The Office's Angela Kinsey and Jenna Fischer Are Best Friend Goals

You might not know it from their often-frosty relationship on-screen, but after spending the better part of a decade together playing frenemies on NBC’s hit sitcom The Office, actresses Jenna Fischer (Pam) and Angela Kinsey (Angela) are actually straight-up besties in real life. 

The Office remains one of the biggest comedy hits in modern history, with the original nine season run (plus six seasons of extended “Super Fan” episodes, which re-cut extended and alternate cuts of scenes for extra-long episodes featuring never-before-seen footage for fans) remaining some of the most-watched and beloved programming on Peacock.

Fischer and Kinsey played fan favorites Pam and Angela for all nine seasons of the series, and though their characters were rarely chummy, the real life stars became life long friends early in the series’ run and remained just as close even after the series ended more than a decade ago.

How Did Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey Become Best Friends?

Though they had been cordial as co-stars and colleagues since the pilot episode, it wasn’t until the fifth episode of The Office’s first season, “Basketball,” that the pair spent time together and realized just how much they had in common. The episode found the office staff playing against the warehouse crew in a basketball game, with Pam and Angela sitting on the sideline keeping score. The pair recounted to People Magazine how they spent hours upon hours sitting on a bench beside one another while the episode was being filmed, and basically talked and got to know one another the entire time.

“We were leaving the warehouse and we were so giddy. We had this really fun friendship. You don't expect to make a friendship like this when you're older,” Fischer said. “We had to walk through this big parking lot, and it was at night. Like school girls, we linked arms and started doing Schlemiel and Schlimazel from Laverne & Shirley and [MIcheal Scott actor] Steve [Carell] was walking up behind us. We were so embarrassed and we were laughing. Steve was like, 'No matter what happens, this is what you'll take with you. This.' And he pointed at the two of us. He was so right.”

Are the Characters Pam and Angela Friends on The Office?

On-screen, Pam and Angela have a largely strained relationship for much of the series’ run, butting heads over their relationship choices, parenting choices and everything in-between along the way. Considering their real-life friendship, it’s a bit of a shame the pair never really had a chance to be on-screen besties, but their hilariously biting snark and sass over nine seasons is arguably a lot more fun.

But thankfully, by the time the final season and series finale rolls around, pretty much everyone at Dunder Mifflin has found a way to get along — including Pam and Angela. They may not be best friends, but they’re certainly on better terms by the end of it all.
 

After The Office: Jenna and Angela Started The "Office Ladies" Podcast

With The Office remaining as popular as ever in streaming, Fischer and Kinsey decided to put their real-life friendship to work when they teamed up to create the “Office Ladies" rewatch podcast in 2019. The podcast, which finds the pair rewatching and reminiscing over all 201 episodes of the series (plus the occasional bonus episode with interviews with former co-stars and creatives), has become a massive hit among fans. The two share little-known anecdotes from the set, and look back on the personal moments of how their time on the show influenced and affected their own lives.

“We are big journalers so we journaled about our days on set. And Angela is a digital hoarder,” Fischer told the Associated Press about how they were uniquely prepared for a rewatch podcast. “She kept every email I ever sent her. It was so great. When I was writing the chapter on the romance between (characters) Jim and Pam, she had an old email that I had written her. She forwarded that to me, and I was able to use that.”

The duo even parlayed the success of their podcast into the book Office BFFs: Tales of The Office from Two Best Friends Who Were There, which compiles many of the stories and tales from their time on The Office into a print book that would make Dunder Mifflin proud.  

Jenna and Angela Stopped By the Kelly Clarkson Show in 2022

The Office co-stars Angela Kinsey and Jenna Fischer stopped by The Kelly Clarkson Show to catch up, and they dished about everything from Halloween to hospital visits. 

The three women bonded over how tricky it can be to balance work and parenting, something so many fans can relate to.

"That's one of the things we trade messages about all the time...strategizing," Fischer told Clarkson."Strategizing how to be where you need to be for work and how to be home when you need to be home for the important stuff." 

It was so inspiring to hear how much Fischer and Kinsey show up to support each other.

"Many years ago I was working on a new show called Splitting Up Together, and they came to me and said I was going to have to work on Halloween," explained Fischer. "My kids were little at the time, and Halloween was everything to them."

Knowing how hard it was for Fischer to miss the occasion, Kinsey swooped in like a true BBF and saved the day by hosting a pre-Halloween Trick or Treat event, even enlisting the help of her neighbors. 

The gal pals also shared some tips for making it through tedious events from the book they co-wrote, The Office BFFs: Tales of The Office From Two Best Friends Who Were There. 

"We kind of had to learn how to be at these fancy shindigs together, and so we came up with a bunch of these rules," said Fischer.

"Definitely eat, they don't feed you," laughed Kinsey. "And there's a lot of adult beverage."

Angela Kinsey and Jenna Fischer's rock-solid friendship has been going strong for almost 20 years. After Fischer took a bad fall, fracturing her back in four places, Kinsey rode in the ambulance with her and held her hand at the hospital. 

"My favorite thing was the nurse was like, 'Would you like your friend to step out while we give you a catheter?'" said Kinsey. "And [Jenna] said, 'I'd like her to stay and hold my hand.'"

Now that's what friends are for. 

Jenna and Angela Still Get Emotional About The End of The Office

With their podcast slowly growing closer to the final episodes of The Office, the two stars are starting to prepare themselves to revisit the end of the story once again with the benefit of hindsight and perspective. Kinsey said she has rewatched the finale, and "boohooed through it,” crying as she wrote about the finale for the book.

Fischer confided to People Magazine that even to this day, she still hasn’t watched the entire series finale because it’s simply too hard to see it end.

“I just watched the parts that I had to write about in the book because it’s too emotional for me,” she said.

The entire nine season run of The Office is streaming now on Peacock, along with the extended “Super Fan” episodes.