He graduated from Madison East High School in Madison in June 1977 and went on to major in English and Theater at Wesleyan University and later achieved a fine arts degree from The Juilliard School which is regarded as one of the world's premiere performing arts conservatories, located in New York City. Bradley made his off-Broadway theatre debut in ‘Curse of the Starving Glass’ with Kathy Bates and from there he went onto debut on Broadway in ‘A Few Good Men’, which was later made into a movie starring Tom Cruise and Jack Nicholson, and ‘Three Days of Rain’ which most recently starred Julia Roberts on Broadway. 

In 1990 Bradley appeared in two blockbuster movies, ‘Presumed Innocent’ with Harrison Ford and John Spencer and ‘Young Guns II’ starring alongside Emilio Estevez, Kiefer Sutherland and James Coburn. His movie career continued in 1992 when he landed the role of Randy in ‘Scent of a Woman’ with Al Pacino and Chris ODonnell. 

1994 saw Bradley appearing with more Hollywood greats in the film adaptation of John Grisham’s book ‘The Client’ when he starred with Susan Sarandon, William H Macy and Tommy Lee Jones. In 2001 Whitford took on the role of J.J. Camden in the fantasy, romantic comedy ‘Kate & Leopold’ with Meg Ryan and Hugh Jackman.

But Bradley is probably best known for his role as the Deputy Chief of Staff, Josh Lyman, in the television drama ‘The West Wing’, which he began with the show's premiere in 1999. During his time on the show Whitford also wrote two episodes of the series.

Josh Lyman is a role that won Bradley an Emmy in 2001 for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series. During his career he has been nnominated for three Golden Globes.  

Whitford has also made several appearances in other well received television shows such as ‘ER’ which starred George Clooney, 'NYPD Blue’ with Dennis Franz and Kim Delaney and in ‘Fathers and Sons’ where he played the role of Anthony. 

His  more than capable acting career has made him the focus of several chat shows in the past few years when he has been a guest on ‘The Ellen DeGeneres show’, ‘The Jay Leno show’ and ‘Real Time’ with Bill Maher.