Paul Lieberstein as
Toby Flenderson Born on February 22, 1967 in Westport, Connecticut, Paul Bevan Lieberstein is a co-executive producer, writer, as well as an actor on The Office. He began his career in the entertainment industry as a writer on the television series Clarissa Explains It All, after being recognized for a spec script he co-wrote for
The Simpsons .
In talking about his early years in writing, he said, "I was doing creative writing but it wasn't too much comedy. I actually did my first episode of television in high school. Me and some friends discovered a television studio right in the middle of our high school. It was this multi-camera set up so we wrote and produced a television episode. I don't even remember what it was about. I think it was called 'Hotel New Jersey.' It was a spin-off of Hotel New Hampshire which at the time I hadn't even read so I don't know why I picked that."
He also revealed some facts about his college life, saying, "I didn't write anything at Hamilton College. I got completely sidetracked. It was very conservative. I got mixed up in that bad element and thought I wanted to be a financier of some kind and most places were smart enough not to hire me. I got a job with Pete Marwick as an auditor. After six months I was ready to get out of there because I was going to either kill them or myself."
In 1994, Lieberstein worked as a writer for Weird Science, and shortly thereafter wrote for The Naked Truth. Three years later, he used his writing prowess to bring to life the animated
King of the Hill , and worked as a writer and co-executive producer for The Drew Carey Show and The Bernie Mac Show. He also had short writing stints on Greg the Bunny and Dead Like Me. In 2005, Lieberstein was hired by producer Greg Daniels to work on the remake of the British comedy, The Office.
Lieberstein did not only work as a writer for The Office, but also as an actor in the critically acclaimed series. In talking about his job as a writer for The Office, he said, "It is one of the most pleasant writer's rooms I've ever been in. It is so much fun. Everybody likes everybody, everybody is friends, there's no politics and that is unusual on a set. So it's a little bit like a cocktail party every day."
He added, "There's often this wall between the writers and the actors on shows where you won't talk about anything creative with an actor. So you'll have these polite conversations but it's like stepping on someone's toes. But here, that wall's been broken down completely though once in a while some toes get stepped on but on the flipside the creative energy is really making our show better."