Long before the workplace sitcom became a smash hit for NBC, Fischer and her costars looked less like stars and more like, well, office workers.

Jenna Fischer recalls embarrassing reaction when The Office stars went seeking paparazzi for photos

Long before the workplace sitcom became a smash hit for NBC, Fischer and her costars looked less like stars and more like, well, office workers.

By Ryan Coleman

Ryan Coleman

Ryan Coleman is a news writer for with previous work in MUBI Notebook, Slant, and the LA Review of Books.

EW's editorial guidelines

August 18, 2026 8:24 p.m. ET

Leave a Comment

Angela Kinsey, Kate Flannery, Steve Carell, Phyllis Smith, and Jenna Fischer on ‘The Office’. Credit:

Paul Drinkwater/NBCU Photo Bank

- Jenna Fischer is looking back on an embarrassing paparazzi run-in from her early days on *The Office*.

- After the show was renewed for season 2, Fischer says she, Angela Kinsey, Phyllis Smith, and Kate Flannery went to an L.A. eatery notoriously swarming with paparazzi.

- But when they sought out photos, they were met with a humbling reply.

Are you from *The Office*? Or are you from the office?

It’s a question Jenna Fischer and her sitcom costars had one paparazzo asking on a summer day in 2005.

The Emmy-nominated actress, who played secretary Pam Beesly across the NBC series’ full nine-season run, recently looked back on the early *Office* days, before it became a smash hit, when most of the cast members were just happy to land a job.

“I have a very funny story from, my gosh, I think we were going back for season 2 of *The Office*,” Fischer recalled on the *Dinner’s on Me* podcast. “Me and [Angela Kinsey] and [Kate Flannery] and [Phyllis Smith] from *The Office*, we decided we were going to have a ladies’ lunch to celebrate getting picked up for season 2. And we were going to go to the Ivy, which is the other place that the paparazzi hang out.”

The leafy Los Angeles restaurant is a notorious celebrity hotspot, so Fischer and her castmates thought they’d bask in the show’s success by getting some candids taken. That isn’t exactly what happened.

Jenna Fischer as Pam Beesly and Angela Kinsey as Angela Martin on ‘The Office’.

Justin Lubin/NBCU Photo Bank

***Get your daily dose of entertainment news, celebrity updates, and what to watch with our ******EW Dispatch newsletter******.***

“So we requested a room on the patio. We got there, there was some problem — they put us in the back by the kitchen. We didn’t get our patio seat,” Fischer shared, already laughing at all signs pointing away from the group getting the flashy star moment they came for.

“As we’re leaving, the paparazzi come running and we’re like, ‘It’s happening!’ And then they just run right past us, down to take a picture of someone” else, she said. It turned out to be *Seinfeld*’s Jason Alexander, they learned from the lone paparazzo who walked back to the Ivy, glancing absentmindedly down at his camera. “We’re like, ‘Oh, Jason Alexander. Okay. Hey, *Seinfeld*, that’s a big deal. That’s pretty cool.’ And then Angela, bless her heart, she is like, she goes, ‘Well, we are from NBC’s *The Office*.’”

The photographer was stoked, and so were the stars. The photographer raved, “Are you serious? Are you serious! Can I give you my card? If you ever hear of anyone who’s out and about, will you please call me? Anybody from NBC that you want me to feature, you just let me know,” he told the crestfallen actresses.

The cast of 'The Office,' then and now: See the Dunder Mifflin drones over 20 years after the series premiered

Jenna Fischer got her role as Pam on 'The Office' after improvising 1 word

He didn’t think Fischer and company were on *The Office*, but from* *“the offices of NBC. We were like, ‘Yep, well, we gotcha.’”

It wouldn’t take long for *The Office* to become a smash hit, though. The sitcom, adapted from the British comedy of the same name, nearly doubled its viewership moving into season 2, growing straight through its peak in season 5.

The cast members became Emmy favorites too, with Steve Carell earning his first Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series nomination in 2006 and Fischer snagging a Supporting Actress nom the following year.

Watch Fischer’s full *Dinner’s on Me* appearance above.

Original Article on Source

Source: “EW Comedy”