Andy Richter was born on October 28, 1966, in Grand Rapids, Michigan, to mother Glenda Swanson Palmer, a kitchen cabinet designer, and father Laurence R. Richter, who taught Russian at Indiana University for more than 32 years.
Andy Richter was raised in Yorkville, Illinois, and graduated from Yorkville High School in 1984, where he was elected Prom King. Richter attended the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign and Columbia College Chicago as a film major in the late 1980s.
Andy Richter appeared on the Disney Channel sitcom The Suite Life on Deck as a non-religious hooded brother, Brother Theodore in the episode “Silent Treatment”.
Andy Richter wrote for the short-lived Jonathan Brandmeier television show. Andy Richter voiced Mort in the Madagascar film franchise and Ben Higgenbottom in the Nickelodeon animated television series The Mighty B!.
Andy Richter appeared in the Fox series Malcolm in the Middle in April 2002, and then in the NBC sitcom Will & Grace in October 2005.