Raphael Sbarge was born into a theatre-oriented family in New York City. His mother, Jeanne Button, was a costume designer, and his father, Stephen A. Sbarge, was an artist, writer and stage director who named his son after the Renaissance artist. Sbarge began his career at the age of five on Sesame Street.

Sbarge made his stage debut in Joseph Papp’s 1981 Shakespeare in the Park production of Henry IV, Part 1. The following year he made his Broadway debut opposite Faye Dunaway in the short-lived play, The Curse of an Aching Heart. Other New York stage credits include Hamlet (1982), Ah, Wilderness! (1988), Ghosts (1988), The Twilight of the Gods (1993), The Shadow Box, and Voices in the Dark (1999). Sbarge’s film credits include Risky Business (1983), Vision Quest (1985), My Man Adam (1985), My Science Project (1985), Carnosaur (1993), The Hidden II (1993), Babes in Toyland (1997), Independence Day (1996), BASEketball (1998), Message in a Bottle (1999), Pearl Harbor (2001), and Home Room (2002). Sbarge has appeared in numerous television series and television movies, including A Streetcar Named Desire with Ann-Margret in 1984; Billionaire Boys Club, Cracked Up with Edward Asner, and Prison for Children in 1987; Back to Hannibal: The Return of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn in 1990; Murder 101 with Pierce Brosnan and Final Verdict with Treat Williams in 1991; Breast Men with Chris Cooper and Quicksilver Highway with Christopher Lloyd in 1997; and Introducing Dorothy Dandridge with Halle Berry in 1999. He had recurring roles in five episodes of Star Trek: Voyager in 1996, and in the first four episodes of the sixth season of 24. In 2001-2004, Sbarge was a regular cast member of The Guardian (TV series) starring Simon Baker and he also played in a chapter of Six Feet Under.

In 2007 he appeared in a two-part episode of Journeyman. In 2010 he played in “Practically Perfect”, a season five episode of Dexter as an Internal Affairs Agent named Jim McCort. He played a guest appearance in the third season of Nip/Tuck. He also has voice acted for video games such as Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords as Carth Onasi; as RC-1262 “Scorch” in Star Wars: Republic Commando; and as Kaidan Alenko in Mass Effect and its sequel Mass Effect 2. Additionally, Sbarge also voiced the character Professor Zei in a guest-star appearance on the thirtieth episode of Nickelodeon’s Avatar: The Last Airbender.

In 2011, he became part of the ABC fantasy series Once Upon a Time, where he plays Dr. Hopper, a human who, thanks to a curse placed upon all the fairy tale characters by the Evil Queen from Snow White, is actually Jiminy Cricket from Pinocchio. Once Upon a Time returns to ABC television Sunday, September 27, 2015 at 8pm ET.

Taking his presence in mass media to a whole new level, Sberge is now featured in the BOOM! Studios/Macrocosm Entertainment comic book series, Lantern City. Set in a world that is a dark mirror of our own, Lantern City is a breathtaking, unfamiliar, and terrifying the walled metropolis, divided by class and geography. Citizens — those who occupy the sordid street-level neighborhoods — tirelessly keep the city going, while the ruling class of the Grey Empire lives high above the populace where they bargain and manipulate for every ounce of power they can muster. Strange science and a criminal network can be found far below the city in the underground, where violence is the only way to negotiate. In addition to his likeness appearing in the comic, Raphael will act in the role of his character in the television adaptation, starring alongside John Rhys-Davies and Mira Furlan.