Rain Wilson

Known for regularly playing odd, clueless, “hippie,” neurotic, and eccentric characters in television and on film, Emmy-nominated actor Rainn Dietrich Wilson has won two Screen Actors Guild Awards for his work throughout his career. His current most famous role is as the very neurotic assistant to the regional manager Dwight Schrute on the hit NBC mockumentary The Office, starring Steve Carell. Previously, Wilson was most known for his role as the peculiar androgynous (read: genderless) assistant mortician Arthur Martin in HBO’s Six Feet Under, which ended its five-year run in August of 2005.

Wilson was born on January 20, 1966 in Seattle, Washington, and developed a strong interest in acting, attending Tufts University, University of Washington, New York University (from where he received an MFA—Master of Fine Arts), and Tisch School of the Arts. Wilson also taught acting classes and was a part of Washington, D.C.’s The Acting Company, a theater company associated with the JKF Center for the Performing Arts; some alumni of The Acting Company include Kevin Kline, Frances Conroy, Harriet Harris, and Jesse L. Martin.

In addition to his roles on The Office and Six Feet Under, Wilson has guest-starred on a number of T.V. series, such as Charmed, Dark Angel, CSI, Law & Order, MDs, Monk, Numb3rs, and Entourage, often playing quirky characters, including a sketchy entertainment reporter and a homicidal baseball buff. He’s also got a few film credits under his belt, including roles in the movies Galaxy Quest, starring Tim Allen, Sigourney Weaver, and Alan Rickman; Almost Famous, with Kate Hudson, Billy Crudup, Jason Lee, Frances McDormand, Patrick Fugit, and Philip Seymour Hoffman; America’s Sweethearts, co-starring Catherine Zeta Jones, Julia Roberts, Billy Crystal, and John Cusack; Full Frontal; House of 1000 Corpses; The Life Coach; and Sahara, with Matthew McConaughey, Steve Zahn, and Penelope Cruz.

More recently, Wilson starred as Vaughn Haige along with Uma Thurman, Luke Wilson, and Anna Faris in My Super Ex-Girlfriend (2006) and as Larry White in 2007’s The Last Mimzy, featuring Chris O’Neil, Rhiannon Leigh Wryn, Joely Richardson, Timothy Hutton, and Kathryn Hahn. Wilson was also granted the honor of hosting Saturday Night Live, following in his The Office co-star Steve Carell’s footsteps, in late February 2007.

Although he seems to prefer playing very eccentric and neurotic characters as an actor, Wilson appears to have a fairly normal and steady home life; he has a wife, Holiday Reinhorn (they met in acting class), with whom he has a son (Walter McKenzie), born in 2004—together they live in California. The three of them, along with Wilson’s parents and family, are members of the Bahá'í Faith.