Richard Speight Jr.

Richard Speight Jr. (born September 4, 1969) is an American actor and director who is known for a variety of roles including CBS TV series Jericho, The Agency, and the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers.

Speight played a recurring role, the Archangel Gabriel, originally thought to be a "Trickster" or Loki, in the WB/CW series Supernatural.

More recently, he played Dugan in the 2021 film Old Henry.

Speight was raised in Nashville, Tennessee, the son of Barbara and Richard Speight Sr. He has two older sisters.

Speight attended Montgomery Bell Academy and the USC School of Dramatic Arts (formerly the USC School of Theatre), graduating cum laude.

While at USC, he met and befriended writer and director Stephen Chbosky.

Speight appeared in Chbosky's senior showcase piece.

Years later, the two teamed up on the CBS series Jericho which Chbosky co-created.

In 2003, Speight married Jaci Kathryn Hays, a dot-com executive in California.

Speight has starred in a variety of commercials for such brands as Got Milk?; IBM; Pepsi; and Disney.

Speight played Sgt. Warren "Skip" Muck in the Golden Globe and Emmy Award-winning World War II miniseries Band of Brothers, produced for HBO by Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg.

Speight appeared in several television series, such as The Agency; ER; Jericho; Party of Five and JAG.

Speight's directing career began with co-directing/co-starring in the independent feature ''North Beach (2004).

A'' copy of this work is being preserved as part of SF History section at San Francisco Public Library - Main Branch.

In 2007, he landed a recurring role on "the now longest-running sci-fi series in the history of American broadcast television" Supernatural where he played 'The Trickster/Loki' (later revealed to be the Archangel Gabriel).

In 2013, Speight wrote and directed the satirical social comedy America 101.

The festival darling and award-winning 10-minute short stars Band of Brothers veteran, Rick Gomez; co-stars Amy Gumenick, and North Beach alumni Jayden Lund and Jim Hanna.

Now available on iTunes, the short feature is described as "One man's life becomes the lesson of the day when he takes a frenetic ride through his own personal version of the American experience.".

Success of America 101 launched Speight into the world of commercial directing.

He has helmed several spots for Pepsi among other major national brands.

He had a recurring role on Justified, and guest starred on shows such as Life, Memphis Beat, Longmire, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (2014), ''Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders (2017).

''

Speight's earlier work included a role in the film, Ernest Goes to Camp; and a regular role on the NBC Saturday morning sitcom, Running the Halls.

He had a brief appearance in the film, Thank You for Smoking, directed and written by fellow USC alumnus Jason Reitman.

Speight appeared in Speed 2: Cruise Control and The Last Big Attraction.

He had a starring role in Jason Reitman's short film, In God We Trust.

Although credited on IMDb, Speight does not appear in the film Independence Day.

His more recent productions include La Musica Provata, The Week (2016), Mucho Dinero, Brick Madness, Bad, Bad Men, and Death House (2016).

Lead roles include an FBI agent in a thriller, The Evil Gene (2016), and in a feature-length comedy thriller Driven (2019).

Speight is a close friend of actor Rob Benedict.

The two often appear at conventions in tandem.

Together, they created the comedy web-series Kings of Con (2016) based on their experiences at conventions for Supernatural, a TV show in which they both were featured actors and beloved characters.

Speight is co-writer, producer, director, and actor in Kings of Con, and plays a "heightened version of himself" as character Richard Slate.

With the support of a successful Indiegogo campaign, the series launched on November 15, 2016 at Comic Con Headquarters in the U.S., and internationally through multiple platforms.

An after show called Kings of Conversation is available on their Facebook page.

Following his success in commercial directing and rigorous preparation in Warner Bros. TV Director's Workshop, Speight made his debut as TV show director on Supernatural's season 11 episode "Just My Imagination" – the first episode to have been nominated for Hugo Awards 2016 in the show's 15-year history.

In season 13 episode "Unfinished Business", Speight masterfully both acted and directed himself in the dual characters of Gabriel and Loki.

Making a surprise return in 2018, Speight's characters returned to the screens as dual roles of Gabriel and Loki in Season 13 episode "Unfinished Business", while simultaneously directing the episode himself.