Craig Bierko

Craig Philip Bierko is an American actor born on August 18, 1964, in Rye Brook, New York, where his mother Pat served for a time as president of The Harrison Players, a local community theatre. After graduating from Blind Brook High School, Bierko enrolled at Boston University's School of Public Communications to study journalism, though he spent much of that first year crossing the Charles River to perform in plays at Harvard. He subsequently transferred to Northwestern University, where he studied acting alongside David Schwimmer, Stephen Colbert, George Newbern, and Harry Lennix, earning a BS in theater arts from the School of Speech in 1986.

Bierko made his Broadway debut in 2000, taking on the role of Professor Harold Hill in Susan Stroman's revival of Meredith Willson's The Music Man. The performance earned him a Tony Award nomination for Best Actor in a Musical, a Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding Actor in a Musical, an Outer Critics Circle Award nomination in the same category, a Theatre World Award, and a Broadway.com Audience Award. That same year, People named him Sexiest Broadway Star. In 2001, he appeared on Broadway in Thou Shalt Not. He returned to Broadway in 2009 to star as Sky Masterson in the revival of Guys and Dolls, which began previews at the Nederlander Theatre on February 5, opened officially on March 1, and closed on June 14 after 113 performances.

Outside of Broadway productions, Bierko performed the role of Peter in the 2011 New York Philharmonic production of Stephen Sondheim's Company, which featured Neil Patrick Harris, Patti LuPone, and Stephen Colbert. In 2013, he replaced Bertie Carvel as Miss Trunchbull in Matilda the Musical at the Shubert Theatre, with Jill Paice joining as Miss Honey. Although he was set to begin performances on September 3, a neck and shoulder injury sustained while rehearsing a gymnastic flip delayed his start until September 17. He continued rehearsing and performing despite the injury, though a subsequent foot injury sustained during a performance made it impractical to continue after approximately one month. In 2022, director Conor McPherson cast Bierko as Mr. Burke in Girl from the North Country, the Tony Award-winning limited engagement built around the music of Bob Dylan, in which he appeared opposite Luba Mason and Mare Winningham. The production played its final performance on June 19, 2022.

Bierko was also slated to appear in the Manhattan Theatre Club's Broadway production of To Be or Not to Be, but withdrew on August 29, 2008, citing creative differences.

On screen, Bierko's film credits include the role of Timothy in the 1996 action film The Long Kiss Goodnight, Max Baer in Ron Howard's Cinderella Man opposite Russell Crowe, Tom Ryan in Scary Movie 4, and appearances in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and The Thirteenth Floor. He was the original choice to play Chandler Bing on the sitcom Friends but declined the role, against the advice of his friends Matthew Perry and Hank Azaria. His television work includes the role of Ray King in the fourth season of Sex and the City, attorney Jeffrey Coho in the third season of Boston Legal, and Chet Wilton across four seasons of the Peabody Award-winning series UnREAL. He was cast as Dave Lister in the pilot for an American adaptation of the British series Red Dwarf, appeared twice on Law and Order: Special Victims Unit in separate roles, played The Chairman on The Blacklist, and appeared in the second season of the Netflix series Sex/Life.