and Spanish literature, and wrote his honors thesis on the films of Shakespeare's Hamlet. Aside from the Lampoon, he occasionally staged and performed in a variety show called The B.J. Show with fellow Harvard student B. J. Averell.

Career

After Harvard, Novak moved to Los Angeles, California and began working in clubs as a comedian. His first live stand-up performance was at the Hollywood Youth Hostel on October 10, 2001. He was named one of Variety's "Ten Comedians To Watch" in 2003. He was a writer for the short-lived The WB sitcom Raising Dad. He performed on Comedy Central's Premium Blend and on Late Night with Conan O'Brien. Novak's television acting career began on MTV's Punk'd. He was the lead accomplice to Ashton Kutcher on the show's second season in 2003, playing pranks on Hilary Duff, Rachael Leigh Cook, Usher and Mýa. An image of Novak entered the public domain as a stock photo and has been used on various international products, reportedly including a particular type of Calvin Klein cologne in Sweden.

The Office

After hearing Novak's opening joke at a comedy club, executive producer Greg Daniels decided he "wanted to do something with him." Novak was subsequently cast as Ryan Howard, who is introduced on the show as a temporary employee at Dunder Mifflin in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Novak's character goes through ups and downs throughout his work career and has an on-and-off relationship with Kelly Kapoor (Mindy Kaling). Novak was also a producer and writer on the show; he and Kaling, Greg Daniels, Michael Schur and Paul Lieberstein were its original writers. Novak is credited with writing 15 episodes, including the Writers Guild of America nominated episodes "Diversity Day" and "Local Ad". On July 21, 2010, news reports indicated Novak had signed a contract to remain with the show for its seventh and eighth seasons. Under the new terms, he would be made an executive producer midway through Season 7, and would direct two episodes. He left The Office after the ninth-season premiere, "New Guys", but returned to guest-star in the series' final episode. In a 2021 podcast interview on Dax Shepard's show, he confirmed that he had been offered the Season 9 showrunner position, but declined it because he decided that his "fire for the job had burned out", and it was time for him to move on to other projects. Novak and his fellow "The Office" writers and producers were nominated five consecutive times for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series, from 2007 to 2011. In a June 2009 interview with The Philadelphia Inquirer, Novak spoke about sharing the success of The Office with his Newton South High School classmate John Krasinski: "Sometimes when this feels too good to be true, I think that if this were all a dream, that would be what should have tipped me off. I'd wake up saying, 'I was in this incredible TV show and it was a big hit and the star was John [Krasinski] from high school. Isn't that weird?'"

Post-The Office career

Novak has had supporting roles in Quentin Tarantino's 2009 war film Inglourious Basterds, John Lee Hancock's 2013 period drama Saving Mr. Banks about the development of the 1964 film Mary Poppins, and Hancock's 2016 biographical drama The Founder about the founder of McDonald's. He has also appeared in the films Unaccompanied Minors (2006), Knocked Up (2007), Reign Over Me (2007), The Internship (2013) and The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014). He voiced Baker Smurf in The Smurfs (2011) and The Smurfs 2 (2013). He has starred in a few episodes each of The Mindy Project and The Newsroom, and made cameo appearances on Community and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. He was also a consulting producer for the first season of The Mindy Project. He wrote, directed and executive-produced a half-hour anthological series, The Premise, released on FX in 2021. He starred in the 2022 mystery-thriller Vengeance, which he also wrote and directed. Filming began in March 2020 but was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic until January 2021. In May 2020, it was announced that he would write and executive-produce Young People for HBO Max.

Book deal

On April 11, 2013, publishing house Alfred A. Knopf announced it had signed a seven-figure, two-book deal with Novak, with the first book to be a collection of Woody Allen-like fiction stories. On February 4, 2014, a book of 64 stories, One More Thing: Stories and Other Stories, was published and spent 6 weeks on the New York Times Best Sellers Hardcover Fiction List. Novak also signed a deal with Penguin's children's books label and wrote The Book With No Pictures, released on September 30, 2014. As of January 2021, it had spent 174 weeks on the New York Times Best Seller Picture Books List, with 34 weeks at #1, and was at #10 in September 2020. A self-proclaimed lifelong book-lover, Novak said he wrote the children's book partially because "to me, there is no more meaningful, important or exciting rule to introduce to children than the power of the written word." On November 19, 2019, My Book with No Pictures was published as a fill-in-the-blanks companion book to The Book with No Pictures to allow children to write their own stories.

The List App

On October 14, 2015, Novak released an Apple iOS app along with co-founder Dev Flaherty called The List App. The app allowed users to make lists. Its FAQ page said "we just love lists. They're the best." It was nominated for a Webby Award (losing in its category to Beme and Pocket) in 2016. In May 2016, it was rebranded 'li.st' and became available on the Android platform. In September 2017, it was shut down due to lack of users.

Personal life

Novak has a close friendship with Mindy Kaling, whom he met through writing for The Office, and called her "the most important person in my life" (on Fresh Air with Terry Gross). They dated on and off while writing and acting on the show, sometimes mirroring the on-again, off-again relationship between their characters Ryan Howard and Kelly Kapoor. He is the godfather of Kaling's first two children. Novak lives in Los Angeles.

Books

Essays, reporting and other contributions

Publications

Novak also has a chapter giving advice in Tim Ferriss' book Tools of Titans.

Instagram Live

Podcast appearances

Filmography

Film

Acting credits

Television

Acting credits

Writing credits

Directing credits

Awards and nominations

Footnotes