Kate Flannery On Her New Film “How To Get Girls,” Working On “The Office” & Life As An Extra

Many people first discovered Kate Flannery when she was cast as Meredith Palmer on the legendary American sitcom The Office. But there was plenty more to Flannery’s career before she landed a role on the NBC hit, while the Philadelphia native continues to work regularly on a variety of television and film projects. Prior to working on The Office, Flannery was a member of comedy troupe Second City’s touring company and had worked as the musical director of the Los Angeles Drama Club. She also sang as “Lady Puff” in the late 1990s They Might Be Giants side project known as Mono Puff.

At the moment, Flannery is promoting the new movie How To Get Girls, which she appears in alongside Zach Fox, Chris Kattan and David Koechner. The film hits major VOD platforms on August 13th. Flannery also does voiceover work on the animated show OK K.O.! Let’s Be Heroes and regularly tours with Jane Lynch, with whom she will be appearing at New York’s Café Carlyle from September 11th through 22nd. Of note is that Lynch’s 2016 Christmas album, A Swingin’ Little Christmas — which prominently features Flannery — had reached #8 spot on the Billboard album charts.

I had the pleasure of speaking with Kate Flannery by phone, and below are some of the highlights from that conversation; more will be posted later via PureGrainAudio. Flannery can be followed on Twitter via @KateFlannery, while more on How To Get Girls can be found at www.fatcampfilms.com.

How did you wind up as part of How To Get Girls?

Kate Flannery: It was an offer, and I think it because of the casting director. They were shooting in Philadelphia and I’m from Philadelphia. I actually was interested in the fact that the 2 guys shooting the movie went to [University of] Penn[sylvania], and I went to the University Of The Arts. I just loved the idea that they were kind of giving these kids to step up and do something real. They were both still in college and hustling, I’d done a lot of underage drinking on the Penn campus. (laughs)

Speaking of that, I remember an interview you did with Adam Carolla about a family bar being in your lineage.

Kate Flannery: Yes, my dad had a bar for years. My grandfather had a bar that he started in 1933 and then my dad took it over in the 50s. My brother worked there for a long time. My brother had his own bar, I worked for him… I never worked at my dad’s bar. I waited tables for a long time and bartended for years before I got The Office. That was totally part of my story, for sure. I still had my restaurant job the first season of The Office…

Some of that was just stabling things for an unstable world. Some of it was that my dad and I would connect. He would say, “How’d you do? Who’d you wait on?” We’d have sort of a shorthand. I think that was one of the difficult parts of giving up that part of my life. It was like, “Gosh, what are we going to talk about now?” (laughs)

That’s very funny.

Kate Flannery: We’ve made the transition, thank god. (laughs)

Going back to Philadelphia, had you actually filmed any projects in Philadelphia before? Or was this actually the first time for you?

Kate Flannery: I was an extra in the movie Taps, a featured extra. I was also in Eddie & The Cruisers as an extra. Those are my 2 filming experiences. I had a pretty profound experience with both of them… I did extra work later when I was in my 20s and I felt very disposable. But those 2 experiences were very mind-blowing. I’ve actually talked to Sean Penn about it since, and Timothy Hutton. I was at the SAG Awards and Sean Penn was there… Taps was shot near my high school and we were there a lot. We hung out around a lot with the actors, it’s unusual, extras don’t usually do that.

I was one of the prom girls, so we had a different place. One of the prop guys on The Office was an extra in Taps as well, we talked about it years later. We realized we had worked together years later, it was a weird coincidence. But I remember Timothy Hutton won his Academy Award for Ordinary People while we were shooting… I was trying to learn a lot, and usually you get dismissed as an extra, but it was just different.

Were you an extra because you had acting aspirations? Or more than you were looking for some extra money?

Kate Flannery: Because I had aspirations, I was like, “I don’t know what this is, but I want in on it.” (laughs)

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Tags: Adam Carolla, Jane Lynch, Kate Flannery, Philadelphia, Sean Penn, The Office, They Might Be Giants, Timothy Hutton

About the Author

Darren Paltrowitz Darren Paltrowitz is a New York resident with over 20 years of entertainment industry experience. He began working around the music business as a teenager, interning for the manager of his then-favorite band Superdrag. Since then, he has worked with a wide array of artists including OK Go, They Might Be Giants, Mike Viola, Tracy Bonham, Loudness, Rachael Yamagata, and Amanda Palmer. Darren's writing has appeared in dozens of outlets including the New York Daily News, Inquisitr, The Daily Meal, The Hype Magazine, All Music Guide, Guitar World, TheStreet.com, Businessweek, Chicago Tribune, L.A. Times, and the Jewish Journal. Beyond being "Editor At Large" for The Hype Magazine, Darren is also the host of weekly "Paltrocast With Darren Paltrowitz" series, which airs on dozens on television and digital networks. He has also co-authored 2 published books, 2018's "Pocket Change: Your Happy Money" (Book Web Publishing) and 2019's "Good Advice From Professional Wrestling" (6623 Press), and co-hosts the world's only known podcast about David Lee Roth, "The DLR Cast."