Michael Gary Scott is a fictional character in the NBC sitcom The Office, portrayed by Steve Carell. Michael is the regional manager of the Scranton, Pennsylvania branch of Dunder Mifflin, a paper company, for the majority of the series. Like his counterpart in the original British version of the show, David Brent, he is characterized as a largely incompetent, unproductive, unprofessional boss, though he is depicted as kinder and occasionally shown to be effective at his job in key moments.

Towards the end of the seventh season, he marries human resources representative Holly Flax and moves to Colorado with her in "Goodbye, Michael", an extended episode. He is then absent from the series until the finale.

Carell received significant critical acclaim for his performance. He won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Television Series Musical or Comedy and received six consecutive nominations both for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series and the Actor Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series.

All original series characters were adapted for the American version. NBC programmer Tracy McLaughlin suggested Paul Giamatti to producer Ben Silverman for the role of Michael Scott, but the actor declined. Martin Short, Hank Azaria, and Bob Odenkirk were also reported to be interested, with Odenkirk auditioning. Silverman offered the role to Ricky Gervais, who played David Brent in the British version, but he declined as he felt it didn't make any sense and didn't want to move to America. In January 2004, Variety reported that Steve Carell of the popular Comedy Central program The Daily Show with Jon Stewart was in talks for the role. At the time, he was already committed to another NBC mid-season replacement comedy, Come to Papa.

With Carell unavailable, Odenkirk was selected as Michael Scott and was part of the cast presented to NBC executives. Paul Rudd advised Carell that the American version of The Office would never be as good as the British version. However, Come to Papa was quickly cancelled, allowing Carell to commit to The Office. Odenkirk went on to appear in the series in a brief role as an office manager reminiscent of Scott. Carell later said that he had seen only about half of the original pilot episode of the British series before he auditioned, and that he did not continue watching for fear that he would start copying Gervais's characterizations. On the audio commentary of the pilot episode, director Ken Kwapis says that Carell's unfamiliarity with the British version of The Office and their experience working together on Watching Ellie influenced his being cast as Scott.

Stanley Tucci, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Bruno Kirby, Tim Blake Nelson, Stephen Colbert, David Herman, Mike White, Greg Kinnear, David Cross, Rob Schneider, and Noah Emmerich, among others, turned down the role.

Rick Moranis, Dan Aykroyd, Eugene Levy, Dan Castellaneta, David Koechner (who went on to play supporting character Todd Packer), David Arquette, Richard Kind, Robert Townsend, Steve Buscemi, Christopher Guest, Kevin Nealon, Dave Foley, Owen Wilson, Jason Lee, Matthew Broderick, Jon Favreau, William H. Macy, and John C. Reilly were also considered for the role. Louis C.K. and Nick Offerman also read for the role. C.K. was not able to get it as he had a deal with CBS.

Two of Carell's supporting film roles helped get audiences' attention: in Bruce Almighty, where Carell plays Evan Baxter, who gets a humorous comeuppance while co-anchoring the news, and in Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, where Carell played slow-witted weatherman Brick Tamland. Although The Office premiered to mediocre ratings, NBC renewed it for another season because of the anticipated success of Carell's movie The 40-Year-Old Virgin, and the series subsequently became a ratings success. Carell won a Golden Globe and Television Critics Association award in 2006 for his role, and received Emmy nominations from 2006 to 2011.