After The Office ended its nine-season run, the cast of the all-time great sitcom has gone on to pursue notable things. Much of the cast has shown a lot of their versatility as actors over the last decade, including numerous voice acting roles, where much of the cast have received placements in big blockbuster movies and popular television series, such as Pixar, the MCU, and Studio Ghibli.
While many of these characters are completely different from who they portrayed on The Office, there are elements the actors bring that give their voice roles recognizable traits. The transition to voice acting can be difficult but the cast of The Office did it fairly seamlessly. They will always be attached to their characters on the sitcom but they now also have voice roles that follow them into the future as well.
John Krasinski - Kiro Honjo (The Wind Rises)
The Wind Rises is one of Studio Ghibli's best movies of the 2010s and its English dub saw the characters voiced by a star-studded cast. This included John Krasinski voicing Kiro Honjo, an aircraft designer and Jiro Horikoshi's best friend. The movie tells a fictionalized of the real-life Horikoshi and his ion for engineering aircrafts.
Krasinski as Honjo gives one of the best performances in the English dub as Honjo's friendship with Jiro is a focal point in the film. The cast was a family affair as fellow actor and Krasinski's wife Emily Blunt also starred as Nahoko Satomi.
Steve Carrell - Gru (Despicable Me)
The the best non-Disney animated villains to date.
With Minions: Rise of Gru being released in 2022 and Carrell returning to voice a younger version of the character, viewers will get to see more of Gru's backstory with an added 1970s aesthetic. As arguably the best character in the franchise, it's safe to say that there will be many more Gru appearances to come.
Craig Robinson - Mr. Shark (The Bad Guys)
2022 has seen a diverse lot of films do well at the box office and The Bad Guys fit the mold. Based on the books of the same name, the animated heist film sees a group of criminal animals that are now facing a new threat as they try to change their lives around. The voice cast includes Craig Robinson who voices Mr. Shark, the group's master of disguise.
Many heist films have a comedic relief and while the main characters in The Bad Guys all had their comedic moments, Mr. Shark probably had some of the funniest. Robinson gives a great performance alongside the rest of the cast and seeing how well it did at the box office, a sequel could be greenlit very soon.
James Spader - Ultron (Avengers: Age of Ultron)
In the MCU, the Avengers have faced a handful of formidable villains but Ultron changed their world the most up until Thanos achieved his quest for the Infinity Stones. James Spader, who provided the motion capture and voice of Ultron, gives an interesting take on the character as he is both witty and powerful.
While fans of the franchise may prefer the more serious and ruthless What If...?, the first live-action portrayal of Ultron essentially led to the downfall of the Avengers at the time, being one of the most powerful villains the MCU has seen thus far, which is partially thanks to Spader's excellent performance.
Catherine Tate - Magica De Spell (DuckTales)
When the DuckTales revival premiered in 2017, viewers of the original series wondered which villains from the first iteration would appear. To their joy, a handful of the villains returned including the sorceress Magica De Spell.
This iteration of Magica De Spell was voiced by Catherine Tate, bringing a fresh take to the character that fans seemed to enjoy. De Spell, now with an English accent that matches Tate's, is out for Scrooge McDuck after their convoluted past. Many American audiences know her as Nellie from The Office but her role in DuckTales seems to follow closely behind in popularity.
Rainn Wilson - Lex Luthor (DC Animated Movie Universe)
Over the last 50 years, there has been a handful of iterations of Superman's most famous foe Lex Luthor. Rainn Wilson portrayed the most recent iteration of the villain within the DC Animated Movie Universe, a role that he took over for Steve Blum in 2018.
While Wilson's voice may not sound like Luthor's in a traditional sense, the character is still the same at its core. His performance in The Death of Superman and his following appearances were solid as they come, showcasing how he can take a classic villain and live up to the rest of the great characters in the DCAMU. It's little wonder he is considered one of the best actors to play Lex Luthor.
Ellie Kemper - Katie (The Secret Life of Pets)
Illumination's The Secret Life of Pets films are colorful if anything. Alongside its pleasing visual aesthetic, the franchise's voice cast is stacked with both voices acting veterans and recognizable faces. The Office fans should recognize the voice of Katie, as Ellie Kemper brings the New York-based dog owner to life.
Kemper stands out as one of the few human characters in the movie and with her comes a warmth that most pet owners can relate to. After Katie's two dogs run away, they endure a journey to reunite with their owner alongside a misfit group of misplaced pets.
Phyllis Smith - Sadness (Inside Out)
Phyllis Smith's role as Phyllis Vance on The Office is no doubt the role she'll always be known for, but her performance as Sadness in Pixar's Pixar's most emotional movies, even with a literal concept of following the personified emotions of a child.
All of Riley's emotions ground the film in their own ways, but Sadness is crucial to one of Inside Out's themes of realizing the importance of feeling sad sometimes. As the movie progresses, Sadness becomes more intricate to the plot and Smith delivers on the emotion that she set out to play.
Mindy Kaling - Disgust (Inside Out)
Disgust from Inside Out shares a few similarities with Kelly Kapoor from The Office, with one, in particular, being the wittiness that made both characters funny in their own right. They're also similar in that they are portrayed by Mindy Kaling and in Inside Out, Disgust is pivotal in Riley's emotional journey.
The real-life emotion of disgust usually takes a backseat when discussing basic human emotions, but Inside Out brings it to the forefront and justifiably so considering the subject matter. Kaling s her The Office co-star Phyllis Smith as one of Riley's personified emotions and with the rest of the star-studded cast, come together for critically acclaimed performances across the board.
Ed Helms - The Once-ler (The Lorax)
While there aren't a great amount of Dr. Seuss-adapted films, The Lorax doesn't get brought up often. Even though there are other notable Dr. Seuss movies, The Lorax does have a handful of redeeming qualities including its great soundtrack, highlighted by "How Bad Can I Be" from Ed Helms' portrayal of the Once-ler.
Helms is known to be a good singer and he brings his vocal talent to the role of the Once-ler, a former inventor who destroyed a forest for his invention after The Lorax tried to warn him not to. Helm eases into the role seamlessly, playing a young and old version of the same character.