High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Karen Filippelli is a fictional character from the U.S. television series The Office. She is played by Rashida Jones. She is loosely based on the character of Rachel (surname not given) from the original UK version of the show, in that she transferred during the merger of the two branches, and became romantically involved with Jim Halpert, as Rachel did with Jim`s counterpart, Tim Canterbury. However, Karen plays a much greater role in the US series than Rachel did in the British one, while she regularly appears in the third season of the show. When Karen takes over as Regional Manager of the Utica branch, Karen becomes an enemy to Michael and Dwight as she wants to out-do them.