The Office

Background:

“I am gay on the show (The Office), but I don't play Oscar gay. I know many gay people. Some of them are straighter than me and I'm straight. People are people.” Oscar Nunez

Cuban American actor and comedian Oscar Nunez is well-known for playing Oscar Martinez on the hit comedy series “The Office” (NBC, 2005-present), from which he has taken home two Screen Actors Guild Awards, a TV Land Award and an ALMA nomination. He jointly won a Daytime Emmy Award for his work on the webisode “The Office: The Accountants” (2006), where he reprised his role of Oscar. On the victory of “The Office,” he said, “Our fans are fanatical about our show and I think it's like the 'Seinfeld' of its day.”

Nunez also created and starred in the short-lived series “Halfway Home” (Comedy Central, 2007) and played recurring roles on “Reno 911!” (2003-2006, as Captain Dwayne Hernandez) and “The Bad Girl's Guide” (2005). He has also guest starred in TV shows like “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” “Grounded for Life” and “24.” As a film actor, Nunez is perhaps most popular for playing Ramone in the Sandra Bullock box office hit “The Proposal” (2009). He also appeared in small roles in “The Italian Job” (2003) and “Reno 911!: Miami” (2007), and performed with NYC's The Shock of the Funny Theatre Company and Los Angeles' The Groundlings.

Dental Technician

Childhood and family:

Oscar Nunez was born on November 18, 1958, in Cuba, but was raised in Union City, New Jersey. He graduated from the Warner Brother's Comedy Writer's Workshop in 1997. Two years later, he became a finalist at the ABC Latino Writers Project.

Oscar is a certified dental technician. He speaks fluent Spanish and English and can speak in Italian, British, Indian and French dialects. He enjoys sports and ranks “The Sopranos,” “The West Wing,” “Rome,” “Deadwood,” “Desperate Housewives” and “The Daily Show” among some of his favorites TV shows.

Oscar is married to a woman named Carla.

The Proposal

Career:

Oscar Nunez made his early TV appearance in 1998 when he became a contestant on the game show “Match Game.” However, he did not win. His first real acting job arrived two years later when he appeared as a parking attendant in an episode of the Emmy and Golden Globe Award winning comedy series “Curb Your Enthusiasm” called “Interior Decorator.” The role was followed by guest spots in the Donal Logue/Megyn Price-led sitcom “Grounded for Life” in 2001 and the CBS comedy series “Still Standing” in 2003. He was also cast as a pilot in the 2003 episode of “24” called “Day 3: 6:00 p.m.-7:00 p.m.”

Nunez's luck started to change when he landed a recurring role on Comedy Central's “Reno 911!” in 2003. In the series, he played Captain Dwayne Hernandez in the episodes “Terrorist Training: Part 1 and Part 2.” He would return to the show to reprise his role of Captain Dwayne Hernandez in the 2006 episode “Spanish Mike Returns.” 2003 also saw Nunez make his big screen debut in “The Italian Job,” where he appeared as a security guard. A remake of the 1969 British film of the same name, the movie starred Mark Wahlberg, Charlize Theron, Edward Norton, Seth Green, Jason Statham, Mos Def, and Donald Sutherland.

After appearing in Comedy Central's “Last Laugh '04,” Nunez was featured in director/co-writer Salvador Litvak's comedy film “When Do We Eat” (2005). The film won honors at the San Diego Film Festival and the Tahoe Reno International Film Festival. He then played Melicio in the short-lived UPN series “The Bad Girl's Guide” (2005), which starred Jenny McCarthy, Christina Moore and Johnathan McClain. However, he did not enjoy real fame until he joined Steve Carell, Rainn Wilson, John Krasinski, Jenna Fischer, B. J. Novak, Ed Helms, Leslie David Baker, Angela Kinsey and Kate Flannery in the television comedy series “The Office.” Adapted from the hit BBC show of the same name, the American version premiered on NBC on March 24, 2005, and has won many awards, including a 2006 Emmy for Outstanding Comedy Series, the Peabody Award, a 2006 Television Critics Association for Outstanding Achievement in Comedy, and a 2007 Writers Guild of America for Best Comedy Series. As Oscar Martinez, Oscar received two Screen Actors Guild Awards in the category of Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series, TV Land's Future Classic Award and a 2008 ALMA nomination for Outstanding Male Performance in a Comedy Television Series. For his performance in “The Office: The Accountants” (January to September 2006), a spin-off series of mini episodes of “The Office,” Nunez was handed a 2007 Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Broadband Program - Comedy, an honor he shared with producers, executive producers and other performers. He also reprised his role on the webisodes “The Office: Kevin's Loan” and “The Office: The Outburst” (both 2008). Commenting about working on “The Office,” he stated, “It never feels like I'm working in an office. It's all make-believe and the rest of your life reminds you that you're not in an office and that you're on this big television show.”

Nunez also kept busy on other projects outside of “The Office.” He made a guest appearance in a 2006 episode of Oxygen's sitcom “Campus Ladies” and played a role on the box office hit “Reno 911!: Miami” (2007), a film spawned from the TV series “Reno 911.” In 2007, he created and served as executive producer on the comedy series “Halfway Home,” where he also portrayed the character Eulogio Pla. The show was broadcasted on Comedy Central from March 14 to May 16, 2007 (10 episodes). Costars of the show included Jordan Black, Regan Burns, Jessica Makinson, Octavia Spencer and Kevin Ruf.

The Cuban-born actor returned to feature films with the supporting role of Tick in “Beethoven's Big Break,” the sixth sequel in the Beethoven film franchise. Directed, written by and produced by Mike Elliott, it was directly released to video on December 26, 2008. More recently, in June 2009, Nunez supported Sandra Bullock, Ryan Reynolds, Mary Steenburgen and Craig T. Nelson in the romantic comedy film “The Proposal,” where he was cast as Ramone, an illegal immigrant who holds many jobs. Directed by Anne Flecther and written by Pete Chiarelli, the film earned mixed reviews, but opened at No. 1 in the U.S., Australia and Russia.

Apart from being an actor, Nunez is a comedian. He set up and performed in more than 300 shows with The Shock of the Funny Theatre Company in New York City. After moving to L.A., he joined The Groundlings' Sunday Company and wrote and starred in “Smooth Down There.”

Awards:

• Screen Actors Guild: Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series, “The Office,” 2008

• TV Land: Future Classic Award, “The Office,” 2008

• Screen Actors Guild: Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series, 2007

• Daytime Emmy: Outstanding Broadband Program - Comedy, “The Office: The Accountants,” 2007