Richard Schiff

Richard Schiff (born May 27, 1955) is an American actor and director. He is best known for playing Toby Ziegler on The West Wing, a role for which he received an Emmy Award. Schiff made his 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.[1] He had a recurring role on the HBO series Ballers. Since September 2017 he has had a leading role in ABC’s medical drama The Good Doctor, as Dr. Aaron Glassman, president of a fictional teaching hospital in San Jose, California.

Schiff was born on May 27, 1955, in Bethesda, Maryland, and was raised in New York City. He is the second of three sons of Charlotte, a television and publishing executive, and Edward Schiff, a real estate lawyer.[3] 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”.[4] Schiff and his family are Jewish. His grandfather had alleged connections to the Jewish Mafia of New York.[5][6] He studied acting at the William Esper Studio.