While there, he saved a woman from drowning after she was caught in a riptide at a beach in Manuel Antonio National Park. Following his time in Costa Rica, Krasinski attended Brown University, where he studied English and playwriting and wrote an honors thesis entitled "Contents Under Pressure". He graduated from Brown in 2001. During his time at Brown, he was a member of the sketch comedy group Out of Bounds. In college, he also helped coach youth basketball at the Gordon School in East Providence, Rhode Island. After college, he attended the National Theater Institute in Waterford, Connecticut. He also studied at the Royal Shakespeare Company in England and the Actors Center in New York. Career Early 2000s: Career beginnings In 2000, Krasinski interned as a scriptwriter on the show Late Night with Conan O'Brien. After graduating from Brown University, Krasinski moved to New York to pursue acting. He appeared in commercials and guest-starred on television shows, as well as doing readings of off-Broadway plays while working as a waiter. He starred in the play What the Eunuch Saw, which was written and directed by his former college classmates Emily O'Dell and Isaac Robert Hurwitz. 2005–2009: Breakthrough with The Office and directorial debut Krasinski's breakthrough came in 2004 when he was cast in the NBC sitcom The Office, a remake of the successful British TV series. In the series, a mockumentary about life at a mid-sized paper supply company, he played the role of Jim Halpert, an intelligent and mild-mannered sales representative and, in later seasons, co-manager of the paper distribution company Dunder Mifflin in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Krasinski and Jenna Fischer's characters also served as the central love interests of the series. To prepare for his role, Krasinski visited Scranton for research and interviewed employees at actual paper companies. He also shot the footage of Scranton used in the opening credits. He appeared in every episode of the series and also directed several including "Sabre". For his work in the series (2005–2013), Krasinski earned approximately US$100,000 per episode of the third season of The Office, four times his salary for the previous two seasons. In 2006, Krasinski co-starred in Jason Carvey's independently produced, direct-to-DVD heist comedy A New Wave with Andrew Keegan and Lacey Chabert. In 2007, he co-starred with Anna Faris and Danny Masterson as Brevin in Gregg Araki's independent stoner comedy Smiley Face (2007). Reviews were largely