Northwestern students probably know Jim O’Heir best for his role as Jerry on Parks and Recreation, but he’s had a storied, decades-long career as a comedic character actor.
1. The first decade or so of O’Heir’s acting career was spent in the Chicago theater world as a member of White Noise, a group that often put on black comedy plays.
2. O’Heir is credited on many shows throughout the 2000s, but his cameo as a cross-dressing department store Santa Claus on a 2004 episode of Boston Legal stands out.
3. Although O’Heir mostly acts in comedies, he is not averse to science fiction, having acted in a 2000 episode of Star Trek: Voyager.
4. O’Heir originally auditioned for the role of Ron Swanson on Parks and Recreation. Obviously Nick Offerman was cast instead, but creators Michael Schur and Greg Daniels liked O’Heir so much that they cast him, saying that they would “figure it out later.”
5. As O’Heir references in his video, many different names have been offered for his character within Parks and Recreation. His official character name appears to be “Jerry Gergich,” but he’s also been called Garry, Larry and Gerald. His Wikipedia page refers to him as Garry "Jerry"/"Larry Gengurch" Gergich.