In “Parks and Recreation,” Adam Scott plays Ben Wyatt, the accountant who becomes Leslie Knope’s husband.
Ben first comes to Pawnee as an Indiana state auditor evaluating the town’s finances alongside Chris Traeger. He is pragmatic, dryly funny, and initially unpopular with Leslie because his budget recommendations threaten the projects she cares about. Over time, however, Ben becomes an important member of the Pawnee community and Leslie’s closest partner.
The character’s backstory includes an especially embarrassing failure: as a teenage mayor of Partridge, Minnesota, Ben bankrupted the town by building an expensive ice rink. He later channels his political and mathematical interests into creating the elaborate fictional board game “The Cones of Dunshire.”
Ben and Leslie begin dating during the third season and marry in the fifth-season episode “Leslie and Ben.” Adam Scott joined the series after starring in “Party Down,” and his casting helped turn Ben from a temporary auditor into a central character.