The Untold Truth Of Brian Baumgartner

Think of any hit sitcom from the last 20 years and there's a good chance that Brian Baumgartner has popped up in at least one episode. The actor has graced everything from "The Goldbergs" and "Arrested Development" to "Hot in Cleveland" and "Mike and Molly." Of course, he's still best-known for his recurring stint in one of the all-time greats.

Yes, Baumgartner portrayed Dunder Mifflin's socially-awkward accountant Kevin Malone for over 200 episodes of the American remake of "The Office" and also sat in the director's chair for its eighth season's "After Hours." He's even picked up a Daytime Emmy Award for his work on "The Office: The Accountants," a web spinoff from the adaptation of Ricky Gervais' two-season wonder.

Of course, there's more to Baumgartner than the antics of Scranton's premier paper and office supplies company. From Cameo domination to chili obsessions, here's a look at the Atlanta native's untold truth.

Having played accountant Kevin Malone for nine seasons of Emmy Awards favorite "The Office," Brian Baumgartner understandably wanted to try something new once the hit sitcom came to an end in 2013. Of course, that was easier said than done.

In a 2022 chat with People, Baumgartner revealed he soon learned that typecasting was a very real thing: "I wanted to distance myself. I thought, 'I don't want to be Kevin Malone forever.' I spent a long time turning down roles that I felt were too similar or wanted a similar sort of feeling and character."

But instead of treating the NBC show like an albatross around his neck, Baumgartner learned to embrace it, going on to host several podcasts about the sitcom that helped launch him to fame. He added, "I consider it a blessing, especially the amazing fans who talk about how 'The Office' gave them comfort, how it helped them during a difficult time. I mean, countless stories, way more than I can mention. That's an amazing thing."

Remember "The Office" scene in which Kevin Malone spills a massive pot of his signature chili onto the Dunder Mifflin reception floor before trying to scoop it up with some clipboards and paperwork? Well, actor Brian Baumgartner has taken the hilarious accident to its logical conclusion: write a cookbook consisting of nothing but recipes for the spicy foodstuff!

Yes, in 2022, the Atlanta native published the pretty self-explanatory "Seriously Good Chili Cookbook: 177 of the Best Recipes in the World." But this is no ordinary cookbook. It also comes complete with QR codes which when scanned presents readers with video tutorials. And then there's a foreword penned by another "The Office" accountant Oscar Martinez, aka Oscar Nunez. But if you want to recreate Kevin's famous chili without forking out some dough then you simply need to scroll through Peacock's terms of service. Indeed, one particularly observant subscriber noticed that NBC's streaming offshoot had hidden its recipe within the bundle of text that no-one ever reads. 

"Seriously Good..." isn't the end of Baumgartner's chili endeavors, either. He's also relied on his culinary expertise to pass judgment at the World Champion Chili Cook-Off. And if you're wondering what he bases his opinion on, then it's consistency, chewiness, variety, and spice. The actor also adheres to the apparent golden rule that if a spoon can be placed upright in a dish without falling over, then the chili is a dud. 

Here's a celebrity friendship you might not necessarily have seen coming: "The Office" star Brian Baumgartner and NFL hero Aaron Rodgers have been pals since they first bumped into each other way back in 2008.

During a chat with ABC, the former revealed how the unlikely BFFs first crossed paths: "I was sitting next to a guy at a blackjack table who told me he was a big fan. And turned out he was Aaron Rodgers. I have no idea who he was. No clue. This is the summer before he became a starter, and I'm like, 'Oh, you're the cow guy who's never gonna play because of Brett Favre, right?'"

Rodgers, of course, would go on to play a talent show judge on "The Office" in 2013 and was once seen sporting a T-shirt emblazoned with Baumgartner's character, Kevin Malone, while heading to training. The quarterback was even in attendance when the actor married Celeste Ackelson in 2014. Proving that the friendship isn't one-sided, the chili maestro reportedly visits Wisconsin twice a year to see the Green Bay Packers in action and in a 2021 parody video he helped the franchise behind-the-scenes by serving as everything from a tour guide to mailman. 

Kevin Malone never made it down the aisle with fiancée Stacy in "The Office," with the latter eventually calling the engagement off. But the man who played the bumbling accountant has tied the knot in real life on two occasions.

Brian Baumgartner first said "I do" to Julia Fisher. But following their divorce, the actor then made an honest woman out of Celeste Ackelson at a 2014 ceremony held in his backyard. John Krasinski, Angela Kinsey, and Jenna Fischer were just a few of the co-stars that made the wedding resemble a mini-"The Office" reunion.

Since then, Baumgartner has popped the question too many times to mention. But thankfully for wife number two, they've been on behalf of fans on the video platform Cameo. The Atlanta native explained to Page Six, "I think it's possible that I have proposed to more women than anyone on the planet. Not for me obviously ... like really, 'Will you ask Beth to marry me.' I really want it to be special because they made this choice and come to me and I want that to be good for them."

Brian Baumgartner was born in 1972 with a twist in one of his leg bones which in his teenage years he tried to get fixed. Unfortunately, the surgery he underwent not only made the situation worse, it left him wheelchair-bound.

While appearing on "The Viall Files," a podcast hosted by former "The Bachelor" star Nick Viall, Baumgartner explained that he decided to go under the knife to help fulfill his sporting ambitions: "It wasn't dramatic; it was something that I could have lived with, but if you want to be a professional baseball player, no, you need everything aligned and to be able to run fast."

The actor experienced excruciating pain for several days after, but doctors later discovered that it wasn't the procedure itself that was to blame: "So they cut the cast off, and it had burned through my Achilles tendon at the back of my leg. So now an elective surgery to try to solve a situation created a situation where I had to learn to walk again. There was skin grafts ... I was in a wheelchair; I had a walker." With his baseball dreams in tatters, Baumgartner was forced to explore other career avenues and the rest is "The Office" history.

In 2015, just a year after they walked down the aisle, Brian Baumgartner and Celeste Ackelson became parents together for the first time. "The Office" star couldn't have been prouder, either, captioning an Instagram snap of the tot, "My latest project. Nine months in the making. I am happy to announce the arrival of my daughter Brylee Bea — healthy and very happy. She told me she looks forward to catching up on all the old episodes of "The Office" once her eyes adjust to life."

Baumgartner later admitted he was initially disappointed on learning he was becoming a father to a little girl, largely due to his visions of playing football in the backyard with his son. However, as he told Yahoo!, he now wouldn't change anything for the world: "I'm a little bit on the older side of dads, and I think if I had a boy, I don't know that I could survive it. There's so much energy."

And although Brylee Bea has yet to watch the antics of the Dunder Mifflin gang, she has started to become aware that her father is slightly different; "It more comes out in fairly innocent and innocuous questions that I think she suspects some of the answers, but doesn't say, like, 'Why does that guy want to be your friend?' meaning a stranger on the street? Or, 'Why does that guy want his picture taken with you? Is it because you're famous?'"

Brian Baumgartner has more than a half-century's worth of film and TV credits to his famous name, ranging from big-screen comedies "License to Wed" and "Four Christmases" to TV dramas "Chicago Fire" and "Hand of God." You might have expected for the majority of his $10 million fortune, though, to have been earned via his nine-season recurring role as accountant Kevin Malone in "The Office." Instead, the actor has amassed much of this colossal figure by wishing fans a Happy Birthday.

Yes, in 2020, it was revealed that Baumgartner had made a staggering $1 million over the previous year simply by sending personalized video messages through the platform Cameo. Co-founder Steven Galanis confirmed that the Atlanta native's popularity — he created more than 5,000 videos during this period at nearly $200 a time — had helped him become one of the site's highest earners.

Remarkably, Baumgartner had been hesitant about aligning himself with Cameo. But in an interview with the BBC, he claimed that money wasn't the driving factor for him, eventually relenting: "This is not about me or about getting a message from me ... I view it as an attempt from two people who want to make a connection," adding, "They want to make a connection so they give this message from me because it brings them back to a moment that they actually shared together."