We're excited to share these images of actress and Philly native Kate Flannery! Kate played the hard livin' and hysterical Meredith Palmer on The Office - which celebrates the 10th anniversary of its final episode airing May 16th, 2013. Turns out Kate’s really likable, funny and not so surly in person! It was amazing and entertaining to witness her pop in and out of character during the shoot. Thanks for being so great, Kate, and for trusting us to photograph you!

Kate Flannery played Meredith Palmer on “The Office”. From the characters bio on Peacock : An enthusiastic participant of the office's social activities, Palmer is a staunch advocate of “Casual Friday” and enjoys a wide variety of alcoholic beverages. Twice divorced, Meredith is the mother to two children, a son named Jake and a daughter named Wendy. *Photographed by Kyle Kielinski and Linette Messina*

What’s a lady gotta do to get a drink in here? *Photographed by Kyle Kielinski and Linette Messina*

The shoot was for Victor Fiorillo’s interview with Kate in the May 2023 issue of Philadelphia Magazine. It took place inside the legendary Bob & Barbara's Lounge, originator of the Citywide Special (a shot of Jim Beam and can of PBR for $4). We were instantly excited when the place was mentioned as a potential location for the shoot and interview. Bob & Barbara’s is a Philly institution that we’ve certainly spent some time in. If I had a nickel for every “Pepsi” I’ve sucked down there it'd add up to at least a couple of those Citywide Specials, I think.

So it was nice going in already familiar with the location… especially when the person you’re photographing is a famous actress from one of the funniest and most beloved sitcoms of the past 20 years! Our plan was to capture the colorful, festive atmosphere of the bar with Kate front and center, figuring her personality and natural showmanship would take over from there. We were not disappointed! Seriously, she’s fun.

Cheers! Kate Flannery holds the “Citywide Special” at Bob & Barbara’s Lounge in Philadelphia, PA. *Photographed by Kyle Kielinski and Linette Messina*

“Tell ya one thing, I'm not gonna be a good mom tonight.” Actress Kate Flannery played hard living Meredith Palmer on “The Office”. *Photographed by Kyle Kielinski and Linette Messina*

Technical photography notes for those interested in that sort of thing… these were all photographed at around 1/30sec at f4 or 5.6 ISO 800-1000. I’m usually a 1/125 f5.6 @ ISO 100 kind of shooter, lol, but the bar was really dark inside. The key light on Kate and purple light that rims her face and washes the background were strobes we set up. Exposure settings prevented us from having the strobe modeling lights turned on while shooting - so as not to affect color balance. As a result, the subject was in almost complete shadow and too dark for the camera to get focus. In between shots, Linette held up her iPhone flashlight to Kates face so I could see what was going on and sharpen things up. We had to repeat this (admittedly annoying) action like fifty times. Haha! Gotta do whatever it takes to get the shot.