Background

Paul Bevan Lieberstein was born on February 22, 1967, in Westport, Connecticut. He went to Staples High School where he became interested in the genre of comedy and would spend hours watching Steve Martin’s albums. During his time at Staples High, he tried his hand at creative writing where he wrote and produced a program called “Hotel New Jersey”, with his friends in an abandoned TV Studio. The show was a spin-off of Hotel New Hampshire.

Paul graduated with a degree in economics. After graduation, he landed a job with Pete Marwick but ended up quitting it in frustration, as he wasn’t meant for that sort of work.

Relationships

Paul is a married man and he is very committed to his wife. Paul got married to Janine Serafin Poreba. Paul is the proud father of five children.

Career

Paul moved to Los Angeles to pursue his comedy writing career where he and his writing partner churned out spec episodes of existing TV shows. It was the spec episode of The Simpsons that won him his first writing job for the TV Series Clarissa Explains It All in 1991. This gave Paul the much needed breakthrough as a writer and soon he was hired for writing Weird Science in 1994 followed by the sitcom, The Naked Truth.

After a successful stint of three years, Paul was hired to write for the animated show, King of the Hill which displayed his writing prowess. King of The Hill brought Paul his very first Emmy Award in 1999 for Outstanding Animated Program. Riding on the success, Paul went on to write & co-produce several TV shows such as The Bernie Mac Show, The Drew Carey Show, and the short-lived cult classic Greg the Bunny.

In 2005, due to the success of King of The Hill, the producer Greg Daniels who also happens to be his brother-in-law hired Paul to write and co-produce an American remake of the British Comedy, The Office. Paul made his directorial debut in an episode of season 4. He debuted as an actor in the pilot episode in the much adored role of Toby Flenderson, the sad-eyed Human Resources director. He wrote what is arguably the very best episode of The Office: Season 5's "Stress Relief". Lieberstein's role as Toby Flenderson subsequently grew into a recurring role. Numerous cast and crew members, including Rainn Wilson, Jenna Fischer, and B.J. Novak have strongly praised Lieberstein's acting work considering he had never done any acting previously and referred to him as a natural.

The character turned out to be an immense hit with recurring appearances in the series. Paul’s work in The Office won him many recognitions including a Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Broadband Program in Comedy Genre, the 2006 Screen Actors Guild Award for “Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a comedy series”, the 2006 Writers Guild of America Award for Writer of The Office & the 2006 Emmy for Outstanding Comedy Series.

On March 22, 2012, it was announced that Lieberstein would focus on a planned The Office spin-off series featuring Rainn Wilson as Dwight Schrute, which was tentatively called The Farm and Lieberstein. However, in October 2012, it was announced that NBC was not accepting the spin-off series. Lieberstein worked as a producer on the third and final season of the television drama series, The Newsroom.