Creed Bratton

Photo by Chelsea Lauren/Getty Images           Actors Creed Bratton and Kate           Flannery from The Office.

Creed Bratton, who has spoken publicly about his stuttering, has had a varied and fascinating life to say the least. He is best known for playing a fictionalized version of himself on the hit NBC sitcom The Office from 2005-2013, which is ironic because The Office has connections to other famous people who stutter. The show’s star John Krasinski, who portrayed Jim Halpert, is married to actress Emily Blunt, a person who stutters who has been the longtime spokesperson for the American Institute for Stuttering. Also, actress Rashida Jones, who portrayed Karen Filippelli on the show, is the daughter of actress Peggy Lipton, a famous person who stutters.

While he is best known to the public for his role on The Office, Bratton has had a much a varied life to say the least, first coming into the public eye in 1967 as the lead guitarist and background vocalist of a prominent American rock band, The Grass Roots.

Born William Charles Schneider on February 8, 1943, in Los Angeles, Bratton was raised in Coarsegold, California, a town near Yosemite National Park. After his father died during military service when Bratton was two years old, his mother married a firefighting forest ranger named Sam Ertmoed and the young boy started going by the name “Chuck Ertmoed.”

Bratton was part of one of the most successful rock bands of the period of the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. He was a lead guitarist and sometimes vocalist for The Grass Roots, which charted 14 Top 40 hits on The Billboard Hot 100 between July 1966 and July 1972. Bratton was with the band for their most productive period from 1967 – 1969.

After a tour of Europe and the Middle East as a travelling musician during which he adopted the professional name “Creed Bratton,” he returned to California and in 1966 formed the band The 13th Floor, with himself on lead guitar, Warren Entner on rhythm guitar, Kenny Fukomoto on bass, and Rick Coonce on drums. The 13th Floor was signed by producer Lou Adler to his Dunhill Records label and assigned to work with songwriters/producers P.F. Sloan and Steve Barri. Sloan and Barri had previously created a studio group named The Grass Roots, that featured Sloan on lead vocals and guitar,  which charted with a song “Where Were You When I Needed You” that hit number 28 on the Top 40 in 1966, so for the sake of convenience and continuity, The 13th Floor adopted the name “The Grass Roots” and continued under that moniker. Rob Grill stepped in as bass player and lead vocalist, replacing Kenny Fukomoto, who was drafted into the U.S. Army.

The first single of the new incarnation of The Grass Roots, “Let’s Live for Today,” was a major hit, reaching number 8 on the charts and selling over two million records to be awarded a gold disc. The following year, their most successful single, “Midnight Confessions,” reached number five on the charts and was an international hit.  Bratton departed from The Grass Roots over a dispute concerning the artistic direction of the band. He was frustrated that Dunhill was not allowing the band to write their own songs and play all of the instruments on the records. After a disastrous performance at Fillmore West in April 1969, Bratton was asked to leave the band.

The Grass Roots had four subsequent hit songs after Creed Bratton left the band, beginning with “I’d Wait A Million Years in 1969.” The other three charted in 1971 and all live on to this day on the playlists of oldies stations like the other hits. “Temptation Eyes” reached number 15; “Sooner or Later” reached number 9; “Two Divided by Love” reached number 16.

Bratton has mentioned over the years how he struggled with stuttering in his childhood and teenage years. A July 29, 2020, article in Esquire magazine titled “Creed Bratton Has a Story to Tell” states, “Teenage Ertmoed began acting by chance when, in high school, a speech therapist recommended performing on stage to overcome a stutter.” In fact, he was so energized by how acting guided him to fluency that he enrolled at Sacramento State College (now California State University, Sacramento) and majored in drama.

On July 29, 2020, People magazine released a video of an interview with the actor on their website with the headline, “How Office Star Creed Bratton ‘Gained Control’ Over His Stuttering and His Fear of Public Speaking.” In the interview, Bratton stated, “I stuttered really, really terribly as a child. I was very insecure as a young man. They sent me to a speech therapist … this was like, the 1950’s.”

Bratton went on to explain that the speech therapist told him to try to stutter on purpose, and then within a week of practicing trying to stutter, he gained control of the ‘mechanism’ in his speech and stopped stuttering and never stuttered again.

He continued, “So then they said, ‘I want you to speak as much as you can in front of people...join an acting class...get up in front of people...if there’s an acting class, join an acting class...get up in front of people and conquer this fear because you do have this fear of opening your mouth and speaking because people laugh at you because of your stuttering.”

In the years after leaving The Grass Roots, Bratton has released nine solo albums. At times, he had difficulties earning a living in the years in-between his Grass Roots days and his re-emergence on The Office. During one stretch he worked as a caterer on movie sets for a stretch of nine years before he transitioned his way into acting with the help of his good friend Beau Bridges. During some lean times, his royalty payments from his stint with The Grass Roots kept him afloat. There have been varied incarnations in the career of Creed Bratton and his fans can only await the next phase.

When people who stutter hear his Grass Roots songs on the radio or watch episodes of The Office on streaming or reruns, they can take pride in knowing that this multi-talented individual is a fellow person who stutters and overcame some hard circumstances in his life, exemplifying the famous quote made by another famous person who stuttered, Sir Winston Churchill: “Never, never, never give up.”

Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images The Cast of the TV show The Office.

From the Fall 2025 Magazine