How to Audition for ‘The Office’ Revival, 'The Paper'

Not to be confused with Prime Video’s Australian reboot of “The Office,” Peacock’s “The Paper”—with creative team Daniels and Michael Koman at the helm—moves the story to a tiny, struggling newspaper that exists within the same universe as Michael Scott (Steve Carell) and his team. On “The Paper,” the documentary crew that chronicled Dunder Mifflin’s Scranton, Pennsylvania, office delves into its new subject: the Toledo Truth Teller, a dying, albeit historic, Midwestern newspaper. Led by editor-in-chief Ned Sampson (Domhnall Gleeson), the publication must be revived by him and his volunteer staff, despite their overall lack of knowledge on how to make that dream a reality. After all, only one of Ned’s employees is an actual full-time reporter. The rest of the crew consists of accountants and sales professionals pulled from the paper’s parent company, Enervate, making up a ragtag team laced with hijinks and chaos.

Season 1 featured an array of talented stars, all of whom are expected to return for Season 2:

• Domhnall Gleeson as Ned Sampson
• Sabrina Impacciatore as Esmeralda Grand
• Chelsea Frei as Mare Pritti
• Melvin Gregg as Detrick Moore
• Gbemisola Ikumelo as Adelola Olofin
• Alex Edelman as Adam Cooper
• Ramona Young as Nicole Lee
• Tim Key as Ken Davies
• Oscar Nuñez as Oscar Martinez
• Duane R. Shepard Sr. as Barry
• Allan Havey as Marv Putnam
• Nate Jackson as Nate Wells
• Mo Welch as Kimberly
• Eric Rahill as Travis Bienlien
• Nancy Lenehan as Ann Putnam
• Molly Ephraim as Soph Cooper
• Tracy Letts as John Stack

And if one of those names sounds familiar, that’s because it is. Nuñez has reprised his “The Office” character, this time working as the head accountant turned arts and leisure reporter—and he’s not happy to be under the watchful eye of the exact same documentary crew yet again!

Leslie Woo (“Silicon Valley,” “King of the Hill”) is the primary casting director behind “The Paper.” Veteran TV and comedy casting director Allison Jones served as the CD for the original series, however, her insight into how she finds new comedic talent is something all interested actors should keep in mind. 

“When I started out, I used to watch every ‘Law & Order’ show so I could learn New York actors,” Jones told us. “Now I just watch everything, and you can track [talent] down on the internet…. [T]he streaming stuff, the stuff on YouTube, the stuff on Funny or Die. There are millions of places to look.”

She added: “It has always been, and it always will be, legwork, I think. Just doing your homework and watching as much TV as you can and seeing who was that guy who delivered that line. We do it on commercials, too. We see someone we like on a commercial and have to track them down. When I need to find a certain group of people, we learn a certain group of people.”

Walking into her audition, Frei was completely clueless. “I knew nothing, which I think was probably best because I am truly one of the biggest ‘Office’ fans of all time. When I got the audition, it was very much dummy sides and said, ‘The Untitled Greg Daniels/Michael Koman Project.’ The character’s name was Paula. Nothing about it was actually about the show, but they said, ‘Do a tape and see what happens.’ And just like all audition tapes, I was like, I don’t know what this is so I’m just going to let it float into the world,” Frei told Glamour. “Then, two weeks later, I got a call that I was going to go to 30 Rock to meet Michael and Greg. Then I realized what it was and freaked out. It was one of those experiences.”

Ultimately, Frei decided to release all expectations in the audition room. “I had just come off a show that had been canceled before it came out. It was a casualty of the strikes that I worked on for two and a half years. I honestly thought I was never going to work again,” she noted. “I was just so not in a very confident place when I went to 30 Rock, but I think that was why I just went in there and had so much fun. I improvised with Greg and Michael for over an hour. It was such a surreal day. I left being like, I think that actually went well. Then I did chemistry reads with Domhnall, but I didn’t hear anything for another month. I was still in the running and wrote Greg a heartfelt letter.”

Meanwhile, for Impacciatore, “The Office” itself was something she had only heard about. “I had no idea about this show. I knew it was a cult show, but I hadn’t seen it,” she told Vulture. “I was boarding a plane back from Cape Town to Italy after a film shoot, and I got a call from my agents. There was an audition for ‘The Paper’ in 24 hours. Can you imagine? So during the flight, I watched a few episodes of ‘The Office’—the American version by Greg Daniels [who co-created ‘The Paper’]—and I got terrified.

“I thought, No, this is too brilliant. I arrived in Italy, and I had to learn 11 pages of monologues. English is not my first language, so that was really challenging. But because I was coming from being in the savanna shooting a movie, I decided I would just be like an animal and follow my instincts,” she added. “I didn’t remember the lines in this audition on Zoom, and I started to improvise. I thought it was really going badly because I didn’t hear any sound, but after 45 minutes, they appeared on the Zoom and unmuted and said they had been laughing out loud. Could I do that again in two days with the real script?”

However, Impacciatore’s second audition was a “nightmare,” she recalled. “I asked all my friends if they knew an American person in Rome, and finally I found this girl who was an art student and invited her to my place, and we repeated the lines for hours. I had two other auditions for other projects, all in three days, so I didn’t sleep. But I was crazy in love with Esmeralda, and when she was pretending to cry in a scene, I really cried. At the end of the audition, they said, ‘Don’t you understand she’s just being manipulative?’ I said, ‘I know. But she’s really good at that.’ ”

She continued, “My agents told me that they were looking for an American actress, but I think they just got curious about me because they saw me in ‘The White Lotus.’ It was a big difference for the character to switch to being an Italian woman who had married an American guy. Now she’s a single mom after being divorced. I told them that Esmeralda doesn’t want to go back to Italy. Now she has to make it here. And I wanted to add an element of innocence.”

During an appearance on “The Graham Norton Show,” Gleeson revealed that the cast will return to the newsroom in January or February 2026, with fans predicting a September 2026 premiere date for Season 2.

Currently, there are no open casting calls for “The Paper” Season 2. We suggest bookmarking our main comedy casting call page and checking out our guide on how to audition for Peacock in the meantime.

Our guides on how to beef up your comedy résumé will also help you prepare as you await your break:

• I Want to Be a Comedian: Where Do I Start?
• How to Be Funny: A Full Guide to Finding Your Inner Comedian
• 5 Tips for Acing Your TV Comedy Audition
• Think You Know How to Act in a Comedy? Think Again

Let fear fuel your passion: Gleeson recognizes acting can be scary at times, but actors must be willing to step outside their comfort zone if they truly want to tap into their raw talent. Only then can one step into who they are meant to be onscreen. “As an actor, you should feel like you’re wrestling the material, like it’s using up your energy and your resources. You should be drained by the process,” he told Time. “I think the key is not to be comfortable.”

Fill your time wisely: For those who aren’t established, acting can include a lot of downtime, but as Frei told Glamour, actors must remain creative because self-production and self-motivation are the key to sustaining one’s momentum. Frei said, “In years where acting is really slow, I’ve really leaned on writing and creating stuff with friends and making my own opportunities. As time has gone on, I’ve seen the bigger picture of, There’s going to be ups, but there’s going to be a whole lot of downs, so how can you fill that time?”

Treat every opportunity with respect: Nuñez has carved a place for himself in the comedy world, but he almost let pride get the better of him in the early days of his career. “I auditioned for an Off Broadway play back in the ’80s,” he shared with Inc. “I auditioned for it, and I got to be the stand-in. I don’t know what happened but I kind of took it as an insult, because I’m insane, and instead of being happy about it, I didn’t take the part. I let my ego get the better of me, and, like, a week after, I’m like, What was I thinking? Why did I turn it down? What is wrong with me? So kids, don’t cut off your nose to spite your face.”