Richie Jerimovich is a fictional character on the FX Network television series The Bear. Created by Christopher Storer and played by Ebon Moss-Bachrach since the show's premiere in 2022, Richie is the "cousin" and de facto foster brother of the three Berzatto siblings. Richie was an assistant manager of the Original Beef of Chicagoland sandwich shop until his best friend, Mikey Berzatto (Jon Bernthal), killed himself. In his will, Mikey bequeathed the restaurant to his baby brother, Carmy Berzatto (Jeremy Allen White), who had self-exiled from the family in part due to Mikey having shunned him and blockaded him from working at the restaurant. Carmy thus returned to Chicago after many years of absence as an exquisitely trained and nationally acclaimed elite chef, took over the restaurant and sought to reform it in into a respectable place of business, much to the dismay of Richie. In addition to the workplace upheaval wrought by Carmy's reforms, Richie simultaneously struggles with a number of personal issues, first among them his recent divorce from Tiffany (Gillian Jacobs), with whom he shares a daughter, Evie.
As Mikey's best friend, Richie Jerimovich spent so much of his childhood at the Berzatto house that he essentially became a part of the family.[1] Per Moss-Bachrach, "I don't think his parents were really in the picture...Mike was very much his anchor and made sure Richie got fed—three square meals a day, probably since the time they were six and eight years old."[2] Matriarch Donna Berzatto (Jamie Lee Curtis) was so involved in Richie's upbringing that she threw his birthday parties.[3] He and the Berzatto siblings call each other cousins even though they are not biologically related.[4] Both Mikey and Richie ended up working at, and eventually running, the Original Beef of Chicagoland restaurant, an Italian beef sandwich shop in the River North neighborhood that had originally been purchased and managed by the unnamed Berzatto dad. Along the way Richie married Tiff, and together they had daughter Eva (Annabelle Toomey); the couple divorced not long before the opening episode of the series.[1] Richie seems to have struggled with maintaining a consistent income during the course of the marriage.[5]
When Carmy Berzatto returns to Chicago to take over the restaurant, he and Richie immediately settle back into sibling-like squabbling.[6] Richie is introduced as a "lovable brute who cosplays as an Italian and gets into Worldstar-style fights with staff. 'Y'know he's not even Italian, right? 100 percent Polish. Fuckin' insulting,' Richie shouts at Carmen about a passerby in episode four. 'You know you're not even Italian, right?' Carmen shoots back."[7] Richie is, simply put, an asshole, and the "most damaged, the most broken, and the most aimless [character], a miasma of resentment and condescension yelling about a changing restaurant in a changing neighborhood to hide his fear."[8] Carmy (also an asshole, but of very different temperament)[9] is forever annoyed by Richie's antics, but also cherishes him as the most genuine surviving relic of his brother, such that they ritually share cigarettes and memories of Mikey, and Carmy eventually empties the restaurant's cash reserve to bail out Richie after an accidental head injury to a patron results in an arrest and a night in jail.[6] For his part, Richie periodically softens long enough to reveal a tender brotherly affection for the now very grown baby of the family, and to reveal a vulnerable weariness and a self-aware sense of shame about the consequences of his choices.[8]
In season two, Carmy sends Richie to stage in the front of house at a fictionalized Ever, a legendary three-Michelin star Chicago restaurant where Carmy had once been chef de cuisine to executive chef Andrea Terry (Olivia Colman). Moss-Bachrach characterized the filming of the episode as a little "lonely" and the Ever set design as "cold" compared to setting of the cozier, more familiar Bear.[10] The episode where Richie stages, entitled "Forks," introduces a number of new recurring characters and is one of the most beloved in the series, as Richie embraces hospitality as honorable work both for himself and in service of his family. Terry tells Richie that she agreed to host him because Carmy testified that "he's good with people," with which she agreed. Richie returns to the Bear with a newfound respect for the restaurant business generally and Carmy specifically. This détente between the sibling rivals lasts but two episodes before a minor kitchen crisis results in a Carmy breakdown. Richie saves the day by doing expo for Chef Sydney (Ayo Edebiri) but his concern for Carmy's then-girlfriend Dr. Claire Dunlap (Molly Gordon), who ends the night in tears, fuels a brutal and emotionally scarring argument between Carmy and Richie that in turn fuels an extended estrangement, which lasts through much of the spring and summer of that year.[8] The fight, argued at maximum volume and maximum vitriol from opposite sides of a locked steel door, has been described as "mutually assured destruction with the red buttons getting smashed by each side."[5]
Despite the consequent rift with Carmy, Richie continues to anchor the Bear as front-of-house manager, and by season four, while he is "still prone to dramatic self-flagellation, Richie finally seems like a full-fledged adult...[with] pain and self-doubt right at the surface but [also] a layer of wisdom."[11] Richie is responsible for hiring three experienced restaurant employees from the shuttered Ever to shore up the staff of the Bear: Rene (Rene Gube), Garrett (Andrew Lopez), and Chef Jess (Sarah Ramos).[12] Richie seems to be developing a particularly close friendship with expo savant Jess.[12]
Richie is a devoted father to Evie, and he and ex-wife work together effectively as loving co-parents.[10] He calls Evie żabka, which is a Polish language endearment meaning little frog.[13] Evie loves Taylor Swift, and one of her CDs is on permanent rotation in Richie's aging Honda. Richie leans on Uncle Jimmy for Taylor Swift concert tickets, sings along to "Love Story" at an emotional high point in the saga, and Taylor's version of "Style" plays quietly in the background during a quiet moment between father and daughter on the day of Tiff's remarriage.[14]
The season four episode "Bears" centers on Tiff's wedding to second husband Frank (Josh Hartnett), resulting in some level of romantic catharsis for Richie and an opportunity for the entire extended family-by-choice to gather for a happy but typically chaotic event.[15] Richie is a huge aficionado of science fiction across all media (books, film, etc.), with an specific interest in the works of Philip K. Dick.[16] According to Moss-Bachrach, Richie favors "hard sci-fi," including Dick, Iain Banks, Kim Stanley Robinson, and "He likes the deep stuff, the world-building. Probably Foundation."[2] Richie deploys "SnyderCut" disparagingly, and per Moss-Bachrach, "I don't think he's into Marvel stuff."[2] Richie may or may not be a practicing Roman Catholic but nonetheless he speaks out a prayer at the beginning of season four.[17] Unlike Carmy ("famously unforthcoming"),[11] Richie is charming, quick-witted, and funny.[18] Show creator Storer has cited his friend Christopher Zucchero as an element of the inspiration for the character of Richie.[19]
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