James Spader Joins NBC’s The Office

UNIVERSAL CITY: James Spader is joining the cast of NBC’s The Office as a series regular, playing the CEO of Dunder Mifflin’s parent company.

The casting comes in the wake of Steve Carell’s departure from the show at the end of last season. Carell had been playing Michael Scott, the boss of the fictional paper-selling company Dunder Mifflin since the show’s launch on NBC.

Spader’s film credits include Steven Soderbergh’s Sex, Lies and Videotape; David Croenenberg’s Crash; and Steven Shainberg’s Secretary. He is set to shoot Steven Spielberg’s DreamWork’s feature Lincoln later this year. Spader also won three Emmy Awards for his role as attorney Alan Shore in The Practice and Boston Legal. He now joins The Office as Robert California, the CEO of Sabre, the parent company of Dunder Mifflin.

"James will reprise his role as Robert California, this uber-salesman that has a power to convince and manipulate, like a high-class weirdo Jedi warrior,"said Paul Lieberstein, one of the series’ executive producers and a series regular. "He’ll have been hired over the summer as the new manager, but within hours, got himself promoted. Within days, he took over the company. James has an energy that is completely his own, and The Office has no tools for dealing with this guy. We’re thrilled he’s joining our cast."