Actors You Recognize, But Don't Know Their Names: Stephen Root

I started this series on Facebook a month ago, but thought I should transport it here so it wouldn’t get lost down in the infinite scroll. The idea should be pretty self-explanatory, to highlight some notable folks that we’ve all seen in numerous movies and TV shows, but aren’t A-list leads. Many of these folks are favorites of mine – actors who I always enjoy seeing pop up in various roles in whatever films or programs I’m currently watching. I am going to begin with a guy whose work I’ve enjoyed for nearly a quarter of a century:

Stephen Root

I have loved this guy since he played Jimmy James on the great ‘90s sitcom Newsradio. Since then, he was Milton in OFFICE SPACE (he also appeared in Mike Judge’s IDIOCRACY), he’s been in three Coen brothers films, and also had substantial roles in the films DODGEBALL: A TRUE UNDERDOG STORY, CEDAR RAPIDS, GET OUT, BOMBSHELL, and many others.

These are only a handful of his big screen highlights as he’s been on seemingly every TV show of the last 30 years too - from Roseanne to Seinfeld to King of the Hill to The West Wing to The Big Bang Theory to Barry to the title character in The Man in the High Castle - you get the idea, his filmography is nuts. So let’s salute Stephen Root.

Finally, Root may be the only actor in this series whose image in character is used in the packaging of a popular product:

Stay tuned for more in the Actors You Recognize But Don’t Know Their Names series.

More later...