Nearly 20 years ago, Jeff Heller auditioned for the role of Kenneth Parcell, the devilishly sunny NBC page, eventually played by Jack McBrayer, in the pilot version of the film. 30 Rock. Since things were going well for Heller at the time, he did not get the job.
“We all knew it was written for Jack, so I never pretended I was going to get it,” Heller says now. But then, there was a pleasant surprise: “Tina Fey called me and said, ‘You’ve got really good timing’ — which kept me going for several years.”
Faye went on to hire Heller as an employee at the hotel 30 RockSeason 3 – and in a true rarity for any actor not named Rachel Dratch – brought him back years later to play a completely different character.
That second role, as a flight attendant, came as an offer, without the need for an audition. “This has never happened in my entire career and has only happened two or three times since then,” Heller says. “It was a huge surprise, and it made me feel very proud.”
The Upright Citizens Brigade graduate credits that experience with supporting him and keeping him motivated amid several slow periods before, during and after. In fact, it would be another decade before Heller landed his first regular TV series role, an independent HBO comedy Someone somewhere – Natural and moving performances across three seasons, culminating in a stunning Emmy win for Best Supporting Actor last year.
“It was the dream all along,” he says. “After our first season, when no one had heard about the show or cared about it, I was still like, ‘I don’t care — I should be on that set.’” He’s now back on the guest star circuit with a slew of standout performances on popular shows last season, including Multiple, Elspeth, He stumbled, ghosts and Widow’s Bay. “I feel like I get more respect,” Heller says of what’s changed since the Emmy win. Example: “I was offered the role of Not the Killer Elspeth“And then when I won the Emmy, I got the role of the killer,” he says — which put him in popular company ElspethSeason 3 Killers: Dianne Wiest, Patti LuPone, J. Smith-Cameron, Julia Fox, Steve Buscemi and more.
“I killed someone with a curling iron,” Heller exclaims.
However, no recent performance by Heller looms as large as his warmly mysterious cameo. Multiple Like Larry, the friendly biker (complete with cool bike shorts). When she realizes the scope of what she’s up against with the smiling Hive Mind surrounding her, Carol (Rhea Seehorn) summons one of those members, Larry, to ask his opinion — and then his dead wife’s, as he has access to her — about the books she wrote before an alien virus turned the planet upside down. His answers are strangely indirect, which leads Carol to the crucial discovery that the cell cannot lie to her. But Lari also shares a story about how her work impacts people, which resonates so much because of Heller’s sensitive touch.
Heller believes he got the role because one of creator Vince Gilligan’s employees was A.J Someone somewhere Fan: “He saw my audition and said, ‘Oh, I love this guy!’ “He had little information when he first put himself forward for the party and knew nothing about it Multiple“Legends, just given the trend of ‘You’re her father and you’re talking to her about her dead mother’ (yeah, not exactly). Once he got the job, he still had a lot of blanks to fill in. Seehorn proved to be a reliable main source: “She doesn’t get many days off. She’s in every scene, so her time off is precious. But she generously invited me and we rehearsed the scene.
“The big thing they kept telling me was, ‘You love her so much, and her work means so much to you,’ so I tried to make that happen.” “But I also didn’t know they ate bones!”
When the show finally began airing, Heller found himself in a strange place. “I forgot I was in it,” he says. Then I said, “Wait, I’m on episode four!” “I can’t believe I’m part of this zeitgeist moment.”
Of course, this isn’t the first time Heller has appeared on a hit show. behind 30 RockHe made the most of small appearances Broad city, Ugly Betty, His crazy ex-girlfriend and American Horror Story. It is currently recurring Widow’s Bay — The Apple TV horror comedy is gaining traction with critics and audiences — as a reclusive employee in the mayor’s office (Matthew Rhys). “It came through my friend [creator] “Katie Dippold,” he says. “I don’t know what I would have done if I hadn’t started at UCB. I think I would be out of work.”
However, while Heller has been everywhere on TV lately, appearances in this industry can be deceiving. “I haven’t worked in 2026 at all, which is scary, like, ‘But I have an Emmy; I can’t work now?” Heller says with a knowing laugh, adding that he’s at least gotten some voice-over opportunities. “It’s a tough time. It’s not like business is booming. “It’s frustrating.”
Heller admits that once he won the Emmy, “I felt like I was going to have a new TV show right away.” While Hollywood is entering a new era of consolidation and contraction, this has not happened. But hopping between different series, fighting for roles wherever they open up, is something Heller is used to — and for anyone watching his work lately, he’s very good at. “I’m a really good guest – I wear what you want me to wear, I sit where you want me to sit, I don’t ask questions, and I can take notes very well,” he says.
As for drier periods, like now? “I’m uniquely qualified for them because I’ve spent 30 years experiencing the ebbs and flows of my career,” he says. And hey, at least now when new character descriptions come out, it’s less “hotel clerk,” and more “killer with a curling iron.” This is hard-won progress
This story first appeared in the June standalone issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To obtain the magazine, click here to subscribe.
