After wrapping up her iconic role as Pam Beesly on one of television's most beloved sitcoms for nine seasons, "The Office" star Jenna Fischer quickly discovered acting was no longer for her.
Years after the show concluded in 2013, Fischer starred in the ABC comedy "Splitting Up Together" in 2018. While the mom of two said she "really loved" the show's cast, the workload became difficult to reconcile with life at home.
"The hours were so intense," Fischer said during an appearance on "Dinner's On Me with Jesse Tyler Ferguson" podcast. "It was like 65, 70 hours a week. You know, it was like really, really hard, and my kids were very small."
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The actress said the experience ultimately prompted her to reconsider what she wanted from her career.
"I just decided after that that being, like, the lead of a television show or even a regular on a television show was not going to be a fit for me anymore," she said.
When "Splitting Up Together" was canceled, Fischer found her next chapter with her former "The Office" co-star and close friend, Angela Kinsey. The pair launched "Office Ladies," a podcast built around revisiting episodes of the hit NBC sitcom and sharing behind-the-scenes memories.
For Fischer, podcasting offered something her television career couldn't: control over her time.
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The new career path provided "both a steady income" and the freedom to become a regular presence at her children's activities, she explained.
"I was now at every school drop-off, every school pickup, every teacher conference, every concert," Fischer said. "I didn't have to beg someone to go to the Halloween parade."
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Fischer described the change as becoming "the agent of my own time, the architect of my own time, so to speak."
Fischer's focus on her family later took on new significance when she was diagnosed with Stage 1 triple-positive breast cancer in December 2023.
The actress publicly revealed her diagnosis in October 2024, explaining that an inconclusive mammogram had led to additional testing. Fischer underwent a lumpectomy in January 2024, followed by chemotherapy and radiation. She said the cancer was caught early and had not spread to her lymph nodes or elsewhere in her body.
Fischer announced she is cancer-free in 2024.
