Richard studied playwriting with Anton Piatigorsky and Paula Wing in Toronto during a sabbatical in 2014 before completing a Graduate Diploma in playwriting at the University of Auckland in 2016 with Murray Edmond. Three of his one-act plays have been produced in Auckland. Death of a Dream, his first full-length play, was shortlisted for the 2017 Adam NZ Play Award and had its premiere in Auckland in 2018. During the day, Richard is a secondary school math teacher at Pakuranga College and is working on his second full length play.