Richard Schiff (born May 27, 1955) is an American actor. He is best known for playing Toby Ziegler on The West Wing, a role for which he received an Emmy Award. Schiff made his television directorial debut with The West Wing, directing an episode titled "Talking Points". He is on the National Advisory Board of the Council for a Livable World. He had a recurring role on the HBO series Ballers. He had a leading role in ABC's medical drama The Good Doctor, as Dr. Aaron Glassman, and portrayed Odin in Santa Monica Studio's God of War: Ragnarök, released in 2022.
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Early life and education
Schiff was born on May 27, 1955, in Bethesda, Maryland, United States to Edward, a real estate lawyer, and Charlotte, a television and Broadway producer. His brothers are producer Paul Schiff and talent manager David Schiff. His parents divorced, with his mother later marrying Clarence B. Jones, Martin Luther King Jr.'s lawyer. His early jobs before acting included driving a taxi in New York City and cleaning buses in the Greyhound terminal on 11th Avenue. "It was a Teamster job, from 11pm to 7am. ... We cleaned the grease off bus wheels with diesel fuel. I also laid cable for Manhattan Cable Television. I was a Teamster in the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers".
Schiff and his family are Jewish. His grandfather was alleged to have connections to New York's Jewish Mafia, a background that inspired a plot line on The West Wing. He attended the Bronx High School of Science for a time but did not graduate, instead taking night classes at Washington Irving High School while working. He graduated in 1983 from City College of New York after initially dropping out and moving to Colorado. He studied acting at the William Esper Studio. His brother Paul Schiff was college roommates with his future West Wing cast mate Bradley Whitford.
Career
Schiff initially studied directing. He directed several off-Broadway plays, including Antigone in 1983 with a just-graduated Angela Bassett. In the mid-1980s Schiff decided to try his hand at acting and landed several TV roles. He was seen by Steven Spielberg in an episode of the TV drama High Incident and was cast in The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997) which led to being cast more frequently and eventually to the role of White House Communications Director Toby Ziegler in the television series The West Wing. Schiff became known for his reclusive and intense approach to his craft as well as his low-key delivery style.
In the early 1990s, Schiff landed numerous small roles in a variety of films, including a Train Driver in Speed. In 1995, Schiff portrayed a lawyer defending the serial killer in Se7en. In 1996, he guest-starred on the TV series ER (Season 2, Episode 17), and appeared in NYPD Blue the following year. In 1996, he portrayed a corrupt probation officer in City Hall along with Al Pacino and John Cusack. Schiff portrayed a doctor alongside Eddie Murphy in the 1998 Dr. Dolittle remake. He also portrayed Col./Brig. Gen. Robert Laurel Smith in the 1998 HBO TV movie The Pentagon Wars, based on the real-life development of the US Army's Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicle. The same year, Schiff appeared in the movie Deep Impact. Schiff appeared in one episode of Becker during its first season. In 2001, he acted in the movie What's the Worst That Could Happen? starring Martin Lawrence and Danny DeVito. He played the part of the tough lawyer Mr. Turner in I Am Sam opposite Sean Penn and Michelle Pfeiffer and co-starred in People I Know with Al Pacino.
Schiff appeared in Ray as Jerry Wexler, shaving his beard for the role. After working on The West Wing for six seasons, Schiff chose to leave the series, fulfilling his contractual obligations by appearing in half of the final season's episodes. That same year, he starred alongside Peter Krause in Civic Duty.
Schiff had a cameo appearance as himself in the second-season finale of the series Entourage. The scene has Schiff at lunch with his agent Ari Gold, where he declares a desire to act in action movies. He appeared again as a fictionalized version of himself in Entourage (2015). He also starred in the premiere run of Underneath the Lintel, a one-act, single-character play by Glen Berger, at the George Street Playhouse in New Brunswick, New Jersey. In February 2007, he appeared in the West End production of Underneath the Lintel in the Duchess Theatre in London, England, and appeared on BBC Radio 5 Live and talked at length to Simon Mayo about his experiences acting in The West Wing and his new West End production. In 2007, he appeared as Philip Cowen in the season finale of Burn Notice. A radio version of Underneath the Lintel, performed by Schiff, was broadcast by BBC Radio 4 on January 5, 2008. Schiff starred in Lanford Wilson's Talley's Folly at the McCarter Theatre Center in Princeton, New Jersey in fall 2008 as accountant Matt Friedman, opposite Margot White as Sally Talley. Later that year Schiff co-starred in Last Chance Harvey with Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson and Another Harvest Moon with Ernest Borgnine and appeared in the season finale of Eli Stone.
Personal life
Schiff's first marriage to Sheryl Noethe ended in divorce. Schiff and actress Sheila Kelley married in 1996. Kelley played Schiff's character's love interest, and later his wife, on The Good Doctor. They have a son, Gus, born in 1994, and a daughter, Ruby, born in August 2000. In 2024, Ruby portrayed the character of Hannah in the final season of The Good Doctor.
Schiff has supported Democratic candidates, but has said he is not a registered member of the party. He supported Barack Obama in the 2008 U.S. presidential election. Previously, he had endorsed then-Senator Joe Biden, before Biden dropped out. In 2016, Schiff supported Senator Bernie Sanders during the Democratic primaries. He endorsed Cynthia Nixon's bid for Governor of New York in the 2018 election. Schiff supported Joe Biden in the 2020 election. In September 2025 he was one of over 400 artists who signed an open letter from the American Civil Liberties Union in support of Jimmy Kimmel following ABC's suspension of Jimmy Kimmel Live!.
On November 10, 2020, Schiff announced that he and his wife had tested positive for COVID-19 on Election Day and were quarantining at their home in Vancouver. The following Monday, he announced he was hospitalized, but "showing improvements" while Kelley was at home "doing better", but still sick. On November 19, 2020, Schiff was released from the hospital.
In 2026, Schiff signed a letter requesting leniency for OneTaste founder Nicole Daedone before her sentencing. Schiff's letter says Daedone "spent her life trying to bring compassion, awareness, and honesty to a part of human experience that is often shamed or misunderstood." Daedone was convicted for participation in a forced labor conspiracy in which she ordered multiple victims to perform uncompensated labor ranging from sex work with investors to menial domestic work. Several journalists have compared OneTaste to a cult and pyramid scheme. Daedone ultimately received a sentence of nine years imprisonment.
Filmography
Stage
He is set to make his return to the London stage in March 2026, starring in a new production of Copenhagen by Michael Frayn at the Hampstead Theatre
