The hit show “The Office” is coming to Binghamton University this week when actor Brian Baumgartner will speak in front of students.

The Student Association Programming Board’s (SAPB) “An Evening with Brian Baumgartner” will take place at the Mandela Room in the University Union at 7 p.m. this Friday. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. The entire event will be an hour of Baumgartner answering fan questions, divided into a 45-minute moderated section followed by a 15-minute audience Q&A section.

Lucas Bianculli, vice president for programming for the SAPB and a senior double-majoring in economics and environmental studies, is excited to change the format from a guest lecture to a Q&A instead.

“We thought that it would be a lot more interactive and give students a rare chance to ask [Baumgartner] a question,” Bianculli wrote in an email.

Baumgartner played Kevin Malone in “The Office” and has also appeared in smaller comedies such as “Four Christmases” and “License to Wed.” For those that don’t know, “The Office” follows a paper company workplace consisting of many eccentric and fun characters throughout. One of those people is Kevin Malone. Kevin is the quintessential goofball character that makes a lot of mistakes and loves eating food. The character is an enigma, though, in the way that Kevin could be extremely competent at times, like his drum-playing skills. There is an abundant amount of fan-favorite moments of Kevin, such as his wearing a toupee at a wedding and dropping his giant bowl of chili in the office.

Baumgartner began his acting journey in theatre. He graduated with a theatre major in 1995 and then moved to Los Angeles, California to work as a theatre director. Eventually, he auditioned for the role of Stanley in “The Office,” but the casting director had him audition for another role instead — one that everyone knows and loves today.

Baumgartner also delves into the world of golf, too. While working in the world of theatre, he found golf to be a fun physical outlet to get outside more often. Since then, he has played with the likes of Lawrence Taylor, Drew Brees and Michael Jordan.

The tickets for the show are free, only requiring you to RSVP on the B-Engaged event page. During this process, you can submit a question that may be asked to Baumgartner himself. The event is the first in-person event from SAPB’s Insights series since 2019, as last year featured “Drake & Josh” star Josh Peck and “Shark Tank” judge Daymond John in Zoom webinars. Unsurprisingly, the tickets were sold out within a half day of the announcement made on Instagram.

Bianculli is happy about the reactions students are having for the event.

“We had overwhelming support and positive feedback from this event within a day of announcing, so there are definitely a lot of ‘The Office’ fans on campus,” Bianculli wrote in an email. “I think that this was one of the best people we could have gotten for our show in a return back to in-person programming.”