Who is Jeff Richmond? 'SNL' star Tina Fey's husband says she 'always made him laugh' during her audition days
Actress and comedian Tina Fey will be co-hosting the Golden Globes 2021 along with Amy Poehler and we can surely expect a laughter riot. The 50-year-old 'Mean Girls' and '30 Rock' actress and SNL star is well-known for her boss lady persona and hard-working nature.
But, in her personal life, Fey is a doting mother of two daughters — Alice and Penelope Athena. Fey is currently raising her children together with her husband of two decades — Jeff Richmond.
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Who is Jeff Richmond?
Born on January 7, 1961, in Garrettsville, Ohio, Jeff Richmond grew up in an environment of music and arts. His mother was a tap-dance teacher who loved musicals. His exposure to musicals from an early childhood helped sprout his interest in music, which he would ultimately pursue as his career.
Richmond attended the James A Garfield High School and graduated in 1979. At school, he wrote his first play, and also won the prestigious John Philip Sousa Award for his musical pursuits. While staying in Garrettsville, he helped start the Garrettsville Community Players, where he tried his hands in direction, choreography and sharing his artistic insights for many shows.
In the early 1980s, Richmond attended Kent State University, where he studied music theory and composition. During his college days, he co-authored a number of musicals, and even scored the music for an adaptation of 'Othello'.
After graduation, Richmond moved to Chicago and launched a small theatre in the city with some of his friends. Before his stint as the music director for 'Saturday Night Live', he worked on 'The Second City' and 'Child's Play Touring Theatre'.
In 2006, he left SNL to join the crew of Tina Fey's '30 Rock' as the music composer. Aside from scoring the music, he also directed five episodes of the series. Later, Richmon composed music for the movie 'Baby Mama' starring his wife Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. He has also written the music for the Broadway adaptation of 'Mean Girls'.
Tina Fey and Jeff Richmond's relationship
Richmond and Fey met way before their days of success when both were trying to jumpstart their careers — Fey in comedy and Richmond in music. In 1993, Richmond was working as the in-house pianist at Del Close’s ImprovOlympic Theater (iO) in Chicago. He met Fey there along with Amy Poehler when they were taking classes at iO. At that time, Fey was a fresh graduate from the University of Virginia and was working at a local YMCA in Chicago to support her improv classes.
While playing the piano at the theater, Richmond noticed Fey's audition and thought she was among the best. "We started hanging out offstage. Tina always made me laugh. She used to eat a lot of chocolate cake in those days, and she’d black up one of her teeth during the conversation. It may be losing something in translation here, but it was very funny and very, very adorable," he fondly remembered in an interview with New York Post.
In 1997, Fey started working on SNL and moved to New York City. Richmond followed suit soon after. After years of dating, the couple got married in a beautiful Greek Orthodox ceremony on June 3, 2001.
In September 2005, their first daughter Alice was born and their second daughter Penelope Athena was born in August 2011. Richmond and Fey are both devoted parents to their children. In April 2009, the happy couple bought a $3.4 million apartment in Upper West Side, New York City.