She is best known for her role as Pam Beesly on the NBC sitcom The Office β , for which she was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series in ; she was also a producer for the series' ninth and final season.
Fischer was born in Fort Wayne, Indiana , and raised in St. Louis , Missouri. Fischer, is an engineer. Louis, a workshop also attended by actor Sean Gunn , with whom she grew up. This led to her signing a contract with the agent. Fischer struggled to break into film and television. Unsatisfied with her career's progress, Fischer took matters into her own hands, writing, directing and starring in her own mockumentary , LolliLove her only directing credit , co-starring her then-husband James Gunn , and friends Linda Cardellini , Judy Greer , Lloyd Kaufman and Jason Segel.
She began participating in The Artist's Way , a self-led creativity seminar in book form. When we started it, it wasn't even supposed to be a real movie. It was just going to be an improv project for James and I to amuse ourselves with.
LolliLove premiered in November at the St. Louis arts and entertainment magazine that the experience dissuaded her from future directing: "The directing was exhausting and the writing was painful. It was very difficult to direct and star in a movie.
We also had a very small crew so I did a lot of things a normal director doesn't have to do, like make the props and serve lunch. I was simultaneously getting into character, going over my lines, set dressing the next shot, coaching an actor, and brainstorming with my D. I'm good at multitasking , but that was too much for me. I couldn't enjoy any one part the way I would have liked.
