A man of many skills, Richard Bischoff caught the acting bug when he played the Dreidel in the Holiday Pagent when he was a first-grader - a nice beginning for a nice Catholic boy in the greater Boston area!While at Emerson College, in Boston, Richard studied Mass Communications, film, radio and television, winning an Evvy Award for Best Comedy Series. He also interned for Cable News Network and learned valuable lessons in storytelling and how to work on a video crew.Following college, Bischoff found himself working for Active Video in Waltham, MA. Here, he operated cameras, ran audio, and had many adventures in news and corporate video shooting (all the while remaining envious of the actors he had the chance to work with). He then made the mature adult decision to migrate to corporate marketing communications with McCormack & Dodge, a leading software firm based in Natick, MA, where he spent the better part of two years writing about things he knew nothing about. Thankfully, because he worked with an amazing creative team, he learned about copy-editing, graphic design, and yes, effective story-telling.It was while at M&D that he was assigned to write the copy for the company's User Conference in San Francisco. This, of course, entailed a trip to San Francisco for research purposes (of course). Six months later, he quit his job and moved to Northern California for a high-tech public relations job. Not the most mature adult decision, as he realized about 30 minutes into the job, that he'd made a big mistake. But on the other hand...he started to study acting with Dennis Sakamoto at Stage One, in San Jose. That was a life-changing decision, as he realized that there was more to life than sitting at a desk pitching story ideas to journalists who didn't want to hear from him anyway. And so, ten months after moving to California, and starting his job in PR, he was out of a PR job (in all fairness, the agency shut its Silicon Valley doors shortly thereafter) and was a "working" actor. Seriously...the day after he left the company, he was dressed as a security guard on the set of "Final Analysis," starring Richard Gere and Uma Thurman. The pay was a whopping $40, but it felt oh, so right. And no, you won't see him in the final cut.While at Stage One, Bischoff acted in many productions, including "Hot l Baltimore," "Story Theatre," "Harold and Maude," "You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown," "Execution of Justice," "Jeffrey," and "Lovers and Other Strangers." He also produced "The Female Odd Couple," and directed two one-act plays for the company's one-act play festivals.It was during this time that he developed his freelance writing career, penning articles for "Cue Magazine," and "Film/Tape World," both leading media trade journals in San Francisco. He also founded Creative Coverage, a web-and-communications services company, all the while continuing to audition and act in commercials and corporate productions.Bischoff cut his teeth in feature films as Tom Arnold's lighting double on "Nine Months, Sean Connery's lighting double on " The Rock," Clancy Brown's lighting double on "Flubber," and also worked on "The Rainmaker." In doing so, he worked with other amazing talents such as Robin Williams, Nicolas Cage, Ed Harris, Ted Levine, Joan Cusack, Julianne Moore, Danny DeVito, Matt Damon, and Frances Ford Coppola, and Will Smith, and learned some valuable lessons, such as: being on time means being early, a good attitude goes a long way, and being nice gets you more respect than being, well, a dick.It was after working on "The Rock," that Bischoff was cast in "America's Most Wanted" as Donald Bickerstaff, who was probably the Bernie Madoff of Marin County. Bischoff's portrayal was so good that Bickerstaff turned himself in before the show even aired! (At least that's what he tells himself.)Bischoff has appeared as in "The Pursuit of Happiness," has worked as a perverted reverend in the independent film "American Rebels," and in "Life Coach," at AddictionBrainStory.org.Bischoff is married to the amazing Yuko-Suzuki Bischoff, is the always-amazed father of the very talented Mari-Frances, and when he's not acting, or trying to get acting work, can be found teaching acting skills in his local school system, as well as marketing fine wines to the Asia-Pacific region. Show less «