Rosenthal was born to a Jewish family in Queens, New York, but spent most of his childhood living in New City, New York, located in Rockland County. He attended Clarkstown North High School where he became very active in the school's drama club, Cue 'N Curtain, and in theatre. Rosenthal graduated from Clarkstown North in 1977. After high school, he attended Hofstra University, from which he graduated in 1981. In the early 1980s, Rosenthal was an actor based out of New York City before shifting his focus to production work, becoming a writer and producer of such shows as Coach with Craig T. Nelson and the short-lived Baby Talk. Rosenthal's largest commercial success and longest-running project was the sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond. The show was co-produced by Ray Romano, and was based in part on Romano's comedy material. Rosenthal's wife, actress Monica Horan, played the role of Amy MacDougall-Barone, the off-and-on girlfriend of Robert Barone in the series. It was Rosenthal and Romano who decided to retire the series over the objections or reservations of the other cast members. Rosenthal wrote or co-wrote twenty-one episodes of the series. Rosenthal has occasionally acted as well, in projects such as James L. Brooks' Spanglish, The Simpsons Movie, Curb Your Enthusiasm, 30 Rock and Jake Kasdan's feature, The TV Set. Rosenthal is the author of the book You're Lucky You're Funny: How Life Becomes a Sitcom which was published on October 21, 2006. He recounts how his life led to the success of Everybody Loves Raymond. Rosenthal directed President Bill Clinton in a White House Correspondents' Dinner video, which was shown to wide acclaim at the April 2000 event. Rosenthal co-wrote the 9/11 telethon , which aired on all four networks, and won a Peabody Award and an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Writing. Rosenthal wrote and directed a documentary film for Sony Pictures called Exporting Raymond, which depicts his efforts to adapt Everybody Loves Raymond for Russian television, despite his having little knowledge of Russian culture. In August 2015, as one of 98 members of the Los Angeles Jewish community, he signed an open letter supporting the proposed nuclear agreement between Iran and six world powers led by the United States "as being in the best interest of the United States and Israel." Beginning on September 28, 2015, PBS presented the six-episode television series I'll Have What Phil's Having, in which Rosenthal goes to locations around the world in order to explore their food culture. After 6 episodes the series was not renewed. On January 12, 2018, Netflix premiered a reworked version of the show, titled Somebody Feed Phil.
Philanthropy
Rosenthal serves on the Creative Council of Represent.Us, a nonpartisan anti-corruption organization.
