Oscar Martinez (The Office)

Oscar Martinez is an accountant at the Scranton, Pennsylvania branch office of Dunder Mifflin, paper distribution company. In the first season episode "Diversity Day", the character's backstory reveals he is the son of parents who are from Mexico, and moved to the United States one year before he was born. Oscar was outed by his boss Michael Scott in "Gay Witch Hunt", the third season premiere episode.[2] However, the character was implied to be gay in the second season episode "Halloween" where he dresses as a woman and then discovered to be gay by the documentary crew in the episode "The Secret". In earlier episodes, many co-workers erroneously attribute to him various Mexican stereotypes, but after his outing, the stereotypes are more focused on him being gay, particularly by Michael.[1] Nunez explained in a 2008 interview that the character feels amusement, pity and hatred towards his boss.[1] His counterpart in the British original is accountant Oliver.

Oscar is known for being a rational, quietly efficient and an intellectual worker in the office. He is often the one who asks pointed financial questions that his colleagues will not know the answer to, or that his boss avoids answering.[3][4] Oscar refers to himself as being in the "Coalition for Reason" with co-workers Jim (played by John Krasinski) and Pam Halpert (played by Jenna Fischer). According to Nunez, the three "are there to set up the comic situations" for boss Michael and Dwight Schrute, Michael's toady.[5] Oscar is considered to be a know-it-all by many of his co-workers. He is frequently exasperated by the antics of his co-workers and tends to find their humor offensive.[3] In an AfterElton.com interview, Nunez explained he plays the character of an accountant, who happens to be gay, and is not really interested in what the documentarians are filming.[2] In the episode "Dwight Christmas", he is openly acknowledged as a Democrat.