What 38 actors took from the sets of TV shows

Actress Ellie Kemper starred on NBC's "The Office" and Netflix's "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt" — and she has souvenirs from both series.

"From 'The Office,' I stole 'Friendship is the music of life,' which is a photo collage that was in Michael Scott's office," she told Insider. "I just took it. I did ask the set dresser on my way out, 'Is this okay if I take it?' and he didn't say no. So I continued to take it."

The actress also told Insider that she took Cindy's "Sunday" needlepoint from "Kimmy Schmidt" because it has "a message of hope."

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Brian Baumgartner, who played Kevin Malone on "The Office," told Insider that he "stole a lot of things" from the show.

"I have the Kevin Malone nameplate [and] the jar that the M&Ms were in," he said, adding that he also has a giant pencil that he held for a joke in season one.

Jenna Fischer's character Pam Beasly on "The Office" was rarely seen without her trusty hair barrette.

In an Instagram post, the actor said that, while filming, the show's hairstylist insisted Fischer return the clip to a labeled dish each day so it wouldn't get lost.

Fischer said that when the show wrapped in 2013, her hairstylist gifted her a shadow-box frame with the clip inside and she currently has the clip on display in her home.

During the "Hot Girl" episode of the "Office Ladies" podcast, Fischer said that she also took "Pam's every-day purse" once the show ended.

On an episode of the "Office Ladies" podcast, Angela Kinsey, who played Angela Martin on NBC's "The Office" said she took a special, small item from the series.

She said the props department decorated her character's desk with a cat figurine that holds paper clips, and it's something she's since taken from the set.

"I took it from my desk, I still have it. I might've stolen it as a memento," Kinsey said on episode one of the podcast.

Kinsey also told Insider that props gave her the engagement ring that Dwight proposed to Angela with and a painting of Angela from when she was married to a senator.

Ted Danson told Insider that he took three suits and a special wallet from the set of NBC's "The Good Place."

Danson, who plays Michael on the show, said the wallet plays an important role on the series' finale.

"It has all the pictures of the humans in it," he told Insider. "I am going to keep the wallet because there are pictures of my friends, the actors, [in it]."

Although he plans to hold onto the wallet, Danson said he doesn't usually take special items from the TV shows he's on.

He told Insider that he feels weird keeping memorabilia from sets — and that he didn't even take an iconic mug from "Cheers," which he starred on years ago.

Danson explained, "If take memorabilia, my brain goes, 'So you mean that was the most important part of your life?"

When a reboot of "Gilmore Girls" was officially announced in 2016, Lauren Graham took to Twitter to express her excitement. In the tweet, Graham revealed she had taken a "Property of Gilmore Girls" jacket from the set back in 2007.

Per HelloGiggles, in her book "Talking As Fast As I Can," Graham said she and Alexis Bledel both planned to take mementos from Lorelai's house after the show wrapped. In the end, Graham took a pink flamingo that had been hung in Lorelei's kitchen and Bledel brought home the Yale banner from Rory's room.

Norman Reedus, who plays Daryl Dixon on "The Walking Dead" is known to have an affinity for keeping props.

During a 2017 interview with Fandom, Reedus said he's already taken some clothes, a turtle shell, the hairpiece of Scott Wilson (who played Hershel), and the faux beard of Andrew Lincoln (who played Rick).

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In February, "Friends" star Lisa Kudrow (who played Phoebe Buffay) shared on Instagram that her co-star Matthew Perry (who played Chandler Bing) had gifted her a very special piece of memorabilia as a wrap present.

It seems Perry took Monica Geller's "Cookie Time" cookie jar from the set and gave it to Kudrow as a gift to commemorate their time on the series. Kudrow said that it was a reference to a joke she once made during filming.

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"Friends" star Jennifer Aniston revealed on "The Graham Norton Show" that she still has a glowing neon sign from Central Perk. She said the sign still hangs in her office.

Earlier this year, Matt LeBlanc (who played Joey Tribbiani on "Friends"), said on "The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon" that he left the "Friends" set with a few souvenirs.

He said one of these souvenirs is a ball from the foosball table that was kept in Joey and Chandler's apartment. LeBlanc said it is now in his toolbox.

LeBlanc also said he took the famed Magna Doodle, which was on display in one of the famous "Friends" apartments. He didn't keep it, however, he said he gave it to the crewmember who drew the doodles for each episode.

"How I Met Your Mother" came to an end after 208 episodes in 2014. And Neil Patrick Harris, who starred on the show as Barney Stinson, took home a few mementos from the set, per Yahoo Entertainment.

This includes The Playbook and the tabletop from MacLaren's Pub, the bar where Barney, Lily, Robin, Ted, and Marshall oftentimes hung out on the show.

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In a 2015 interview with ABC News, January Jones, who played Betty Draper, said that after wrapping on "Mad Men," she took her character's silverware.

"The [silverware] she like polishes, I have that. I don't know what I'm going to do with it, but I have it. I would never use it. First I have to polish it," she said.

Jones also said she wasn't allowed to take any of her character's clothing since it'd be on display at a museum in Queens.

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Matt Smith, who played Prince Philip on "The Crown," said the only thing he has in his possession from the show is a program from the royal wedding that took place during season one of the show.

During an interview with SiriusXM, he described the prop as "very period" and said it is hanging in his bathroom at home.

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After wrapping on "New Girl," Hannah Simone, who played Cece, said she filled a truck with furniture from the set and used it to decorate her home, per HelloGiggles.

"We had the best set decorators in the entire world that build that world, so there's some nice furniture in there that you didn't notice and now it's in my house," Simone said.

Jake Johnson, who played Nick Miller on "New Girl," said he took every pair of jeans from his character's wardrobe.

"I honestly stole every pair of jeans. You're going to see me in [them] until I weigh 250 pounds," Johnson said at a 2018 "New Girl" screening, per HelloGiggles.

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In a 2015 interview with USA Today, Retta, who played Donna Meagle on the show, said she took home a throw pillow from the set.

The pillow was from the "Galentine's Day" episode when Leslie Knope (played by Amy Poehler) throws a Galentine's Day party to celebrate her female friends.

Retta said the pillow "has a New-York-Times headline on it and [her] face."

Breakfast food played a major role on "Parks and Recreation," so it's only natural that Nick Offerman (who played Ron Swanson on the show) took home a poster featuring the morning fare.

In 2015, when asked by USA Today what memorabilia he took home from the set, Offerman said he took one of three posters that hung in Ron's office: the one of a woman holding a plate of breakfast food.

Offerman explained, "That one I always thought was so funny and was very representative, to me, of the subtle sense of humor of the show: playing up how funny mundane, Midwestern objects can be."

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Chord Overstreet played Sam Evans on "Glee," and the actor has a few mementos from his time on the series.

In an interview with Access Hollywood, Overstreet said he stole a guitar from the "Glee" set, and he also took some foam padding from the show's choir room, which he uses for his own home studio.

He said he also took a random, golden basketball trophy from the "Glee" set.

When "Glee" ended in 2015, star Lea Michele shared a number of photos in honor of its final day of shooting.

One, in particular, revealed which prop from the set would be going home with her — the jersey her late boyfriend and former co-star Cory Monteith (who played Finn) frequently wore on the show before he died.

Michele captioned the photo of her leaving set with the framed jersey with, "One last thing."

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In 2015, Darren Criss, who played Blaine Anderson on "Glee," told The Hollywood Reporter that he and his co-star Chord Overstreet took more than a few pieces of memorabilia from the show's set.

"On the last day, Chord Overstreet and I were walking out and we took some of the trophies out of the case. I have McKinley High 2002 speech-and-debate trophy as a bookend in my house," Criss told the publication.

He said he and Overstreet also took some materials they could use to soundproof their respective home studios. Criss also said he took the green couch from the principal's office.

And, of course, he made sure to take home his character's staple Dalton Warblers jacket adding, "No one was taking that but me."

"30 Rock" star Tracy Morgan, who played Tracy Jordan on the show, has said he has a love for in-home aquariums, once telling Men's Journal that his favorite thing in his house is his 2,700-gallon shark tank.

So it's no surprise that, when filming wrapped on "30 Rock," Morgan took a large fish tank from the set, per a 2019 interview with People.

Rider Strong played Shawn Hunter on "Boy Meets World" for years.

"I stole the jacket from the show — Disney wouldn't let us take anything, but I had a leather jacket that I had bought on my own and I swapped it," Strong told CNN in 2013.

Strong revealed that although he got away with the swap, the jacket was later stolen from his car.

Emily Fields, Shay Mitchell's character on "Pretty Little Liars," was quite an athlete, so Mitchell said she took home a few of Emily's tracksuits, her bathing suit, and her swim cap.

"For me, it was just having a couple of tangible items to look back on ... more than anything for me, her swim cap was definitely something I had to take," Mitchell told People in 2017.

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"One Tree Hill" star Sophia Bush has one check that she never cashed from her time on the show — that is, the prop check that her character Brooke Davis received from Millie when Brooke opened her clothing store, Clothes Over Bros.

Bush has explained that the check reminds her of the friendships she made on the show, telling Popsugar in 2012 that, "I have that now at home and it's really special. You know, one of the best things that happened to me on that show is the friends that I left with and Lisa [Goldstein Kirsch] is one of my best friends in the world now."

In 2016, per Vanity Fair, Hugh Bonneville, who played Robert Crawley, shared what he took from the set of "Downton Abbey," explaining that both items he took are framed in his bathroom.

Bonneville said he took two paper souvenirs — one from Henry Talbot inviting the Granthams to a car race and a telegram announcing the war with Germany.

"On 'Downton,' not only is each letter beautifully handwritten or typed if appropriate, but it's also germane to the scene that you're doing," he explained. "It's really beautiful, that level of detail, because it puts you in the moment, in that era that you are trying to evoke."

In an interview with People, Jacob Anderson shared that he took home a chess piece from the "GOT" set. The piece is from the table in Daenerys' map room.

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In a recent interview with Conon O'Brien, Isaac Hempstead Wright (who plays Bran Stark) said in regard to taking items from the "GOT" set, "some people got a slightly better deal" than he did.

He said that toward the end of filming he realized he couldn't take Bran's wheelchair through customs so he ran through the set he was on to take some souvenirs.

"I took with me ... a wooden spoon, a straw bowl, and a tub of, as for as I can tell, is Vaseline," said Hempstead.

Sophie Turner told Entertainment Weekly that she kept her "Game of Thrones" corset. And, during a "Good Morning America" interview, she also shared that she has been carrying a scroll from one of the last episodes of the show.

Fans know that scrolls typically hold a lot of power in Westeros, so Turner carrying it in her wallet could be a major "GOT" spoiler should it fall into the wrong hands.

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In 2018, "Game of Thrones" star Maisie Williams told Elle that of all the props in Westeros, she opted to take home one of Arya's beloved brown jackets.

Williams said she hopes to show her grandchildren the memorabilia one day, adding: "I can imagine it being something that I'm like, 'Oh, I was on this show once upon a time and this was the jacket I wore'... and my grandkids being like, 'Please stop.'"

After wrapping her final scene on "Game of Thrones," Rose Leslie, who played Ygritte, was given her character's bow and arrow.

In 2014, Leslie told Entertainment Weekly that the bow and arrow had been upgraded, complete with white leather and a placard that reads "Kissed by Fire."

On the episode "The Pointy End" of "Game of Thrones," Jason Momoa's character, Khal Drogo, rips out another man's tongue and throat.

Momoa is admittedly "a big fan of taking the things [he] worked with" and he told Entertainment Weekly that the special-effects prop tongue now sits on his desk.

In 2017, Sarah Jessica Parker told Vulture that she has "95%" of Carrie Bradshaw's wardrobe archived. On the valuable collection, Parker said, "I don't touch it or wear it but all of that is really meaningful."

Along with the wardrobe, the actress said she also kept her "Carrie" nameplate necklace. And according to Entertainment Weekly, the actress also took the menu prop from the set of the "Sex and the City" ladies' favorite meeting spot.

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After wrapping on "Breaking Bad," Bryan Cranston, who played Walter White, told Entertainment Weekly that he had taken Heisenberg's signature porkpie hat and sunglasses, calling them his "prized possession."

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In a 2016 interview with Seth Meyers, Aaron Paul, who played Jesse Pinkman on "Breaking Bad" said he took "everything [he] could" from the set of the show, including the faux severed head of Gus Fring.

"No joke, I have that [severed] head in my media room," he told Meyers.

Per Entertainment Weekly, Paul also said he has the license plate from Jesse Pinkman's first car and a Heisenberg hat.

Annie Murphy, who played Alexis Rose on "Schitt's Creek," told Harper's Bazaar that she took home one of her character's most memorable dresses, even though she'll never wear it.

"I chose a really lovely baggy sweater and pants. I don't know if Dan [Levy] knows this, but I also took the dress that Alexis wears for her 'Cabaret' audition — the 'A Little Bit Alexis' dress that's a purple baby-doll thing, which I will never ever wear, but it was a special scene."

Murphy said the dress is now in her closet somewhere.

Catherine O'Hara, who played Moira Rose, on the comedy "Schitt's Creek," told UsWeekly she took a bunch of wigs and clothing from the show's set.

This perhaps isn't too surprising since her character was known for her ever-changing hairdos.

John Stamos, who played the legendary Uncle Jesse on "Full House" for years, appears to have taken one of the series' most famous set pieces — the couch.

On Instagram, he shared a photo of his 1-year-old son, Billy, and the couch blocking the top of a set of stairs with the caption, "Baby safety gate or one of the most iconic couches in pop TV history? You, make the call."

In 2018, Sandra Oh told People that the prop she took from her days on "Grey's Anatomy" was the "best thing [she's] ever taken from a set."

She said she took the rug that was originally seen in Owen and Cristina's apartment and it now resides in her living room.