Rainn Wilson Of 'The Office' On Why He Gives Back (VIDEO)

"The Office" star Rainn Wilson is known for his antics as Dwight on Thursday nights, but offscreen his ambitions reach far beyond becoming regional manager at Dunder-Mifflin.

Wilson discusses on CNN his work with the Mona Foundation, a Seattle-based non-profit seeking to improve the quality of education for children worldwide. His charitable efforts also include working with Planting Peace's deworming project, an initiative that has raised enough money to deworm all 3.2 million children in Haiti.

Wilson partially credits the CNN Heroes feature with motivating him to participate in social service:

"These stories are incredibly inspiring and they inspire me to step up my game and try and do more to help the world."

CORRECTION: This post originally said Rainn Wilson was honored as a CNN Hero. He actually introduced a Hero in this clip. The post has been updated to reflect the change.

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Comments

[lcyrose]

05:53 AM on 10/19/2011

awesome. Good job Rain. I would not go so far as to call him a hero, but he is a pretty terrific guy and puts his money where his mouth is.

[jimbo13134579]

12:22 AM on 10/19/2011

I'm sorry folks but this does not come close to my definition of a hero. As one person noted, inspirational would be the proper description. To lump sports people and entertainers in the same category as our armed forces serving in harms way is ludicrous and insulting. Now, don't get me wrong, anyone can do a heroic act like pulling someone out of a car that is on fire, etc but generally speaking I stand by my comments.

[bgofca]

07:31 PM on 10/18/2011

thanks for your hard work. i hope you are also helping the kids on indian reservations who also have a hard time getting an education.

[The Fat Lazy American]

07:17 PM on 10/18/2011

Rain - one of the funniest guys on TV and a good guy to boot - cheers my friend!

[HarryParatestes]

06:39 PM on 10/18/2011

1 word... "inspirational"

[windowpilot]

06:12 PM on 10/18/2011

Gotta love Fish Boy.

[MotivatedMarine0311]

05:57 PM on 10/18/2011

You only need one reason to donate to charity.. Its the right thing to do!

[blacksmithn]

05:36 PM on 10/18/2011

Yay, Dwight! I hope you get Mose to help out, too.

[djSopkin]

04:27 PM on 10/18/2011

I love Rainn. From Six Fert Under to The Office, is there anything he can't do?

Answer: no. Even in seriousness, he is a pure genius. Congrats!

[Jonny Boy]

04:19 PM on 10/18/2011

Dwight Schrute..My favorite person on TV.