Born in Pasadena, California, Griffin graduated from Colgate University in 1993. He was scheduled to make his directorial debut with Rumor Has It..., for which he had written the original screenplay, but was replaced by Rob Reiner 12 days after principal filming began. He did a rewrite on the Ashton Kutcher film Killers. He moved into television by creating Terriers for FX. Griffin played Agent Hughes in The Wolf of Wall Street.