Yahoo Finance Who Is Tina Fey's Husband? All About Jeff Richmond
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Tina Fey and Jeff Richmond have been together since before she was a star.
Richmond met Fey in the mid-'90s when they were both working at Second City in Chicago. Richmond told The New Yorker that when he first saw the woman who would become both a comedic star and his wife, she was performing improv with the kind of skill that would eventually make her famous.
"I don't want to say she was funny 'for a woman,' but there were so many talented men there at the time, and then suddenly there was Tina, who was so funny — and she was at home with all those boys on the stage," he said.
Richmond and Fey started dating, and after seven years together, the couple were married in a Greek Orthodox ceremony in 2001. Around the same time, the pair moved on from Second City and headed to New York City to pursue their careers in the entertainment industry. While Fey went on to become a household name, Richmond found success on the music side of the industry.
In April 2005, news broke that Fey and Richmond were expecting their first child. That September, their daughter, Alice, was born. In April 2011, Fey revealed she was pregnant again before she and Richmond welcomed a second daughter, Penelope, into the world in August.
So, who is Tina Fey's husband? Keep reading to find out more about Jeff Richmond and his relationship with the comedian.
He was born in West Virginia and raised in Ohio
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Richmond was born in Kilsyth, West Virginia, however, the Second City website notes that he was raised in Portage County, Ohio. It was there that he co-founded the Garrettsville Community Players before moving on to a gig with the Child's Play Touring Theater while attending Ohio's Kent State University. In 1985, Richmond graduated from the Kent State's School of Theatre and Dance, and in 2013, was given an honorary doctorate.
Richmond is a "levelheaded Ohioan," per The New Yorker, and it's this aspect of his personality that complements Fey's nature, according to the star herself.
He's older than Fey
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"We met when I was 24. He's nine years older than I am," Fey told Women's Health in January 2007, adding that it "was actually a really great age difference because he was much more mature" than someone who was the same age as her. She continued, "There was no game playing or 'I'll call you tomorrow.' It was a very easy, respectful relationship from the beginning, and it very quickly and easily became quite solid."
When asked if she was able to learn things from Richmond because he was older, Fey said, "Yeah. Yeah, I did. And he's just the most patient man … and very supportive."
He wishes his proposal to Fey had been more exciting
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When Richmond was ready to ask Fey to marry him, he did so while the two were on vacation at Lake Michigan. While it was a classic proposal involving Richmond bringing along champagne and getting down on one knee, there's one thing he regrets about the special moment.
Fey told PEOPLE, "My husband always said, 'If I'd known so many people would ask me how I proposed, I would have done it in some more theatrical way.' "
He's an Emmy-winning producer and composer
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Following their time at Second City, Richmond and Fey made their way to New York City where they both ended up working for Saturday Night Live. While Fey used her comedic skills as a writer and performer for the show, Richmond worked as a composer, creating music for SNL.
When Fey left the long-running skit show to bring 30 Rock to television audiences, Richmond also made his exit to work with his wife on her new comedy. He told The Hollywood Reporter, "On 30 Rock, we would be not necessarily occupying the same creative spaces all the time. She would be writing the script, and then I would be off in another room writing the songs … [I]t was very enjoyable!"
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It also ended up being a good career move for Richmond, who not only wrote the show's theme song, but also took home three Emmy Awards for his work on 30 Rock.
That kind of success is surely why Richmond and Fey also worked together on Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and the Mean Girls musical.
He's mentioned in Alec Baldwin's book
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When Alec Baldwin released his book Nevertheless: A Memoir in April 2017, he included an anecdote about both Richmond and Fey.
"When I first met Tina Fey — beautiful and brunette, smart and funny, by turns smug and diffident and completely uninterested in me or anything I had to say — I had the same reaction that I'm sure many men and women have: I fell in love," Baldwin wrote while recalling a guest appearance on Saturday Night Live.
Baldwin said that he'd asked the SNL talent coordinator about Fey's relationship status. "She pointed to a man sitting along the wall. Or maybe he was standing? This was Jeff Richmond, Tina's husband. Jeff is diminutive. Tina describes him as 'travel-size.' When I saw him, I thought, What's she doing with him? With his spools of curly brown hair and oversize eyes, Jeff resembles a Margaret Keane painting," he wrote.
When Baldwin worked alongside both Fey and Richmond on 30 Rock, the actor said, "I changed that to 'What's he doing with her?' Jeff, who was the talented composer and music supervisor on 30 Rock, is as loose and outgoing as Tina is cautious and dry."
He lives on the Upper West Side with Fey and his family
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Richmond and Fey are residents of the Upper West Side in New York City and have been for quite some time. But they've also made a few real estate-related moves over the years. Back in 2004, they paid $1.9 million for a condo in the area before selling it for $2.15 million in 2010, according to Curbed. However, they didn't leave the neighborhood when they sold their home.
In 2016, Richmond and Fey bought an apartment on West End Avenue for $9.51 million. For that price, the couple found themselves with a four-bedroom, four-and-a-half bathroom residence. Although the co-op had been listed for $7.5 million, Richmond and Fey had a good reason for wanting it: It sits directly above their current apartment, which would give them the potential to double their living space or at least ensure that no noisy neighbors moved in above them.
Richmond and Fey regularly step out for date nights in the city, like in October 2022 when the pair attended the "Leopoldstadt" Broadway opening night at Longacre Theatre. Richmond wore a blue suit to the event while Fey was seen in a beige coat accessorized with long black boots and a red handbag.
He was fascinated by Fey's scar
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When Fey was 5 years old, she was attacked by a stranger while outside of her home in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania. The assailant cut Fey's cheek, and when Richmond spoke to Vanity Fair about his wife in December 2008, he said, "She just thought somebody marked her with a pen."
The wound left a scar that can still be seen on Fey's face, and Richmond told Vanity Fair that when he first met his future wife, the scar was "fascinating" to him.
"This is somebody who, no matter what it was, has gone through something," he said. "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."
He begs Fey to wear her glasses in restaurants
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When Fey was first rising to stardom, she was known for wearing glasses. Fey sports them less these days, but as Richmond told PEOPLE in May 2004, her husband occasionally still asks the actress to don her signature accessory. "Whenever we go to restaurants, I beg her, 'Please put the glasses on because you get treated great when they know you're on TV,' " he explained.
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He noted that when Fey was recognized in public as a television star in the early days, the couple would often get an appetizer and bottle of wine on the house. "I tell her, 'Please, just do it for your husband,' " Richmond said at the time.
