Robert California, also known as Bob Kazamakis, is a fictional character on the American comedy television series The Office, portrayed by James Spader.

Robert first appeared in the seventh season finale, "Search Committee", as an interviewee for the Scranton branch Manager position.

His intense personality disturbs the search committee, though Jim Halpert admits that, while Robert "creeps [him] out", he believes he "might be a genius".

In a talking-head interview held in the parking lot, Robert informs the documentary film crew that he is confident that he will be offered the job.

But, after one look at his new workplace environment, he quickly drives to Florida and convinces Sabre CEO Jo Bennett to give him her job.

Jim notes that when Robert visits the office, he spends half of his time working out of the conference room, and occasionally ventures out and wanders around, randomly choosing employees to have conversations with.

[2] Robert decides to sell his mansion following his divorce, and at Kevin's suggestion, throws an office pool party as a last hurrah.

After playing, Robert stuns Jim by revealing that he dislikes the business plan for the Sabre store, and that he had only approved of it because Jo wanted it.

[6] In "Turf War", while celebrating the finalization of his divorce, Robert drunkenly shuts down Dunder Mifflin’s Binghamton office, leaving the other branches to fight over their clients.

Meanwhile, Andy decides to land an important Binghamton client as a "rogue" and jumpstart his Dunder Mifflin comeback by using his success as leverage with Robert.

Meanwhile, Jim and Dwight talk with Harry Jannerone, an employee from the Syracuse branch, who predicts that Robert will ruin the company within six months.

[7] In "Free Family Portrait Studio", Robert is surprised when he learns that David Wallace is purchasing Dunder Mifflin.

He was originally expected to be just a one-time guest star, as the producers were planning to hire either Catherine Tate or Will Arnett for the series, but neither could commit due to their involvement with other projects.

In the same interview, Kate Flannery commented that Spader "has this grounded intensity that we've never seen on our show before that makes these kind of little Scranton peons stand at attention".

Robert California wants to run the best company in the world, and to see him turn that kind of intensity onto Kevin Malone was cracking me up.

[21] Paul Lieberstein was pleased that Spader would be joining the cast in the eighth season, stating that "James has an energy that is completely his own, and 'The Office' has no tools for dealing with this guy.

Former leading actor Steve Carell was also impressed by the decision to hire Spader, stating in an interview with Access Hollywood, "I think it's an excellent choice.

In his review for the episode "Gettysburg", Chris Plante, of New York, critiqued the way that Robert, as well as Andy, were being written, writing, "That isn't to say every character has been fleshed out well. ...

[26] In his Hitfix blog, Alan Sepinwall wrote that "Robert California could have become the new comic engine that drove the series, but the character has been neutered from his first appearance.

[28] Salon.com's Matt Zoller Seitz wrote that "The Office loses something by having Spader's Zen master drive the action instead of Michael Scott", he also suggested that, perhaps, if Robert was still positioned as Regional Manager, instead of CEO, the series might be more enjoyable.

His omniscience is valuable on some level, but it also creates a distance between the character and the narrative, which makes me reluctant to consider him as Carell's replacement (which is what Seitz suggests in his piece).

[30] In her review of the season 8 finale, she wrote "At least we saw that last of Robert California, who walked away with $1 million to travel around Europe educating gymnasts.