SAM
RICHARDSON

Sam Richardson was born on 12 January 1984 in Detroit, Michigan. His comedy career grew through the Second City training centre in Detroit, its touring company and the Chicago Mainstage, which he joined in 2010. He began playing Richard Splett in Veep in 2014. Detroit also became the setting of Detroiters, the series he co-created with Tim Robinson, Joe Kelly and Zach Kanin and starred in alongside Robinson; it premiered in February 2017. That connection between a performer and a place matters to FLM.RED’s reading of his work. His comic friendliness can make an absurd exchange feel like a conversation between people who have known each other for years, giving elaborate foolishness an everyday emotional footing.

Werewolves Within (2021), directed by Josh Ruben and written by Mishna Wolff, casts Richardson as forest ranger Finn. A snowstorm gathers the residents of Beaverfield inside an inn while a mysterious creature threatens the town, leaving Finn and postal worker Cecily, played by Milana Vayntrub, trying to keep order. The Afterparty, which premiered in January 2022, gives him another route into a comic mystery as Aniq. Apple describes the series through competing accounts of an evening, each shaped by a different film genre. In our view, Richardson’s gift in these settings is to remain emotionally approachable while suspicion circulates. A polite hesitation can be funny, but it can also make an audience wonder what a character is leaving unsaid.

Ted Lasso supplies a sharper contrast through Edwin Akufo, the role that earned Richardson the 2023 Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series for the episode International Break. The award belongs to the 2023 cycle; the delayed Creative Arts ceremony took place on 6 January 2024. He had also been nominated in the same category in 2022. FLM.RED finds the contrast useful because it reveals how much an amiable presence can change when a character expects the world to accommodate him. Richardson’s timing can support reassurance, awkwardness or an eruption of entitlement, depending on the scene. The titles below are the films currently available in FLM.RED’s database, rather than a complete record of his television, stage and film career.