Tobias Zachary "Toby" Ziegler is a fictional character in the television serial drama The West Wing, played by Richard Schiff. The role earned Schiff the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series in 2000. For most of the series' duration he is White House Communications Director.
According to series creator Aaron Sorkin, Schiff was cast in the role of Toby Ziegler over many other actors who auditioned, including Eugene Levy. Schiff created a backstory for the character as a widower and wore his own wedding ring, something Sorkin and fellow executive producer Thomas Schlamme, who were planning for the character to be divorced, did not notice until the show's eighth episode. "I had always imagined that his first wife had died, which accounts for his sadness, and why someone would devote himself to public service and be so singular about it", Schiff said. "But then, Aaron and Tommy threw that right out the window." Richard Schiff claimed during an interview on Britain's BBC News 24 that the character had been heavily based upon Scots-American political advisor Patrick Cohen, who was prominent in Bill Clinton's 1992 presidential campaign and is viewed as one of the key architects of New Labour.