Ken Jeong on his ‘breakthrough role’ in ‘The Office’ and Steve Carell's genius

Warning: This post contains spoilers for Episode 15 of the Office Ladies podcast.

Many people know comedian Ken Jeong for his role as Ben Chang on Community, but before Jeong made his way to Greendale Community College he had a cameo on another NBC comedy, The Office.

Jeong was a guest on the latest episode of the Office Ladies podcast, where he spoke with former co-stars Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey about playing Bill, one of the people in Michael Scott's improv class.

Along with discussing his "breakout role" in the Season 2 episode, "Email Surveillance," Jeong talked about his admiration for Steve Carell, and even had a dramatic in-studio reunion with his nemesis and formed Community co-star, Joel McHale. (It starts around 5:10, and you absolutely need to hear it. There's even a Parks and Rec joke!)

To recap, in "Email Surveillance," Michael gains access to everyone’s emails and in spying on their exchanges learns that Jim is hosting a barbecue and didn't invite him. After Michael attends his weekly improv class he works up the courage to crash Jim's office party, and before the episode ends viewers get their first glimpse at an intimate Dwight and Angela.

As for how Jeong ended up in this episode, he said it's all thanks to The Office's casting director, Allison Jones.

"I used to be a doctor — a physician, but I was auditioning like after work, during lunch, and Allison Jones just took a liking to me," Jeong said. "She got me an audition for The Office, and keep in mind I really had no screen credits, but she brought me straight into producers."

Jeong told Kinsey and Fischer that The Office was his favorite show on TV at the time he auditioned for it in 2005, and he's proud to call it his breakout role.

"A lot of people, rightfully so, attribute my acting to being over the top, like on Community," he said. "I think my breakthrough role [in The Office] was playing something very understated with maybe just two lines, and I would basically whisper every line."

"He told me he couldn't show it to me but he has a gun." Credit: the office / netflix / nbc

"It's one of those things in an actor's life where like, I've forgotten years of working on Community — probably because of Joel — but I remember every single minute of my maybe three hours working on The Office," he said. "I'm sure you have that too in your careers, where you just remember your first time, and you just know if it’s not a watershed event it’s maybe your favorite event. And that’s kind of what The Office means to me. I’m very grateful."

Jeong then recalled the glorious level of improv that was present in his scene. "When we sat down after the postmortem of the scene, Steve goes, 'I’m sorry but she was negating me during this whole scene,' and that was not in the script," he revealed. "They had this whole back and forth exchange for literally two minutes, and she just storms out of the class as if it was scripted. As soon as she had her back turned, Michael Scarn had the gun and went 'boom.' I’m like, 'I’ve just never seen this level of genius in my life on the set. It was just improv on top of improv.'"

Jeong says that to this day, working with Carell is something he'll never forget. "He was just coming off The 40-Year-Old Virgin and I’d literally just watched him in the movie theater the previous month, so I’m sharing a scene with the biggest star in comedy," he said. "He really is a role model to me because he’s just a professional, elegant, classy actor who has no weakness in his game, on or offscreen. He’s just someone that I really look up to."

When Community aired in 2009, Jeong said that following The Office on air was a huge honor for the cast. But if you want any other Community/Joel McHale info, you'll have to tune into the full podcast episode.

You can stream episodes of The Office on Netflix and follow along with the podcast every week on Earwolf, Apple Podcasts, or Stitcher.