The Office: Every Secondary Character, Ranked By Likability

The Office is still an incredibly popular sitcom about the daily work and personal lives of a large cast of employees. The secondary characters are just as well-developed and recognizable as the main cast of characters in the show.

There are a lot of strong and unique personalities in the show including the secondary characters who recur throughout the series. Here are the most prominent secondary characters from the show ranked from least to most likable.

15 Jan Levinson

Jan begins as a character just trying to do her job and a foil to unruly Regional Manager Michael Scott, but she slowly turns into one of the most unlikeable characters of the series by the end of her run.

She and Michael begin to date and she isn’t a good partner to him as she verbally abuses him and spends most of his money during the course of their relationship.

14 Toby Flenderson

Michael hates Toby with a passion and the audience doesn’t feel too different from him. He’s a quiet and awkward character who never really fits in with his co-workers at the office.

He tends to wallow in self-pity and has an uncomfortable crush on Pam making him a pretty unlikeable character.

13 Ryan Howard

Ryan begins the show as a clueless and indifferent character who views his work at the office as a stop-gap before graduating from business school. When he becomes successful at Dunder Mifflin, Ryan becomes a terrible character and turns his back on everyone at the office and treats them terribly.

And he still acts like he’s better than everyone at the office when Michael gives him a job after he’s fired in disgrace from corporate.

12 Creed Bratton

Creed is a mysterious character who slowly reveals information about himself in random moments throughout the show leading to multiple fan theories about Creed.

Creed doesn’t get much screentime, but his presence in the office is always there and he provides random hilarity when he speaks to the camera in response to the plot of an episode or tells a random story about his life.

11 Meredith Palmer

Meredith is a mess of a character who is comfortable with her messy life and she is frequently inappropriate in the office making her an entertaining character.

Meredith is mostly in the background of the show, but her dialogue revealing her life is random and hilarious. She’s also a stark juxtaposition to the characters on the show who are relatively tame in their personal lives compared to Meredith.

10 Karen Filipelli

Karen was a pretty cool character who unfortunately got between fan-favorite couple Jim and Pam when she and Jim began dating after he transferred offices.

She’s a confident character who is pretty similar to Pam, but she never fully becomes her own character and is usually defined by her relationship to Jim on the show.

9 Erin Hannon

Erin is a sweet and innocent character but her naivety can be frustrating and a little one-note for a character who occurs so often on the show in the later seasons.

She’s an enjoyable character in small doses as she’s pretty over-the-top, but most characters on The Office are exaggerated so she does fit in with the rest of the cast.

8 Angela Martin

Angela is an uptight character who would be a nightmare co-worker in real life, but she is a pretty entertaining fictional character and has a funny rapport with the other characters on the show.

Angela also has an oddly perfect and offbeat relationship with Dwight, but she isn’t purely defined by this relationship.

7 Oscar Martinez

Oscar is a fun and lovable character, but he can become annoying at times when he thinks that he knows better than the rest of the office.

Sure, he’s mostly right, but his arrogance is offputting and he doesn’t approach sharing his knowledge in a nice way as it’s usually mean-spirited. Overall he’s fun and relatable, but not the most likable secondary character on the show.

6 Darryl Philbin

Darryl is a similar character to Jim Halpert in that they both see through the insane antics that happen at the office and rebel against the leadership by playing into the antics and turning it into a joke.

Although Darryl doesn’t plan elaborate jokes like Jim, he still enjoys the little things like telling Michael fake slang words and quietly laughing when he uses them in real conversations. He’s a relatable and lovable character for his approach to work and his co-workers.

5 Holly Flax

Holly is extremely similar to Michael Scott to the point that they’re basically the same person, which is probably why they make such a great couple.

Holly has a bit more social awareness than Michael does and the two complement each other well. She’s an enjoyable character and fans were happy to see they ended up together.

4 Kelly Kapoor

Kelly has a strong and outgoing personality that can be overbearing at times, but she’s an entertaining and lovable character overall. She’s fashionable and confident and isn’t afraid to speak her mind.

She tends to be romantically focused, most of her funny moments are centered on her romantic life, and she has a fun arc as she becomes more independent throughout the show but still has a weak spot for co-worker Ryan.

3 Kevin Malone

Kevin Malone is a hilarious and lovable character on the show who is incredibly naive but in an endearing way.

He spends most of his days at the office making accounting errors and passionately giving his strong opinions on food. He’s a fun character that the audience roots for and loves throughout the show.

2 Phyllis Lapin-Vance

Phyllis is a strong-willed character whose looks of a matronly presence that doesn’t match her random and at times pretty sexual dialogue.

Phyllis isn’t afraid to share her personal life in random lines about her and Bob Vance’s life together. She also represents a realistic introverted personality that oftentimes clashes with Angela’s extroverted personality. Whenever these disagreements occurred, almost every fan was rooting for Phyllis.

1 Stanley Hudson

Stanley Hudson is a hilarious and relatable character and one of the most likable of the entire series. He’s stern and tends to keep to his own, although he and Phyllis are quite close because their desks are together at the office, and he does his work and wants to get home which is a pretty relatable character trait.

Stanley doesn’t have too much screentime, but he always leaves the audience laughing and wishing he was their grumpy co-worker in real life.

About The Author