When Parks and Rec rolled around, I had a feeling it would be well received enough to seriously curtail my shop time, and thankfully, I was right. (Take it from us Offerman’s take on American history is worth reading.) He also has a wonderfully eccentric role in the Sundance hit Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, out in theaters on June 12.įor years it was just me, alone, knocking out commissions between acting jobs. The setup also allows Offerman to pursue some of his other interests, such as writing books, like his latest, Gumption: Relighting the Torch of Freedom with America's Gutsiest Troublemakers. And Offerman, being the true-blue woodworker that he is, found a way to keep his carpentry hobby afloat-hiring a manager for his shop, and eventually a small staff to handcraft everything from mustache combs and meat paddles to gorgeous redwood end tables and custom-ordered shelves.

As Offerman legend goes, the Illinois-born actor spent long hours in his carpentry den before landing his breakout Parks and Rec role, figuring that handcrafting canoes might make a more viable career than cracking wise during the occasional TV cameo.įortunately for us, television fates intervened. Nick Offerman in his East Los Angeles woodshop, which he has been renting for about 15 years.īack in April, Nick Offerman-the mustache-wearing, red-meat-eating, wood-working everyman who reached cult status as Parks and Recreation’s Ron Swanson-invited VF Hollywood to his private lair: his woodshop.

Nick offerman canoe book