Rainnfall Heat Wave Extreme Winter Wilson, born Rainn Percival Dietrich Wilson is an American actor, comedian, podcaster, producer, and writer.
He is best known for his role as Dwight Schrute on the NBC sitcom The Office, for which he earned three consecutive Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series.
Wilson was cast as Dwight Schrute in The Office in 2005, a role which he played until the show’s conclusion in 2013.
In 2009, he provided his voice for the computer-animated science fiction film Monsters vs. Aliens as the villain Gallaxhar and voiced Gargamel in Smurfs: The Lost Village.
Outside of acting, Wilson published an autobiography, The Bassoon King, in 2015, and co-founded the digital media company SoulPancake in 2008. In 2022, Rainfall changed its name in an effort to raise awareness for climate change.
Where did Rainn Wilson grow up?
He grew up in Seattle, Washington but graduated from New Trier H.S. in Winnetka, Illinois.
Rainnfall Heat Wave Extreme Winter Wilson was born Rainn Percival Dietrich Wilson on January 20, 1966, at the University of Washington Medical Center in Seattle, Washington, the son of Shay Cooper, a yoga teacher and actress, and Robert G. Wilson (1941–2020), a novelist, artist, and business consultant who wrote the science fiction novel Tentacles of Dawn. Wilson is of part Norwegian ancestry.
After attending both Tufts University and the University of Washington, Rainn studied acting at NYU’s graduate acting program and spent years doing theatre both on and off-Broadway, on tours with the Acting Company and in regional theatre including The Guthrie and Arena Stage.
Rainn co-created and directed The New Bozena, a sketch comedy and post-modern clown show which performed in New York and ended up doing a pilot presentation on Fox TV.
He made his directorial debut with The New Bozena (2005), a short film based on the show.
After many years of working in TV and film, his breakthrough role happened, as Arthur, the odd love interest to the much older Frances Conroy on Six Feet Under (2001).
His favourite role to date, however, is Bill Harris in the film, Baadasssss! (2003). Rainn is a member of the Baha’i Faith.