Born on November 29, 1972 in Atlanta, Georgia, Brian Baumgartner attended high school with future co-star in the Emmy Award-winning series, The Office, Ed Helms . At a young age, he was very active in sports activities, but an injury kept him from pursuing this. He focused his energy into acting, and later entered the Meadows School of the Arts at Southern Methodist University.
In talking about his injury, he said, "I was very into sports until a pretty significant injury and surgery made me get into the acting thing. But, that was at a fairly young age. I was like 13. I had a problem with my leg - I played baseball. I went and tried to have some surgery to get it fixed up so I could continue playing baseball. There was a problem and I actually ended up going over the course of a year from a wheelchair to a walker at age 13 to crutches to a cane. This was in junior high."
Moving to Los Angeles after completing his studies, Baumgartner worked as an Artistic Director of the Hidden Theater in Minneapolis, where he was recognized with multiple awards for his artistic and acting work. He also performed regionally at the Guthrie Theater, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Children's Theater Company and Theatre de la Jeune Lune, all of which were Tony Award recipients.
As for his television work, Baumgartner has worked on series such as Jake in Progress, Arrested Development , and Everwood . In 2005, he was cast as Kevin Malone in The Office. He, along with Office co-stars Angela Kinsey and Oscar Nunez , won a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Broadband Program in the Comedy category for their work on The Office: Accountants web episodes. In the same year, Baumgartner worked on the romantic comedy film License to Wed, along with stars Robin Williams, Mandy Moore and Office co-star John Krasinski. Baumgartner has also signed on to work on the projects Four Christmases, Into Temptation and How to Make a Movie.