Richard Speight Jr.

Speight's TV directing career continues to evolve with completion of 3 episodes of Netflix's Lucifer by 2020. As online streaming service, new media production such as Netflix poses different challenges and opportunities from traditional TV series.

Since the beginning of 2020 coronavirus pandemic, Benedict and Speight have teamed up again to brighten their communities with their own podcast series ...And My Guest Is Richard Speight, each offering original perspectives of COVID-19 life in lockdown.

Speight has participated in several celebrity podcasts including Thrilling Adventure Hour (Episodes 148, 159, 165, 171, 195, 196) and most recently Michael Rosenbaum's Inside of You (2018).

Speight is a beloved guest performer at Saturday Night Special concerts by the indie rock band Louden Swain, held all over North America averaging a dozen shows a year. Along with the cast of Supernatural, a live recording album of the same name was released by Louden Swain in 2017. The album made several music charts - Billboard chart [9] peaked at #1 on Heatseekers West North Central, #13 on Heatseekers, and #40 on Independent Albums, and [10] iTunes highest ranking at #78 in the U.S. [11]; He is also a contributor to album Sky Alive by the same band.

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 such as GooglePlay. As of 2019, it is available for streaming on CW Seed.

He has guest starred on Life, Memphis Beat, Longmire, and had a small recurring role on Justified. Other notable guest roles include CSI: Crime Scene Investigation in 2014, and in 2017 on Season 2 of Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders.

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.".

Following his success in commercial directing and rigorous preparation in Warner Bros. TV Director's Workshop, Speight made 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. He has continued to direct a few episodes each season from 11 - 15, achieving total of eleven episodes by the show's end in Spring 2020. Speight is the Top "8th" Director of Supernatural by Episode Count [3]

Speight participates as a guest singer on several albums by singer songwriter & producer Jason Manns – Christmas with Friends (2014), Covers with Friends (2016), and Recovering with Friends (2018).[6] Highest ranking of collaborations with Jason include Chart Debut at #16 on iTunes for Covers with Friends [7] and peaked #12 for Recovering with Friends on Billboard Chart. [8] Speight released debut album as a Country band "Dick Jr. & The Volunteers" called The Dance and How To Do It (2019) produced by Jason Manns.

His most notable contribution to the convention world is at the "Salute To Supernatural", held annually in many cities across North America. Making appearances since 2008, Speight's charmingly quick wit and on-stage chemistry with fellow performers have enabled the convention to grow over the years as he became the Master of Ceremonies in 2013 – hosting for the entire three days of convention weekend, 13 weekends a year.

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

While he only appeared in five episodes of Supernatural between 2007-2014, both Speight's on-screen and off-screen character became very much beloved by fans, which enabled him to stay in close contact with the current cast and crew through his steady contributions at fan conventions (including San Diego Comic-Con, New York Comic-Con and several in Europe, Brazil, Australia). As of May 2016, he has participated in over 70 fan conventions.

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. [1]

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

As musician, Speight has been in several bands. Speight got his first recording under the belt as a cover band in high school called The Distortion Hawgs (1986), where he performed lead vocals & bass. Another notable participation at the start of his career was as the guitarist of the band Fugitive Pope (1993). [4] During college years, he was in the band Strange Neighbors (1989) with actor/harmonica player Tim Omundson. [5]