Early life

Offerman was born in Joliet, Illinois, and grew up in Minooka, Illinois. He is the son of Cathy (née Roberts), a nurse, and Ric Offerman, who taught social studies at a junior high school in nearby Channahon. Offerman was raised Catholic and received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1993. That year, he and a group of fellow students co-founded the Defiant Theatre, a Chicago-based theatre company.

Career

Offerman lived in Chicago in the mid-1990s, where he participated with theatre companies such as Steppenwolf, Goodman, and Wisdom Bridge. At Steppenwolf, he also worked as a fight choreographer and master carpenter. During this time, Offerman became acquainted with Amy Poehler, who was heavily involved with the Chicago improv comedy scene.

In 2003, he married Will & Grace actress Megan Mullally and has also appeared on her talk show, The Megan Mullally Show. At the same time, he began appearing on television: as a plumber on Will & Grace during its fourth season's Thanksgiving episode, on The King of Queens, in three episodes of 24, and in an episode of The West Wing. Prior to Parks and Recreation, his most prominent role was as factory worker and Benny Lopez's love interest Randy McGee on George Lopez. He appeared twice on Gilmore Girls, in 2003's "The Festival of Living Art" and 2005's "Always a Godmother, Never a God". Offerman played would-be assassin of Wild Bill Hickok, Tom Mason, in an early episode of the HBO series Deadwood and in the third-season episode of Monk, "Mr. Monk and the Election" as a helper for the campaign of Natalie Teeger. In 2007, Offerman co-starred in the Comedy Central series American Body Shop.

In 2009 Office producers Michael Schur and Greg Daniels offered Offerman a regular supporting role in their NBC sitcom Parks and Recreation: that of Ron Swanson, the deadpan, government-hating head of a city parks department and boss of Amy Poehler's character Leslie Knope. Slate magazine declared Offerman "Parks and Recreation's secret weapon", and said he regularly stole scenes and "has a gift for understated physical comedy". The role weaves antagonism and political philosophy with humanity, while the intense libertarian philosophy the character lives out is often played off against the equally intense liberalism and 'do-gooder' mentality of Poehler's character. Offerman said that supporting parts such as that of Parks and Recreation are his ideal roles, and that he draws particular inspiration from Reverend Jim Ignatowski, the character played by Christopher Lloyd in the sitcom Taxi.

Offerman has also been featured in the Adult Swim series Childrens Hospital with Rob Corddry and Rob Huebel. He is the voice of Axe Cop in the animated series of the same name that premiered on July 27, 2013. In the same year, Offerman portrayed Johnny Cool in the "Boston" episode of Derek Waters' Drunk History on Comedy Central.

Offerman has appeared in films such as November (2004), Cursed (2005), Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous (2005), Sin City (2005), The Men Who Stare at Goats (2009), and The Kings of Summer (2013). He also appeared in the 2006 film Wristcutters: A Love Story as a cop who attempts to arrest Shannyn Sossamon's character, Mikal. 2012 saw him in two film roles, as 21 Jump Street's Deputy Chief Hardy and in Casa de Mi Padre as DEA Agent Parker. Additionally, he starred in and produced an independent film, Somebody Up There Likes Me (2012), shot in Austin, Texas. He appeared in the 2013 comedy We're the Millers, which starred Jason Sudeikis and Jennifer Aniston, and voiced Metalbeard in The Lego Movie. Offerman conceived of and starred in punk band FIDLAR's 2013 video for their song "Cocaine". Offerman also played an alcoholic college guidance counselor in Believe Me (2014). Offerman played the recurring role Karl Weathers in the second season of Fargo (2015).

Woodworking

In addition to acting, Offerman is also a professional boat builder and has a side business as a wood craftsman. Offerman makes furniture and other wooden structures such as canoes and boats at his woodshop. He also released an instructional DVD in 2008 titled Fine Woodstrip Canoe Building with Nick Offerman, shot by Jimmy Diresta. Diresta's pay for shooting the DVD was a canoe, the second Offerman has built. The writers of Parks and Recreation added a fondness for woodworking to Offerman's character.

Writing

In addition to his other work, Offerman is also known for his writing. He has released two semi-autobiographical publications: the first, Paddle Your Own Canoe: One Man's Fundamentals for Delicious Living was released in 2013; his second, Gumption: Relighting the Torch of Freedom with America's Gutsiest Troublemakers, was released May 26, 2015.

Offerman writes using his extensive vocabulary, and the contents and subject matter are generally reflective of his life experiences, personal philosophies and belief system of how an individual may use this information in bettering one's self.

Personal life

Offerman married actress Megan Mullally on September 20, 2003. They met while acting in The Berlin Circle, a play produced by the Evidence Room Theatre Company, and married after dating for 18 months. Mullally had a recurring role on Parks and Recreation as Ron Swanson's second ex-wife, Tammy. The couple have also appeared together in films such as The Kings of Summer and Smashed.

He is a die hard Chicago Cubs and Chicago Bears fan. He and his wife play guitar together in their free time.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1997	Going All the Way	Wilks
1998	City of Angels	Construction Worker
1999	Treasure Island	Samuel
2000	Groove	Sergeant Channahon
2002	Murder by Numbers	Officer at Richard's house
2004	November	Officer Roberts
2005	Cursed	Officer
2005	Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous	Karl Steele
2005	Sin City	Shlubb
2006	Wristcutters: A Love Story	Cop
2006	3 lbs	Dr. Coffey
2007	The Go-Getter	Nick the Potter
2008	Harmony & Me	Meter Maid Man
2009	The Men Who Stare at Goats	Scotty Mercer
2009	Taking Chances	Sheriff Hoke Hollander
2010	All Good Things	Jim McCarthy
2012	Somebody Up There Likes Me	Sal	Also producer
2012	Smashed	Dave Davies
2012	21 Jump Street	Deputy Chief Hardy
2012	Casa de Mi Padre	DEA Agent Parker
2013	The Kings of Summer	Frank Toy
2013	In a World...	Heners
2013	We're the Millers	Don Fitzgerald
2013	Paradise	Mr. Mannerhelm
2014	Nick Offerman: American Ham	Himself	Also executive producer
2014	The Lego Movie	Metalbeard (voice)
2014	Ernest & Celestine	George (voice)	English dub
2014	Date and Switch	Terry
2014	The Gunfighter	Narrator	Short film
2014	22 Jump Street	Deputy Chief Hardy
2014	Believe Me	Sean
2015	A Walk in the Woods	REI Dave
2015	Me and Earl and the Dying Girl	Greg's Dad
2015	Knight of Cups	Scott
2015	Danny Collins	Guy DeLoach
2015	Welcome to Happiness	Moses
2015	Hotel Transylvania 2	Mike (voice)
2016	The Founder	Richard McDonald	Post-production
2016	The Angry Birds Movie	Pirate Pig (voice)
2016	Ice Age: Collision Course	Gavin (voice)	Post-production
2016	Sing	(voice)	Post-production

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1997	ER	Rog	Episode: "Ambush"
1998	Profiler	Bobby	Episode: "Double Vision"
1998	KaBlam!	Colonel Kudzu	2 episodes
1999	The West Wing	Jerry	Episode: "The Crackpots and These Women"
2001	Will & Grace	Nick the Plumber	Episode: "Moveable Feast"
2002	The Practice	Charles Rossi	Episode: "Manifest Necessity"
2003	Good Morning Miami	Police Officer	Episode: "About a Ploy"
2003	24	Marcus	3 episodes
2003	The King of Queens	The Man	Episode: "Thanks, Man"
2001-2003	NYPD Blue	Steven Debrees / Billy	2 episodes
2003-2004	George Lopez	Randy	8 episodes
2004	Deadwood	Tom Mason	Episode: "Deep Water"
2005	Life on a Stick	Greg	Episode: "The Gods of TV"
2005	Monk	Jack Whitman	Episode: "Mr. Monk and the Election"
2003-2005	Gilmore Girls	Beau Belleville	2 episodes
2006	CSI: NY	Joe Green	Episodes: "Cool Hunter"
2007	American Body Shop	Rob	10 episodes
2008-2015	Childrens Hospital	Chance Briggs	14 episodes
2009-2015	Parks and Recreation	Ron Swanson	124 episodes TCA Award for Individual Achievement in Comedy Nominated—TCA Award for Individual Achievement in Comedy Nominated—Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series
2012-2014	Bob's Burgers	Cooper / Pete (voices)	2 episodes
2012	The Cleveland Show	Harris Grundle (voice)	Episode: "Tis the Cleveland to Be Sorry"
2013	Conan	Ron Burgundy	Episode: "Occupy Conan: When Outsourcing Goes Too Far"
2013	Out There	Doug (voice)	Episode: "Viking Days"
2013	Drunk History	Johnny Cool	Episode: "Boston"
2013-present	Axe Cop	Axe Cop (voice)	22 episodes; also executive producer
2014	Comedy Bang! Bang!	Himself	Episode: "Nick Offerman Wears a Green Flannel Shirt & Brown Boots"
2014	Kroll Show	Vanya	Episode: "Krolling Around with Nick Klown"
2014-2015	Gravity Falls	Agent Powers (voice)	4 episodes
2014	The Simpsons	Captain Joseph Bowditch (voice)	Episode: "The Wreck of the Relationship"
2014	Sofia the First	Whiskers (voice)	Episode: "Winter's Gift"
2014-2015	Last Week Tonight with John Oliver	Guest actor	2 episodes
2015	Fargo	Karl Weathers	5 episodes Nominated—Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Movie/Miniseries
2015	The Muppets	Himself	Episode: "Bear Left Then Bear Write"
2015	You, Me and the Apocalypse	Buddy	Episode: "Still Stuff Worth Fighting For"
2015	Brooklyn Nine-Nine	Frederick	Episode: "Ava"

Video games

Year	Title	Voice role
2015	Lego Dimensions	Metalbeard

Music videos

Offerman starred in the music video for "Cocaine" by Californian garage punk band FIDLAR. Offerman also directed the music video for "Low Key" from Tweedy's debut album, Sukierae. Offerman was also in the music video for The Decemberists' song, "Make You better", playing a faux German music show host.

Charities

Nick Offerman supports the following charitable cause: ALS (amyrotrophic lateral sclerosis).

[ Source: Wikipedia ]