Richard Schiff Bio
Richard Schiff (born May 27, 1955) is an American actor whose career has spanned stage, film, and television for more than four decades. He is best known for playing White House Communications Director Toby Ziegler on the acclaimed political drama The West Wing, a role that earned him a Primetime Emmy Award. Schiff has built a diverse résumé across studio films, independent features, network television, and voice work, and he has continued to take on prominent roles into the 2020s.
Beyond acting, Richard Schiff has served on the National Advisory Board of the Council for a Livable World, reflecting his engagement with civic causes. He has also stepped behind the camera to direct episodes of The West Wing and later moved into producing. His long career and steady presence in Hollywood have made him a familiar face to audiences of prestige drama, network procedurals, and genre entertainment alike.
Early Life and Background
Richard Schiff was born on May 27, 1955, in Bethesda, Maryland, to Edward, a real estate lawyer, and Charlotte, a television and Broadway producer. He grew up alongside his brothers, producer Paul Schiff and talent manager David Schiff. His parents later divorced, and his mother married Clarence B. Jones, the lawyer and advisor to Martin Luther King Jr. The family is Jewish, and Schiff has spoken about his grandfather’s alleged connections to figures in New York’s Jewish underworld, a story that later inspired a plot line on The West Wing.
Before settling into acting, Richard Schiff held a series of odd jobs in New York City, including driving a taxi and cleaning buses at the Greyhound terminal on 11th Avenue through the night. He attended the Bronx High School of Science for a time but did not graduate there, instead earning his diploma in 1983 from Washington Irving High School while working. After initially dropping out, he returned to school and graduated from the City College of New York the same year. He later studied acting at the William Esper Studio, which helped shape his disciplined, low-key craft.
Path to Celebrity
Richard Schiff originally trained as a director and helmed several off-Broadway productions, including Antigone in 1983, which featured a just-graduated Angela Bassett. In the mid-1980s he decided to shift his focus to acting and began landing small television roles. Director Steven Spielberg noticed his work in an episode of the TV drama High Incident and cast him in The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997), a role that opened the door to more frequent film and television work.
Schiff’s growing list of small but memorable film appearances throughout the 1990s included Speed, Se7en, City Hall, Dr. Dolittle, Deep Impact, and The Pentagon Wars. These performances led to his casting as Toby Ziegler on The West Wing, the role that would define his career. His reclusive process and understated delivery soon became part of his reputation as a serious dramatic actor.
Richard Schiff Career
Early Career (1983–1999)
Richard Schiff began his professional life as an off-Broadway director before transitioning to acting in the mid-1980s. His early television appearances and steady work in small film roles built his reputation as a reliable character actor. Films such as Speed (1994), Se7en (1995), City Hall (1996), Dr. Dolittle (1998), Deep Impact (1998), and The Pentagon Wars (1998) showcased his range across genres.
His television work during this period included guest spots on ER, NYPD Blue, and Becker, along with a role in The Lost World: Jurassic Park that caught the attention of casting directors in Hollywood. By the end of the 1990s, Schiff was a respected presence in both film and television, paving the way for his defining role on The West Wing beginning in 1999.
Breakthrough (1999–2017)
Richard Schiff’s breakthrough came when he was cast as Toby Ziegler, White House Communications Director, on The West Wing. The performance earned him a Primetime Emmy Award and made him a central figure on one of the most respected dramas of its era. He spent six seasons on the series and also made his television directorial debut with the episode “Talking Points.”
While working on The West Wing, Richard Schiff continued to take on major film and television roles, including I Am Sam with Sean Penn, People I Know with Al Pacino, Ray as record producer Jerry Wexler, Last Chance Harvey with Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson, and Man of Steel as Dr. Emil Hamilton. He also returned to the stage, starring in the one-man play Underneath the Lintel in New York and later in London’s West End.
On television, Schiff built memorable recurring arcs on shows such as Burn Notice, Monk, Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior, The Cape, and White Collar. He also played the recurring antagonist Harper Dearing on NCIS across seasons 9 and 10, and had a notable recurring role as a fictionalized version of himself on HBO’s Entourage. These appearances cemented his reputation as a versatile guest star.
Notable Works and Milestones
Richard Schiff’s signature role remains Toby Ziegler on The West Wing, which earned him an Emmy and remains a touchstone of prestige television drama. He later took on the role of Dr. Aaron Glassman on ABC’s The Good Doctor from 2017 to 2024, where his wife, Sheila Kelley, also played his character’s love interest and eventual wife. His voice and motion-capture performance as Odin in the video game God of War: Ragnarök (2022) added another dimension to his career.
Richard Schiff Award Nominations
Richard Schiff received multiple award nominations across his career, including Primetime Emmy nominations for his work as Toby Ziegler on The West Wing, in addition to recognition from the Screen Actors Guild Awards as part of the ensemble of The West Wing. He has also been nominated by various critics’ groups for his stage performances, including his London run of Underneath the Lintel.
Richard Schiff Awards Won
Richard Schiff won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for his performance as Toby Ziegler on The West Wing. He has also shared in Screen Actors Guild Award wins as part of the cast of The West Wing, and received the Ambassador of the Arts Recipient honor at the 2024 North Fork TV Festival on Long Island.
Richard Schiff Family
Richard Schiff was raised by his parents Edward and Charlotte, and his mother later married Clarence B. Jones, the lawyer and advisor to Martin Luther King Jr. He has two brothers, producer Paul Schiff and talent manager David Schiff. Paul Schiff was college roommates with West Wing castmate Bradley Whitford, a connection that helped bring Richard to the show.
Schiff was first married to Sheryl Noethe, a union that ended in divorce. He married actress Sheila Kelley in 1996, and the couple share two children: a son, Gus, born in 1994, and a daughter, Ruby, born in August 2000. In 2024, Ruby joined her father on The Good Doctor, portraying the character Hannah in the show’s final season.
Personal Life
Richard Schiff lives with his wife, Sheila Kelley, whom he married in 1996. Kelley has played Schiff’s character’s love interest and later his wife on The Good Doctor, and the couple have publicly shared the experience of battling COVID-19 together in 2020, when Schiff was briefly hospitalized before being released on November 19, 2020. He has supported Democratic candidates over the years, including Barack Obama in 2008, Bernie Sanders in 2016, and Joe Biden in 2020, while noting that he is not a registered member of the party.
Looking ahead, Schiff is set to return to the stage in spring 2025 in a New York Theatre Workshop production of Becoming Eve, based on the memoir by Abby Stein, and is also scheduled to star in a new London production of Michael Frayn’s Copenhagen at the Hampstead Theatre in 2026. He also served as an executive producer on the 2024 documentary film Public Defender, extending his creative work beyond acting.