Who Is Jeff Richmond, Tina Fey's Husband?
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Tonight, NBC will air the 78th annual Golden Globe Awards, and while it's going to look a lot different than awards shows usually look (thanks so much, COVID-19), there is one really good, familiar thing about this year: Tina Fey and Amy Poehler are back as co-hosts.
Fey will be hosting from the Rainbow Room in New York City, and Poehler will be on the West Coast in Los Angeles at the Beverly Hilton, where the Globes are usually held. Nominees will be screening in from all over the world.
Fey and Poehler have been a well-known comedy duo since their Saturday Night Live days. "We are common-law of comedy wives at this point," Poehler told Seth Meyers in 2015, around the release of their movie Sisters. "We have worked long enough that I feel like I own half of what Tina has."
In real life, though, Fey has been married to her husband, Jeff Richmond, since 2001. Richmond remains behind-the-scenes more than Fey, but he's also a funny, creative spirit. In his memoir Nevertheless, Fey's 30 Rock co-star Alec Baldwin writes that Fey describes him as "travel-size."
"When I saw him, I thought, What's she doing with him?,'" he wrote, jokingly. "With his spools of curly brown hair and oversize eyes, Jeff resembles a Margaret Keane painting."
Alec Baldwin-jokes aside, who is Jeff Richmond, Tina Fey's husband of nearly 20 years?
Richmond is from Ohio
Richmond, 60, grew up in Portage County, Ohio, where, according to his Second City bio, helped form the Garrettsville Community Players. He attended college at Kent State University. After college, he stayed in the Midwest but moved to Chicago, where he worked with Children's Play Touring Theater. After that, he moved on to be the Musical Director at "The Second City e.t.c." in 1995. In 1998, he started directing for Second City etc. and directed several shows, including History Repaints Itself with 30 Rock's Jack McBrayer.
After Second City, Richmond moved to SNL to begin composing music for the sketch show.
He and Fey have known each other since their Second City days
Richmond and Fey met while they were both at Second City and dated for seven years before getting married at a Greek Orthodox church in 2001. They share two daughters, Alice (born in 2006) and Penelope (born in 2011).
Per Thrillist, Fey and Richmond bonded over their mutual love of Guys and Dolls and The Music Man cast recordings. Fey left for SNL in 1997, but Richmond stayed behind. He came out to New York City to visit Fey and, according to Thrillist, "do a bit" on Late Night With Conan O'Brien.
He was eventually hired at SNL in 2001.
He's a very accomplished composer and is behind some of the funniest songs in modern comedy
Richmond and Fey have collaborated on several projects. He composed the music for Fey and Poehler's 2008 movie, Baby Mama. He was an executive producer for and composed the music for 30 Rock. He also directed several episodes of the NBC show. You might have seen him on 30 Rock as Alfonso Disparioso. He was also an executive producer on The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt for which he composed the music and directed several episodes.
His work goes far beyond these projects. You can find his full filmography and credits here; chances are you're familiar with his music on several TV shows and movies.
He's a Tony winner
Richmond composed the music for the Mean Girls Broadway show, for which he won a Tony for Original Score in 2018.
He's compared himself to President Biden for one reason
In Maureen Dowd's 2008 profile of Fey, Richmond started to tell a story about their relationship but stopped himself, saying, "Oh, my God." Dowd wrote: "He calls himself 'the Joe Biden of husbands' because he's prone to 'drop the bomb' in interviews," or speak out of turn.
Later in the interview, Richmond does manage to tell a story about how he and some Second City friends wanted to go to a strip club, a decision of which Fey did not approve.
When we were first dating, some of the guys at Second City said, 'Hey, wouldn't it be a hoot if we go over—'"
"'—over to the Doll House,'" Fey said, finishing his sentence. "'We'll go to this strip club ironically.' I was like, 'The fuck you will.'"
Richmond admires how strongly Fey sticks to her convictions—and one particular physical trait
"I know how she feels about some things," Richmond, who lives in Manhattan with Fey, said. "Like, we never had to deal with any of this, but: adultery. Just looking at examples from other people's lives, we know that anything like that, messing around, is just such a complete 'No' to her. And she has her principles and she sticks to her principles more than anybody I've ever met in my life. Like that whole idea of, if you are in a relationship, there are deal breakers. There's not a lot of gray area in being flirty with somebody. She’s very black-and-white: 'We're married—you can't.'"
And Fey seems pretty happy with her good-guy husband: "I don't have that kind of 'I love the bad guys' thing. No, no thank you. I like nice people."
Richmond also told V.F. that he's also a fan of the distinctive scar on Fey's face, which she got from a dog attack when she was 5.
"That scar was fascinating to me," Richmond said. "This is somebody who, no matter what it was, has gone through something. And I think it really informs the way she thinks about her life. When you have that kind of thing happen to you, that makes you scared of certain things, that makes you frightened of different things, your comedy comes out in a different kind of way, and it also makes you feel for people."
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