Jeff Richmond

Jeff Richmond was born on 7 January 1961, in Kilsyth, West Virginia and spent his growing up years in Portage County in Ohio. He attended James A Garfield High School in Garrettsville, Ohio and is a member of the 1979 alumni. He was bestowed with the ‘John Philip Sousa’ award for composing patriotic scores while studying in the high school.

He graduated degree from Kent State University in Ohio. He got acquainted with Tina Fey at ‘The Second City’ in Chicago and after a long courtship that lasted for seven years, the two of them got married on 3 June 2001.

Jeff Richmond, in the early stage of his career, greatly contributed towards the establishment of Garrettsville Community Players, a community-based theater troupe in Garrettsville, Ohio. He played an active role in promoting the theater group as he directed and choreographed quite a number of its plays and shows in the beginning. During his time at Kent State University towards the latter half of 1980s, he jointly composed many musicals, notable amongst these being the score for the Shakespearean play, ‘Othello’.

After graduating from Kent State University, Jeff Richmond relocated to Chicago in order to launch his career as a director, composer and scriptwriter. He had stints in ‘The Second City’, reputed to be the earliest improvisation theater group of its kind, and the ‘Child’s Play Touring Theater’ a not-for-profit educational theater enterprise. It was while working in ‘Second City ‘that he came across Tina Fey and developed an association with her that culminated in their marriage.

He directed the skits, ‘Promise Keepers, Losers Weepers’ and ‘The Revelation Will Not Be Televised’, in 1998 and 1999, respectively. while he was involved with ‘The Second City’.

Jeff Richmond’s relationship with Tina is not only personal but commercial as well. He got the first major break of his career when he got an opportunity to compose the score for Tina Fey’s project, ‘Saturday Night Live’ in 2006. He went on to contribute as a composer, director and producer for some other projects of Tina including ’30 Rock’, and ‘Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt’.

He wrote the score for the movie, ‘Baby Mama’ where Tina Fey, his wife starred alongside Golden Globe Award winning actress, Amy Poehler. He featured as a background actor portraying the character of Alfonso Disperioso in various episodes of ’30 Rock’. He authored the original soundtracks of the TV series, ‘Todd’s Pop Song Reviews, ’30 Rock’ and ‘Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt’ and the comedy film, ‘Mean Girls’.