Megan Mullally and Nick Offerman have spent more than two decades proving that being married and working together does not necessarily have to end in disaster.
Their latest joint appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! provides further evidence.
The longtime couple joined guest host Rosie O’Donnell for a wonderfully relaxed conversation covering everything from Broadway history and Emmy nominations to facial hair, their recent return to the stage and the surprisingly entertaining circumstances surrounding Mullally’s first professional encounter with O’Donnell.
That story goes all the way back to 1994.
Long before Will & Grace transformed Mullally into one of television’s most recognisable comedy stars, she appeared in the Broadway revival of Grease.
Rosie O’Donnell played Betty Rizzo.
Mullally played Marty — while also serving as O’Donnell’s understudy.
The arrangement created some memorable backstage history.
Mullally recalls O’Donnell regularly pinching her during performances, apparently because Rosie had become bored enough with the show to start finding alternative ways to entertain herself on stage.
O’Donnell happily admits that professionalism may not always have been her strongest quality during that period.
She even remembers occasionally interacting with friends sitting in the audience while the show was still happening.
Then O’Donnell lost her voice.
After previously insisting that she basically never became ill, laryngitis forced her out of the production for around two weeks.
Suddenly Mullally had to step into Rizzo.
The only problem was that audiences had purchased tickets expecting Rosie O’Donnell.
Mullally was still years away from becoming famous.
She remembers the audience reaction when her name was announced as the replacement being considerably less enthusiastic than anyone making their Broadway lead debut might ideally hope for.
Decades later, the story is much funnier.
It also makes seeing Mullally sitting opposite O’Donnell on late-night television feel like an unexpectedly satisfying full-circle moment.
Nick Offerman has his own reason to celebrate.
The Parks and Recreation star has received two nominations at the 2026 Emmy Awards.
He is nominated for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series for his performance as Jinx Millet in Apple TV’s Margo’s Got Money Troubles.
He also received a nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie for playing President Chester A. Arthur in Netflix’s Death by Lightning.
The two roles could hardly be more different.
In Margo’s Got Money Troubles, Offerman plays a former professional wrestler struggling with addiction who re-enters the life of his daughter.
Death by Lightning transforms him into the 21st president of the United States.
And somehow the comedy nomination has put him into competition with Harrison Ford.
Offerman seems almost as entertained by that fact as everyone else.
The recognition continues an impressive awards run for an actor who spent years being primarily identified with the gloriously unemotional Ron Swanson.
He won his first acting Emmy for his acclaimed guest performance as Bill in The Last of Us.
Mullally, of course, knows something about Emmy Awards herself.
Her performance as Karen Walker on Will & Grace earned her two wins and helped establish one of the most memorable sitcom characters of her generation.
Yet the couple rarely treats their careers with excessive seriousness when they are together.
That becomes particularly obvious when the conversation moves towards Offerman’s facial hair.
According to Mullally, her husband has essentially experimented with every configuration of human hair that biology permits.
His appearance has changed repeatedly for acting roles, producing everything from his famous Ron Swanson moustache to enormous sideburns, beards and considerably stranger combinations.
Mullally has opinions.
Offerman appears to have accepted this.
The pair’s ability to effortlessly turn ordinary stories into comedy is probably one reason they have continued working together throughout their relationship.
They first met in 2000 while performing in the Los Angeles production of The Berlin Circle.
Their relationship developed during the show, and they married in 2003.
Since then, they have repeatedly crossed paths professionally.
One of the best-known examples came through Parks and Recreation, where Mullally played Tammy II — Ron Swanson’s terrifying ex-wife.
Casting Offerman’s actual wife as the woman capable of completely destroying Ron’s emotional stability proved to be one of the show’s great comic decisions.
Their most recent collaboration brought them back to theatre.
Mullally and Offerman starred together in the world-premiere musical Iceboy! at Chicago’s Goodman Theatre during the summer of 2026.
Mullally played Broadway star Vera Vimm, while Offerman portrayed legendary playwright Eugene O’Neill in the deliberately ridiculous fictional story of how O’Neill supposedly became inspired to write The Iceman Cometh.
For two performers whose careers have included enormously successful television work, theatre remains particularly important.
It is also where their relationship started.
More than 25 years after meeting during a play, they are still choosing to walk onto stages together.
During the Jimmy Kimmel Live! conversation, the possibility of eventually starring opposite one another in a movie also comes up.
Considering how frequently they have already collaborated across theatre and television, it feels less like an impossible idea than something Hollywood really should have arranged by now.
Perhaps the greatest appeal of watching Mullally and Offerman together is that their relationship does not come across as carefully packaged celebrity couple branding.
They interrupt one another.
They tease each other.
Mullally casually exposes ridiculous details about her husband.
Offerman responds with the kind of deadpan delivery that made Ron Swanson famous.
And underneath all of it sits an obvious admiration for what the other person does.
After more than two decades of marriage, multiple television collaborations, stage productions and an impressive collection of awards between them, they still appear to genuinely enjoy being in the same room.
Which, by Hollywood standards, may be the most impressive achievement of all.
Watch Megan Mullally and Nick Offerman’s full Jimmy Kimmel Live! interview below.
