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). He also played Heisman candidate QB Joe Kane in "The Program", the role he is probably most famous for.

Among Sheffer's more recent films are A River Runs Through It (in which he played author Norman Maclean) (1992), Fire in the Sky (1993), Bliss (1997), and Sleep With Me (1994) (top-billed, as the apex of a romantic triangle which included Eric Stoltz and Meg Tilly). He played the leading role in Clive Barker's Nightbreed (1990), and 10 years later played the leading role in Clive Barker's brainchild franchise Hellraiser: Inferno.

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 CW Network series One Tree Hill, but is no longer a series regular, as he was killed by his brother Dan Scott.