UW-Eau Claire: True Blu: Proksch takes his energy to Hollywood, ‘The Office’ and beyond

Since graduating from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire in 2000, Mark Proksch has had several interesting jobs.

• He spent time as an office handyman.
• He was a drug company employee.
• He was employed as a substitute fourth grade science teacher.
• He was elected to the town council in Lone Moose, Alaska.
• Finally, he spent several years as an energy vampire.

Wait, what?

It turns out all those jobs were part of the same career path for Proksch — his successful acting career.

Proksch graduated from UW-Eau Claire with a degree in communication, with an emphasis in electronic media. Although, after graduating from high school in Onalaska, he says he really didn’t have a major in mind when he started looking at colleges.

“I kind of just followed some friends who were like-minded when it came to music and comedy, and followed them to Eau Claire,” Proksch remembers. “And it was honestly the best decision I ever made.”

Finding his people and professors 

Proksch says it was here where he met other people who had similar tastes and similar interests, giving him the freedom to explore those things.

“I think if I had gone to NYU or USC or even Madison, I think it would have been a little more overwhelming,” Proksch says. “Whereas in Eau Claire you find the right five or six people and the world’s your oyster. We were certainly encouraged to pursue what we wanted to do, whether it was comedy or music, and there were always enough outlets provided by the university or the city to move forward with those ambitions.”

It wasn’t just his peers who helped Proksch find his path. He has fond memories of and keeps in touch with professors who had a profound influence on him.

“Jerry Connor, who was a professor (in communication and journalism) there at the time, and just a whirlwind of knowledge, a great guy who inspired me a lot,” Proksch recalls. “I really soaked up everything I could from him.”

When he wasn’t in the classroom, he worked at the campus theater for three years, showing two movies a night, Thursday through Sunday. Walking home to his house on First Avenue after work, he would think about the movies he had just seen, and how he wanted not to just show those movies, but to be in them. It was a few years after he graduated when the first major step to making that happen took place.

Proksch and a friend from college came up with the idea to take one of Proksch’s comedic characters he developed in college and start booking him on morning shows around the Midwest.

“My character was named Kenny ‘K-Strass’ Strasser. He was just a dim guy from the Midwest. He was a yo-yo champion going to local schools to teach kids about the environment,” Proksch says. “We were going to do 10 of them to create this story arc. We got through about six or seven of them before they started getting uploaded to YouTube.”

Once that happened, Proksch says a website called Grantland picked up the videos, and that led to a call that would change his life.

Getting called to ‘The Office’

Writers in Hollywood saw the videos, including writers from the NBC hit series “The Office,” and wanted to meet with him. The problem was, they couldn’t find him.

“They were trying to figure out who I was, but I had taken off all my information from social media. I wanted people to think my yo-yo character was real,” Proksch remembers. “One of the writers of ‘The Office,’ Amelie Gillette, finally figured out through a mutual connection who I was.”

That’s when one of the show’s writers, Paul Lieberstein, who also played Toby on the show, asked Proksch to come out to Los Angeles and meet with the writers. He was offered a recurring role on the show as Nate Nickerson, a part of Dunder Mifflin’s warehouse team.

It was a big move for Proksch, but it wasn’t the most seismic event that happened because of his discovery.

“Funny story is that the writer who figured out who I was, Amelie Gillette, is now my wife,” Proksch says. “So, if I hadn’t made a complete moron of myself on morning news, I would have never found my wife. So, it’s one of those strange Hollywood stories that just doesn’t happen too often anymore. But that’s the circuitous route that I took from Jerry Connor’s class to Hollywood.”

As it turns out, the role on “The Office” was just the first stop on that route.

Mark Proksch portrayed Colin Robinson, a “day-walking energy vampire” in the FX mockumentary horror series “What We Do in the Shadows.”

In the shadows and in the burbs

Following his role in “The Office,” acting jobs kept coming his way. Proksch has made more than 50 appearances on TV shows since 2013, including recurring roles on shows like “Son of Zorn” and “Better Call Saul.”

Proksch says he landed all those appearances without any formal acting training. And he says that might be a good thing.

“I took a couple acting classes at UW-Eau Claire,” Proksch recalls. “Both to my embarrassment. But then I did ‘Better Call Saul’ and I became friends with Jonathan Banks, a classically trained, brilliant actor. He asked me if I had ever gone to school for acting, and I was like, ‘No, does it show?’ And he said no, not at all, and don’t do it.”

That conversation had an impact on Proksch.

“I feel like if I had gone that route, I think I would have been a little more constricted in what I’m supposed to be doing as an actor,” Proksch says. “I think the naivety of me not knowing what the rules are or being immersed in the art of acting has helped me a little.”

In 2019, Proksch was cast in one of the lead roles in “What We Do in the Shadows.” The show centered around four vampires living in the same house on Staten Island. Proksch played Colin Robinson, an “energy vampire” who gains his power not through drinking blood but by having boring and annoying conversations. Proksch appeared in all 61 episodes over the show’s six-year run.

Most recently, Proksch appeared in the Peacock series “The Burbs,” which was just renewed for a second season. And all the while, as he’s showing up for work on the Universal lot in Hollywood, he’s planning future projects.

“Right now, I’m working on one of my own projects with Vanessa Bayer from ‘Saturday Night Live,’” Proksch says. “I’m working on my own project with Marika Sawyer, who was a writer for ‘What We Do in the Shadows,’ and she wrote on ‘Saturday Night Live’ forever. And I’m working on a project with a friend, Jason Woliner, who directed the last Borat movie. So, I’m always trying to work on my own stuff.”

Looking back and looking ahead

With a number of high-profile roles behind him, along with a Critics’ Choice Award nomination, the one question that remains for this Blugold is what interesting and unique jobs lie ahead in his acting career.

“I’ve gotten to work on ‘The Office.’ I got to work on ‘Better Call Saul.’ I got to star in ‘What We Do in the Shadows’ and now ‘The Burbs,’” Proksch says. “I feel incredibly fortunate. I don’t feel like I deserve any of it. It’s been incredibly exciting.”

Proksch looks back at the past several years and realizes where he is now is a long way from where he was in college, walking home in the snow after showing movies on campus.

“But, you know, I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world. Eau Caire is still a special place, not just to me, but to all my friends that went there. We hold it in such fondness and have such great stories.”