Married to actress Susan Wands, Petkoff has lived in New York City for the last twenty years, and often performs in benefit concerts for theater-district-related charities.

Petkoff performed in Los Angeles-area stage productions including Julius Caesar at the Mark Taper Forum directed by a young Oskar Eustis, and The School for Husbands at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego, California.

Petkoff first appeared on Broadway in Epic Proportions starring Kristin Chenoweth, and shortly after he was cast in Sir Peter Hall's production of Tantalus, which was a co-production of The Denver Center for The Performing Arts and the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Petkoff returned to Broadway in Ragtime, as Tateh, in the 2009 revival directed by Marcia Milgrom Dodge, which opened at the Neil Simon Theater in November 2009 and closed January 10, 2010.

[needs update][6] In 2012, Petkoff starred in the Roundabout Theatre production of Anything Goes, as Lord Evelyn Oakleigh, love interest for Reno Sweeney, played by Stephanie J.

[12] Petkoff also appeared as Guy Fawkes in the New York Stage & Film's Powerhouse Theater production of Bonfire Night, directed by Alex Timbers.

[13] Petkoff appeared in the Like Water for Chocolate musical workshop with Tony Award winner Chita Rivera at the Sundance Institute's 2011 Theatre Lab in Alberta, Canada, in April 2011.

In addition to Chita Rivera (Kiss of the Spider Woman, Chicago, The Rink), and Robert Petkoff (Ragtime, Spamalot, Fiddler on the Roof), the cast included Nicholas Rodriguez (Tarzan, One Life to Live).