American leading man Craig Sheffer was first seen on a nationwide basis on the television circuit. He played Ian Hayden on the ABC daytime soap opera One Life to Live, and was cast as the teenage son of Michael Goodwin and Leigh Taylor-Young on the 1983 prime time serial The Hamptons. His earliest starring assignment in films was as the best friend of troubled teenager Emilio Estevez in That Was Then... This Is Now (1985). Among his more recent films are A River Runs Through It (in which he played author Norman MacLean) (1992), Fire in the Sky (1993), and Sleep With Me (1994) (top-billed, as the apex of a romantic triangle which included Eric Stoltz and Meg Tilly).

Craig Sheffer is currently known to TV audiences for his portrayal of Keith Scott, the nice-guy older brother of the wealthy and nefarious auto dealer Dan Scott, on the WB Network series One Tree Hill.