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Eric Schaeffer (born January 22, 1962) is an American actor, writer, and director.

Early life and education

Schaeffer was born in New York City, New York, and later graduated with a degree in drama and dance from Bard College. After graduating, he drove a New York City taxi for nine years, during which time he wrote two stage plays, a novel, twenty screenplays and various other works.

Career

Schaeffer rose to fame with fellow actor/writer/director Donal Lardner Ward on the independent film My Life's in Turnaround (1993), which was made in fifteen days for only $200,000. Schaeffer and Ward parlayed the film's success into Too Something (1995–1996), a short-lived sitcom that was briefly renamed New York Daze.

He signed on as a client of Creative Artists Agency and made a deal to direct the 1996 romantic comedy If Lucy Fell for a budget of $3.5 million for Columbia TriStar.

Schaeffer starred opposite model Amanda de Cadenet in the 1997 romantic drama Fall, about a cab driver who begins a passionate affair with a model he first met in his cab.

In 2000, he released the comedy Wirey Spindell, a semi-autobiographical tale. This was followed by the 2001 romantic comedy Never Again, starring Jill Clayburgh and Jeffrey Tambor, and Mind the Gap in 2004.

In recent years Schaeffer has been writing an autobiographical blog, I Can't Believe I'm Still Single, about his relationships and ongoing search for love. Schaeffer has turned the blog into a book, I Can't Believe I'm Still Single – Sane, Slightly Neurotic (But in a Sane Way) Filmmaker into Good Yoga, Bad Reality TV, Too Much Chocolate, and a Little Kinky Sex Seeks Smart, Emotionally Evolved ... Oh Hell, At This Point Anyone Who'll Let Me Watch Football.

In 2008, Schaeffer debuted a reality television series on Showtime, also called I Can't Believe I'm Still Single.

In 2009, Schaeffer and Jill Franklyn created the half-hour dramedy series Gravity for Starz. The series, which was about people who failed at suicide – originally titled Failure to Fly – starred Schaeffer along with Krysten Ritter, Ivan Sergei, Ving Rhames and Rachel Hunter. It began airing in April 2010 and on June 30, 2010, the show was cancelled.

Filmography and television work

Actor, director and screenwriter

Actor (only)

Books

• Schaeffer, Eric (2007). I Can't Believe I'm Still Single – Sane, Slightly Neurotic (But in a Sane Way) Filmmaker into Good Yoga, Bad Reality TV, Too Much Chocolate, and a Little Kinky Sex Seeks Smart, Emotionally Evolved ... Oh Hell, At This Point Anyone Who'll Let Me Watch Football. New York City: Thunder's Mouth Press. ISBN 978-1-56858-337-2.

See also

• Lists of American writers
• List of film and television directors
• List of people from New York City

• Biography
• Film
• New York City
• Television
• Writing

References

1. "Eric Schaeffer IMDB Bio". IMDb.
2. "Eric Schaeffer". The New York Times.
3. Janet Maslin (March 8, 1996). "If They Haven't Found Love by 30, They'll Jump. Well, O.K." The New York Times.
4. "Believable Chemistry Helps to Carry 'Fall'". Los Angeles Times. June 27, 1997. Archived from the original on May 13, 2016.
5. Vulture.com
6. Avclub.com
7. Variety
8. Nypress.com

External links

• Eric Schaeffer at IMDb
• Eric Schaeffer at AllMovie
• Bankrate.com interview
• UGO interview

• 1962 births
• Living people
• 20th-century American male actors
• 21st-century American male actors
• Male actors from New York City
• American bloggers
• American male film actors
• Film directors from New York City
• American male screenwriters
• American male television actors
• Bard College alumni
• Screenwriters from New York (state)
• American male bloggers
• 21st-century American screenwriters