Richmond grew up in Portage County, Ohio, and graduated from James A. Garfield High School in Garrettsville, Ohio, class of 1979, where he won the John Philip Sousa award and where his mother still lives. He also played a key part in the creation of the Garrettsville Community Players, directing, choreographing, and lending his creative and artistic vision to many of its shows in its beginning. He attended Kent State University in Ohio in the late 1980s, where he co-authored a number of musicals, and wrote a musical score to william Shakespeare's Othello.