The Office star Leslie David Baker hit with racist abuse after launching spin-off campaign

The Office star Leslie David Baker has been hit with racist abuse after launching a spin-off campaign for his character.

In July, Baker unveiled a Kickstarter campaign for fans to help fund a proposed spin-off from the series, which would revolve around his character Stanley.

Stanley, a deadpan curmudgeon and one of the main ensemble of The Office for its nine seasons, would begin working at a motorcycle repair shop in the proposed series. Other cast members would include Stanley’s nephew, who is a widower with two small children.

This week (11 August), Baker revealed that he had been targeted by a racist Instagram account in the wake of the Kickstarter campaign. The account sent him racist slurs, threats and historic pictures of black men being lynched.

“You will not get a dollar from me, go ask your precious Black Lives Matter to help you,” one of the messages read.

“Your scam show will never happen,” read another extract. “You won’t get any of my white dollars. My hard earned white dollars that I worked for will never go to any n*****s trying to steal the white man’s ideas.”

Baker expressed hurt over the message, publishing screenshots of the abuse to his Instagram.

“For those of you who don’t believe racism is still alive in the world... here’s the proof,” Baker wrote. “Our goal has simply been to entertain and give the fans a quality series … Bigotry and hate will not be allowed to irradicate art or Black people. Enough said.”

A reboot of The Office has been rumoured for several years, with series creator Greg Daniels, who adapted Ricky Gervais’s original UK series, indicating he’d like to bring the show back.

“I loved doing The Office more than anything,” Daniels said in April. “And if we were going to revisit it, I would want to do it.”