Peter Scolari

Scolari's first ongoing role was in his first short-lived 1980 sitcom Goodtime Girls, as the juggling neighbor of the title characters. He was then cast co-starring with then-unknown Tom Hanks, in another sitcom Bosom Buddies, as two young creative professionals who disguise themselves as women to get an affordable apartment in a women-only building. After Bosom Buddies was cancelled in 1982, and still struggling as an actor, Scolari joined the cast of Newhart, opposite Bob Newhart, in 1984, where he played Michael Harris, the yuppie local TV producer, until the series' conclusion in 1990. He has remained close to Newhart, with whom he frequently plays golf, since the show's last season.

Following central roles in the unsuccessful series Family Album and Dweebs, Scolari spent three seasons playing inventor Wayne Szalinski, a role originated on film by Rick Moranis, in the TV adaptation of the Disney film Honey, I Shrunk the Kids. He later had a recurring role as the father of Lena Dunham's character on HBO's Girls, for which he won an Emmy in 2016. He also portrayed Gotham City’s corrupt police commissioner, Gillian B. Loeb, in Fox’s superhero crime drama Gotham.

Scolari has appeared on Broadway in Wicked, Sly Fox, Hairspray,[3] and Lucky Guy, which reunited him with his Bosom Buddies co-star Tom Hanks. Scolari also appeared Off Broadway in Old Man Joseph and His Family, The Exonerated, In the Wings, The Music Man, and White's Lies.[4]

In 1996, Scolari starred in a version of the stage musical Stop the World – I Want to Get Off produced for the A&E television network.

In 2014, Scolari portrayed Yogi Berra in Bronx Bombers. His wife Tracey Shayne played Berra's wife Carmen.[5] Subsequently, he played the part of The Wizard in the Broadway musical Wicked.