Final ;top
Why I Love ...
Scranton
Emmy winner Oscar Nuñez
still digs his daily “commute”
from his home in Los Angeles
to The O;ce in Scranton, Pa.
ACTOR OSCAR NUÑEZ isn’t a resident
of Scranton, but he plays one on TV. The
northern Pennsylvania city, two hours by
car from Philadelphia, is the playground
for Nuñez and his co-workers on NBC’s
The O;ce, which returns this fall for its
sixth season.
The Rust Belt city is a key ingredient—
a best supporting actor, if you will—in
the success of the hit show. And the sit-com-meets-reality-television shooting
style might have you thinking that Oscar
Nuñez, who plays an accountant named
Oscar Martinez (“who just happens to
be gay”), would know his way around
town. Well, he’d prefer to leave the tour
92 ;rrıve • July/August 2009 • ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;.;;;
York’s come
t
guide responsibilities to
the TV Oscar, who makes
up a third of Dunder Mif-
flin’s Finer Things Club
(see sidebar).
The O;ce has pro-
vided the Cuban-born,
50-year-old funny guy
with his first steady gig.
“The jobs I’ve done … you
have no idea,” he says. “I
sold vibrating pillows.”
In fact, his entire résumé
reads like a comic bit
for his alter ego. He
did time at the Fashion
Institute of Technology
(as an artist) and at the
Parsons School of Design
(as a writer), eventu-
ally graduating from
the Magna Institute of
Dental Technology (as
a dental technician).
“Mom wanted her son
o be employed,” he says.
“After six months work-
ing, I thought, ‘This is
awful. I can’t do this.’ ”
He tossed the teeth
scraper and hit New
dy clubs. After a few years,
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he relocated to Los Angeles, joined the
Groundlings improv comedy troupe and
landed his first television gig on Curb
Your Enthusiasm.
“I started getting older and started
reaking out,” he says. “I was in my 30s
when I finally came to L. A.”
f
n folks.
▼
Now that Nuñez has found a bit of
success, he is looking beyond his O;ce
cubical. He produced and starred in
Halfway Home for Comedy Central
and landed on the big screen in this
summer’s Sandra Bullock romantic
comedy The Proposal.
“Part of the story takes place in a
small town in Alaska,” he says, “and I
play a guy who has several jobs in town,
so I keep popping up.”
Because much of the movie takes
place in Alaska, we had to ask: Any sightings of that Tina Fey impersonator (aka
the governor)?
“No, we filmed in Boston,” he says.
