Phyllis Smith

Originally a dancer by trade, actress Phyllis Smith segued into acting success purely by chance. Her dancing career, which included stints as a professional football cheerleader and a burlesque performer, ended suddenly with a knee injury, prompting a foray into the world of television casting that ultimately led to a regular job on the other side of the camera. Smith later came to prominence with NBC's smash comedy "The Office" (NBC, 2005-2013) after the bespectacled and bouffant brunette charmed producers. With her hilarious deadpan double-takes, she eventually wooed primetime audiences as the unassuming, chipper paper saleswoman Phyllis Lapin, one of the hapless drone office workers at the Scranton, Pennsylvania-based paper company, Dunder-Mifflin.