Part of The Office featuring Steve Carell, John Krasinski, Rainn Wilson, Jenna Fischer, and Ed Helms.
Rise to Fame
She didn't audition for The Office. She was working as a casting associate when the producers decided to write a character specifically for her. That's the entire story of how she got on camera: right place, right moment, someone decided the role should match the person already in the room. The decade-plus before that involved dancers' odd jobs and Midwestern survival work, none of it aimed at acting. The winding path was the audition.
In the Spotlight
She voices Sadness in Pixar's Inside Out franchise, and Inside Out 2 grossed $1.7 billion in 2024 to become the highest-grossing animated film ever made. She's said she worked hard to keep Sadness from being whiny or one-note. Audiences agreed. Most people recognize her voice without knowing her face, which is a specific kind of fame for someone who spent years behind the casting table before anyone put her on camera.
Side Notes
She toured the country with burlesque shows for years, dancing with troupes like Able's Baggy Pants Burlesque, before a knee injury forced her off stage in her early thirties. She's clarified there was no nudity (feathers covered everything), which makes the mental image more specific, not less. NFL cheerleader for the St. Louis Cardinals in the same era. The gap between that career and Pixar included preschool teaching, warehouse shifts at JC Penney, and movie theater ticket-taking, which is just about as Midwestern an origin story as Sadness could have.