Tobias "Toby" Zachary Ziegler was a fictional character in the television serial drama The West Wing, played by Richard Schiff.

[1] According to series creator Aaron Sorkin, Schiff was cast in the role of Toby Ziegler over many other actors who auditioned, including Eugene Levy.

Sorkin and fellow executive producer Thomas Schlamme were planning for the character to be divorced, and did not notice until the show's eighth episode.

"[3] Schiff had publicly praised the show's writers, and creator Aaron Sorkin in particular, for the characters' richness in the series.

[citation needed] In season 1 of The West Wing, Toby Ziegler was Communications Director and senior domestic policy advisor to President Bartlet.

[9] Season 1 began in their first year in office, detailing the teams' efforts to pass legislation despite unfavorable political circumstances and a powerless administration in the face of the opposition.

Toby works with his ex-wife Andrea "Andy" Wyatt, a member of the House of Representatives, on criminal justice legislation.

After the attack, Toby is in a morose mood and eager to punish hate groups he sees as responsible for the assassination attempt.

It is revealed once in the White House, Toby was rewarded for his work on the campaign, with Bartlet naming him Communications Director and senior domestic policy advisor.

After his initial proposals of marriage are rejected, and imagining that she was making him chase her, he sets about attempting to eradicate the behaviors that Andy had found irritating in the past.

He forces himself to eat salads,[13] and sells his bachelor pad, buying Andy the property she had always considered her "dream house.

He thinks of it early one morning, almost resigns after it was leaked by the senator who he is persuading to break with partisan politics, but then fixes it with the help of Josh Lyman.

His reaction is eventually explained by the revelation that his brother David, recently diagnosed with terminal cancer, took his own life rather than live what time he had left: "He could have had years.

With no civilian shuttles available to perform a rescue mission in time, a three-person crew finds itself trapped aboard the ISS.

Toby attends Leo McGarry's funeral, but sits in the back of the church to avoid press coverage.

Despite strong mixed emotions, Bartlet's final official act as president is to pardon Toby and thus spare him from having to serve his prison sentence.

In the episode "The Ticket", a flash forward reveals that, at the time of the dedication of Bartlet's presidential library three years later, Toby had been teaching at Columbia University.