"Michael's Birthday" is the nineteenth episode of the second season of the American comedy television series The Office, and the show's twenty-fifth episode overall. Written by Gene Stupnitsky and Lee Eisenberg, and directed by Ken Whittingham, the episode first aired in the United States on March 30, 2006 on NBC. The episode guest stars Nancy Carell as Carol Stills. The series depicts the everyday lives of office employees in the Scranton, Pennsylvania branch of the fictional Dunder Mifflin Paper Company. In the episode, Michael Scott (Steve Carell) is disappointed when only Dwight Schrute (Rainn Wilson) celebrates his birthday. Meanwhile, Kevin Malone (Brian Baumgartner) spends the day waiting to find out if he has skin cancer. The ice skating scenes were shot in an actual rink; Carell's talent at hockey was the reason the writers decided to set the episode there. Fischer had also learned to skate in preparation for the movie Blades of Glory, but the writers decided that there was no reason for Pam to be a good skater, so they had Pam lean on Jim. "Michael's Birthday" was watched by 7.8 million viewers and received mostly positive reviews from critics. Plot Michael Scott (Steve Carell) is excited to be celebrating his birthday, and tries to get the employees excited with him. Dwight Schrute (Rainn Wilson) is the only one to join in; the rest of the employees are more concerned about Kevin Malone (Brian Baumgartner), who is awaiting results from his skin cancer screening. Pam Beesly (Jenna Fischer) and Jim Halpert (John Krasinski) sneak out to buy gifts for Kevin to cheer him up. After goofing around at the store, Jim and Pam return to the office. When Michael finds out about Kevin's predicament, he gives Kevin his condolences, but is bitter that his birthday fun is ruined. Dwight and Angela Martin (Angela Kinsey) are less subtle than they think they are being when discussing their secret relationship within earshot of Ryan Howard (B. J. Novak). In an attempt to make Kevin feel better and celebrate his birthday, Michael takes the employees out ice skating. At the rink, he runs into his real estate agent Carol Stills (Nancy Carell) and her children. He entertains them, which makes Carol smile. Kevin gets the word that his screening results are negative, to the relief of everyone except Michael, who believes that negative means he has cancer, and reacts for the