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The Paper: Gleeson on Sketch Comedy Roots Leading to Peacock Comedy

The Paper star Domhnall Gleeson reflects on how his early days in sketch comedy led to the role of EIC Ned Sampson in Peacock's mockumentary.

With 25 years and counting on the screen, Domhnall Gleeson has accomplished so much with the franchises he's been involved with, from Star Wars, Dredd (2012), his breakout sci-fi role in Ex-Machina (2014), Harry Potter films, and Black Mirror. With such intense serious work, it's hard for many, including Deadline's Pete Hammond to fathom the Irish actor in comedy, but he was able to pull that off in spades on the Peacock mockumentary series The Paper, which earns the distinction and challenge of not only being the first direct US spinoff of NBC's The Office, but having to stand on its own, premiering in 2025, 12 years after its predecessor. As it earned a season two renewal, Gleeson spoke about what of the original Greg Daniels series needed to carryover into the spinoff from him and Michael Koman, and how his roots in writing sketch comedy landed him the role of Ned Sampson, the idealist Editor-in-Chief of the Toledo Truth Teller, a once prominent Midwest local newspaper that fell on the wayside, heavily relying on wire services before getting back to its roots on local coverage with a ragtag inexperienced writing staff, already working in other positions.

The Paper Star Domhnall Gleeson on How He Landed Ned Sampson and Getting Enough Carryover from 'The Office'

When asked about how The Paper succeeded, "I think that Greg and Michael are very clear about how much carryover they wanted from the original show, and the carryover they wanted was essentially, it's the same camera crew, and Oscar is there," Gleeson said. "He's the kind of window into it, and then everything else is new. I think it was the right amount of link to have, or we could preserve our independence as our own thing and our own sort of vibe. It's got a different vibe to The Office, and yet, takes across some of the stuff that people loved about the show, which is a phenomenal show, obviously."

When Hammond followed up, asking why a half-hour comedy, considering his other more serious on-screen work, "Well, it wasn't on [my bingo card] either, to be honest with you, but I grew up loving comedy and really loving it. I think that was the thing. The first play that I did was a very funny play," Gleeson said. "That was my first job. I was in a Martin Macdonough play, and weirdly, a couple of things that I've been most known for back home over the years were comedic things, including a sketch show that I wrote on with a writing partner of mine and lots of other people that weirdly kind of follows me around in Ireland in a funny sort of way. I think that weirdly, those sketches were the things that Michael and Greg saw that made them think I could do this. There's one of them that we wrote, which is me, it's very juvenile in the back of the car, and you think he needs to wee. He needs to pull over to go to the bathroom, and he's convinced by his people, the people in the car, to go in a bottle, like a Coke bottle, and it turns out, it wasn't a number one. It's an absolutely gross sketch. I think that was the one they saw, they decided to go in the moment. It just makes the rounds on social media, and it's wild how it's gotten me this job, 15 years later."

For more on Gleeson's work, you can check out the full interview. Season two of The Paper, which also stars Sabrina Impacciatore, Chelsea Frei, Melvin Gregg, Gbemisola Ikumelo, Alex Edelman, Ramona Young, Tim Key, and Oscar Nunez, is set to premiere in September 2026.

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