1993–2005 Stuhlbarg began his career appearing in stage productions. In a 1993 production of
Saint Joan, Stuhlbarg portrayed
Charles VII of France; however,
UPI critic Frederick M. Winship thought that Stuhlbarg was miscast in the production. The following year, he portrayed the
title character in a production of
Richard II. Writing for
The New York Times, theater critic
David Richards dubbed Stuhlbarg a "promising young actor", yet felt his portrayal of Richard came across as a "blend of
Rasputin and an odious rent collector is altogether unavoidable, but I'd like to believe it's not his fault." He starred in the two character play
Old Wicked Songs throughout late 1995. For his role in the 1996 production of the
Eugene O'Neill play ''
Long Day's Journey into Night, Stuhlbarg won the Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding Actor in a large company production. In a 1997 production of Henry VIII'', Stuhlbarg played multiple roles, including
Thomas Cranmer. Stuhlbarg made his film debut in the 1998 drama
A Price Above Rubies, which starred
Renée Zellweger. In the 1999
Studio 54 production of the musical
Cabaret, Stuhlbarg played Ernst Ludwig, a German who in the course of the production is revealed to be a
Nazi. Stuhlbarg played the dual role of both Time and Clown in a 2000 production of
William Shakespeare's ''
The Winter's Tale; The New York Press critic Jonathan Kalb praised his "endearing stutter and hopping gait". In the Tim Blake Nelson-directed war drama The Grey Zone (2001), Stuhlbarg played a Jewish Hungarian who becomes a Sonderkommando in the Nazi Germany Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp. Stuhlbarg had previously appeared in the play of the same name by Nelson in 1996. Following appearances in productions of Cymbeline, Twelfth Night, and The Persians, Stuhlbarg gave a critically acclaimed performance in the 2005 Broadway production of the Martin McDonagh play The Pillowman. He played Michal, a mentally damaged man who has suffered years of abuse from his parents, and gained 50 pounds for the role. Ben Brantley of The New York Times'' praised Stuhlbarg for "boldly and expertly" capturing "both the innocence and ugliness of Michal". Stuhlbarg won a
Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play and received his first
Tony Award nomination for his performance.
2006–2013 In 2006, Stuhlbarg appeared in the plays
Measure for Pleasure and
The Voysey Inheritance. He played a recurring role on
Aaron Sorkin's television series
Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip from 2006 to 2007, which aired for one season. His first film appearance of 2008 was the independent drama
Afterschool, in which he played a "sanctimonious" high school principal and he had a one-line scene in
Ridley Scott's
Body of Lies as a lawyer. Also in 2008, Stuhlbarg portrayed
Prince Hamlet in
Oskar Eustis' production of William Shakespeare's
Hamlet at the
Delacorte Theater. In August of that year, Stuhlbarg was cast as the lead character in the
Coen brothers film
A Serious Man. In his review of the film,
Chicago Sun-Times critic
Roger Ebert felt that "Much of the success of
A Serious Man comes from the way Michael Stuhlbarg plays the role. He doesn't play Gopnik as a sad-sack or a loser, a whiner or a depressive, but as a hopeful man who can't believe what's happening to him. He was nominated for
Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for his performance in the film.
Cold Souls, his other release of 2009, featured Stuhlbarg in a smaller role as a
hedge fund consultant, and he also guest starred in the episode "There's No Place Like Mode" of the comedy series
Ugly Betty. Beginning in September 2010, Stuhlbarg portrayed organized crime boss
Arnold Rothstein in
Terence Winter's
HBO crime drama series
Boardwalk Empire. The character was written off after the show's fourth season in 2013.
Martin Scorsese directed the pilot episode of the show, after having previously directed Stuhlbarg in the short film
The Key to Reserva (2007). In Scorsese's historical adventure film
Hugo (2011), Stuhlbarg played René Tabard, a film historian. Stuhlbarg appeared in the science fiction comedy sequel
Men in Black 3 (2012) as Griffin, an alien with
clairvoyant abilities who helps
Agent J (played by
Will Smith) and
K (played by
Tommy Lee Jones and
Josh Brolin) on their mission. The film's director,
Barry Sonnenfeld, said that after seeing Stuhlbarg's script and notebook filled with "tiny scribbles, notes, diagrams" that “It made me suspect that perhaps I had actually cast an alien. To Michael, all his little notations made sense. To me, they were scary and indecipherable.” Later in the year, Stuhlbarg briefly appeared as a hitman alongside his
Boardwalk Empire co-star
Michael Pitt in the opening scene of Martin McDonagh's dark comedy
Seven Psychopaths. His third release of 2012 was the historical drama
Lincoln, directed by
Steven Spielberg and starring
Daniel Day-Lewis as
President Abraham Lincoln. In the film, he portrayed
Democratic Congressman George Yeaman, representative of
Kentucky. The
Alfred Hitchcock biopic
Hitchcock was his final release of the year, with Stuhlbarg portraying talent agent and studio executive
Lew Wasserman. In
Woody Allen's comedy-drama
Blue Jasmine (2013), starring
Cate Blanchett, Stuhlbarg appeared as a dentist who makes unwanted sexual advances to Blanchett's character.
2014–present Stuhlbarg played chess
grandmaster Bobby Fischer's manager, Paul Marshall, in the 2014 film
Pawn Sacrifice, starring
Tobey Maguire as Fischer. In
Danny Boyle's 2015
Steve Jobs biopic, Stuhlbarg portrayed computer scientist
Andy Hertzfeld, who was a member of the
original Mac team. He appeared in two more biographical films in that year –
Trumbo, based on the life of screenwriter
Dalton Trumbo (played by
Bryan Cranston), featured Stuhlbarg portraying actor
Edward G. Robinson, who was accused of having ties to the
Communist Party during the
Hollywood blacklist, and Stuhlbarg played a supporting role in
Don Cheadle's
Miles Ahead, based on the life of
Miles Davis. In the same month, Stuhlbarg played
Nicodemus West, colleague and rival to the
titular character (played by
Benedict Cumberbatch) in the superhero film
Doctor Strange. In his final release of the year, the political thriller
Miss Sloane, Stuhlbarg featured as an Irish
lobbying firm head battling against
gun control. In the
third season of the crime anthology television series
Fargo, Stuhlbarg played Sy Feltz, loyal and dedicated business partner to
Ewan McGregor's character Emmit Stussy. The season premiered in April 2017. In November, Stuhlbarg co-starred as Samuel Perlman, an archaeology professor, whose son Elio (played by
Timothée Chalamet) develops a relationship with his father's assistant (played by
Armie Hammer), in the romantic drama
Call Me by Your Name. Stuhlbarg was moved by Perlman's "sense of generosity and love and understanding" and director
Luca Guadagnino said he cast Stuhlbarg because he wanted "someone who could carry a sort of softness and warmth and at the same time communicate a great knowledge and great culture". Perlman's consoling speech given to his son in the film was described by
Huffington Post writer
Nell Minow as being "one of the most moving scenes ever filmed." For
Guillermo del Toro's fantasy drama
The Shape of Water, released in December 2017 to critical and box office success, Stuhlbarg was required to speak Russian to play Dr. Robert Hoffstetler, a
Soviet spy. His final performance of 2017 and second release of December, was as
The New York Times executive editor
A. M. Rosenthal, in Steven Spielberg's political thriller
The Post, which starred
Tom Hanks and
Meryl Streep and depicts the publishing of the
Pentagon Papers by journalists from
The Washington Post and
The Times. Stuhlbarg was due to appear as
Gore Vidal's domestic partner
Howard Austen in the biopic
Gore, starring
Kevin Spacey as Vidal, but the film was withdrawn from release during post-production amid ongoing sexual misconduct allegations against Spacey. He appeared in the 2018 miniseries
The Looming Tower as counter-terrorism
czar Richard A. Clarke, for which he received a
Primetime Emmy Award nomination. He received a second
Primetime Emmy Award nomination for his role as
Richard Sackler in the 2021 miniseries
Dopesick. In the television series
Your Honor (2020–2023), Stuhlbarg played Jimmy Baxter, the mob boss of a prominent
organized crime family in the city of
New Orleans. In 2024, Stuhlbarg returned to Broadway portraying
Boris Berezovsky in the transfer of
Peter Morgan's play
Patriots at the
Ethel Barrymore Theatre. In the American espionage thriller
The Amateur, he played a Russian arms dealer archvillain. ==Personal life==