Toby Ziegler

Tobias Zachary Ziegler
The West Wing character
Richard Schiff as Toby Ziegler
First appearance	"Pilot"
Last appearance	"Institutional Memory"
Created by	Aaron Sorkin
Portrayed by	Richard Schiff
Information
Nickname(s)	Toby, Pokey (Andrea Wyatt)
Gender	Male
Occupation	White House Communications Director (Seasons 1-7)
Family	Jules "Julie" Ziegler (father), Dr David Ziegler (brother, deceased), two older sisters
Spouse(s)	Andrea Wyatt (divorced before series started)
Children	Molly and Huckleberry
Religion	Jewish
Nationality	American

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."

Tobias Zachary Ziegler was born on December 23, 1954. He is from a working-class background and grew up in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, New York City, in a Yiddish-speaking family. His father, Jules "Julie" Ziegler was an immigrant who, according to one episode, "needed the GI Bill", implying that he fought in either the Second World War or the Korean War. He made women's raincoats for a living; however, before this he was a member of Murder, Inc. - the Jewish mafia's enforcement arm - and served time in prison, complicating his relationship with Toby.

Toby's mother has been dead for 12 years as of season 3. Both he and his father mention sisters, who Toby says took him to protest rallies in the mid-1960s, as well as nieces and nephews. His younger brother, David, is a mission specialist at NASA who commits suicide after learning that he has terminal cancer. Toby also makes reference to a grandfather who lived to be 96 years old, but for the last 20 years of his life "thought the Habsburgs still lived in a big palace in Vienna".