Nellie Bertram

Nellie Bertram is a fictional character on NBC's comedy television series, The Office. She first appears at the end of the seventh season, where she interviewed for the Regional Manager position at the Dunder Mifflin Scranton branch. While she was not hired for that position, she was later hired as President of Sabre's special projects by (the now former) CEO of Sabre, Jo Bennett, at an undisclosed point in time after Robert California was hired as the Scranton branch manager.
Nellie is portrayed by Catherine Tate, and is an original character, meaning that she has no counterpart in the original British version of the series.
Biography
Nellie Bertram is portrayed as a crass, rude, irrational, and somewhat incompetent woman of British ethnicity. She is an old friend of Jo's, and she believes that it is possible that she Jo's best friend, while stating that Jo is not her best friend. It highly probable that their friendship is the only reason why Jo recommended her for the Regional Manager job, as Nellie is shown to make considerably poor decisions in her professional life, such as rejecting Kathy Simms' idea of the Sabre retail stores having a beach, winter, and jungle theme, simply because she did not like the winter theme concept, and refusing to change that one theme in order for Kathy's idea to appeal to her.
She has claimed that she once had a one-night stand with Hugh Grant's elder brother, John Grant, an act that Nellie states she completed by "sheer force of will".

Nellie first appeared in the seventh season finale, where she interviewed for the Regional Manager position of the Dunder Mifflin Scranton branch, the occupation that Michael Scott held for the majority of the series. She returns in the episode "Tallahassee", as the President of Sabre's special projects. She reveals that she reacted to being rejected for the Manager job by going on a destructive shopping spree (she mentions that she purchased 13 pianos). But, she soon came up with the concept of the Sabre company opening up a chain of retail stores, an idea that Jo was estastic about, which resulted in her hiring Bertram to get that project underway.
Seasons 7-8
Nellie made her debut in "Search Committee", interviewing for the Regional Manager position at the Dunder Mifflin Scranton branch. In her interview, she tells the committee that if she is hired, she would remove all the cubicle walls, and that the staff would have no titles; everyone would have the same job (including her), and the staff would be known for their accomplishments. However, when Jim Halpert points out that, because of this, there might be some rising conflicts, and questions her on how she would handle the conflicts, she reverses her whole idea. She then suggests putting up more cubicle walls, and making all employees someone's superior, and that they could even fire the person below them, and, at least once a month, the lowest performing person in the office would be terminated. When asked by Gabe Lewis how she would compare an Accountant to Human Resources, she says she would simply "Split the difference". Later into the interview, she, once again, backtracks and posits the creation of a "Zen" office. The desks would be replaced with mats, and a Thai masseuse would administer fifteen minute foot massages. Later, in a talking-head interview, she states that she believes that she will obtain the job, due to being her friendship and recommendation from Jo.
Bertram reappears in the eighth season episode, "Tallahassee". In the episode, Dwight Schrute, Jim, Erin Hannon, Stanley Hudson, Ryan Howard and Kathy, as well many employees at Sabre headquarters, attend her orientation meeting. However, Nellie is seated among the crowd. She soon whispers to Ryan to say "So, who's leading this thing, anyway?" and "I can't wait to meet him". Ryan complies, and Nellie uses this as her entrance cue, standing up from the crowd and giving the following speech:
Nellie then explains how she obtained her occupation as President of Sabre's special projects, recalling how she interviewed for the Regional Manager position at the Dunder Mifflin Scranton branch, but was not hired, because the search committee decided, as she pointedly reminds Jim, that she and the job were not "A good fit". However, she later thought of the concept of the Sabre company opening up a chain of retail stores, and called Jo to inform her of the idea. Jo was estatic about it, and hired Nellie to overlook it. Throughout the episode, Dwight and Todd Packer compete to see who will become Nellie's Vice President. While she is intitially impressed with Packer, and the two are even seen flirting with one another, she is soon impressed with Dwight, as well, who, despite being rushed in surgery, after developing an appendicitis, returns three hours after his appendix is removed in order to impress her. After nearly butchering a slide-show presentation, he finally impresses Nellie by telling the audience that the only element of marketing that matters is "Desire". Bertram subsequently invites Packer and Dwight to have breakfast with her the following day.
In "After Hours", Dwight and Packer compete to seduce Nellie after work at the hotel bar, in order to become VP under her. For most of the night, Packer seems to be the most successful, but Dwight has Gabe spike Packer's beer with his asthma inhaler, which causes Packer to vomit, and leaves Dwight alone with Nellie. Dwight eventually succeeds in seducing her, and she asks for a key to his room. Dwight scratches off the magnetic strip on his hotel card before giving it to Nellie, stating the seduction was only to gain approval and doesn't intend to have sex with her. She later shows up at his door, drunk, and unsuccesfully attempts to enter.
Behind the Scenes
Tate originally guest-starred in the seventh season finale episode, "Search Committee". While she was initially the top choice to join the cast as the Manager, she was unable to join the series, due to her commitment to the West End production of the Shakespeare play, Much Ado About Nothing. However, on October 21, 2011, it was announced that she would be returning to The Office in order to reprise her role of Nellie, who has been hired as the "Misguided special projects manager". It was noted that she will strike up a "Far from professional" relationship with current Sabre CEO, Robert California.
In "Test the Store", at the Sabre store opening, Dwight attempts to put on a theatrical presentation to impress her.
In "Last Day in Florida", her business plan will come under scrutiny, by Robert.
Reception
The Nellie Bertram character has received mixed reviews. In her review of "Search Committee", Cindy White, of IGN, wrote "As for Catherine Tate, I'm a fan of her work across the pond - not just as the Doctor's companion Donna Noble, but from her self-titled sketch show as well - so I had high expectations. Unfortunately, she was probably the least compelling of the applicants". In Sam Morgan's recap of the episode, he wrote that " character wasn’t that interesting nor competent". In Kaili Markley's review, she wrote "Catherine Tate is brilliant, but the addition of this Nellie Bertrum to the show would spell certain disaster for The Office: she is too over-the-top, too obnoxious, too unrealistic, and just plum unlikeable". Meghan Carlson, of BuddyTV, was slightly positive of Nellie, writing that "I hope they'd flesh out the character in a different way. I've seen Tate be LOL-worthy on her UK series innumerable times, but something about her interview didn't feel right. Still, Nellie just might have the right combination of self-assurance and stupidity, if reworked a little, to replace the great Michael Scott".
In their review of "Tallahasse", TV Equals wrote that they were "Hoping that this special project lasts a very long time so we get much more Nellie Bertram in the future". In his review, Brett Harrison Davinger, of the California Literary Review, wrote that Nellie proved herself to be "A good addition ". In her review, White wrote that "The character played by Catherine Tate in last season's finale "Search Committee" may not have been that popular with Office fans, but anyone familiar with Tate's work in the U.K. (including her award-winning self-titled comedy sketch show and a season on Doctor Who as the feisty Donna Noble) knows how versatile she is. Tate came back strong as the eccentric Nellie Bertram, president of Special Projects for Sabre, and remained just wacky enough to be amusing without going over the top".

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