Primetime Emmy Tally: One
How He Got the Gold: As outstanding supporting actor in a drama series, 2000, on NBC’s The West Wing.
Now for the Noms: Schiff was nominated three times for his role on The West Wing as White House communications director Toby Ziegler.
Winning Memories: “We had a good time that night. Allison Janney also won, as did Aaron Sorkin and Tommy Schlamme, and The West Wing won best drama series, so there were plenty of good feelings to go around. When you work those kinds of hours and have that communal effort to reach the ceiling of your potential for excellence, you become a family of sorts. We had a special group, no doubt.”
Bragging Rights: “My Emmy statue is in my office accompanied by some other statues, the most prominent of which is my New York City softball championship trophy of 1988. It towers over the rest, and that’s fine with me because I am as proud of that as any of them. I don’t boast about my acting, but for some reason I happily brag about my feats at third base.”
Latest Project: “I am very moved by the way people have responded to Dr. Glassman on The Good Doctor. This show celebrates the journey of someone with exceptional challenges, in this case autism, and concentrates on the relationship between my character and Shaun [Freddie Highmore] and the mentor-protégé, father-son aspects.
It’s about family and love and going the extra mile to champion the outsider. And when you’re working with an actor like Freddie, the task is possible because he’s so damn good.”
Looking Back: “I didn’t expect a career in television at all. I thought I’d live Off-Off Broadway in the fringes of theater. So when I started to get some great roles such as NYPD Blue and Relativity — the latter, by the way, still my favorite TV role — I was pleasantly surprised.
Then The West Wing and now Counterpart and Ballers and The Good Doctor; I’ve been very lucky. I love the current chaos of the TV market in that I get to be a part of so many different kinds of shows.”
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This article originally appeared in emmy magazine, Issue No. 8, 2018
