Akiva Schaffer Biography

Akiva D. "Kiv" Schaffer (born December 1, 1977) is an American comedy writer, songwriter, actor, and film director. He is a member of the comedy group The Lonely Island.

Life and career

Schaffer was born in Berkeley, California. He majored in film at University of California, Santa Cruz.

Schaffer directed, co-wrote, and edited the majority of the SNL Digital Shorts. He was the director of '"Lazy Sunday", "I Just Had Sex", "Natalie's Rap", "Dick in a Box", "Peyton Manning for the United Way", "Iran So Far", "Jizz in My Pants", "Boombox", and sang with Samberg and T-Pain in "I'm on a Boat". He also sang in "The Creep" with Samberg and Taccone. He also sang in "Diaper Money" and part of the call and response in "We're Back!"

On the Internet, Schaffer directed The Lonely Island's The 'Bu, the group's record-breaking contribution to Channel 101, which was a parody of The OC and also starred Sarah Chalke (Roseanne, Scrubs) as Melissa, as well as Samberg and Taccone. Schaffer has also contributed to several other Channel 101 productions as part of The Lonely Island. Schaffer has directed four music videos for the band We Are Scientists and one for Eagles of Death Metal. Schaffer also directed and acted in the film Hot Rod, starring Andy Samberg, Jorma Taccone, Bill Hader, Danny McBride, Isla Fisher, Ian McShane and Sissy Spacek, which was produced by SNL's Lorne Michaels. Hot Rod only earned 14 million dollars back of its 25 million dollar production budget during its entire theatrical run. Schaffer was on hiatus from Saturday Night Live from January until March to do prep work on The Adventurer's Handbook starring Jonah Hill, Jason Segel, and Jason Schwartzman. Hill and writing partner, Max Winkler, wrote the script. Schaffer was credited as an executive producer on the film MacGruber. The film was co-written and directed by Jorma Taccone. Other songs include "Jack Sparrow" on The Lonely Island's second album, Turtleneck & Chain.

After co-writing the MTV Movie Awards for two years with his Lonely Island collaborators, Schaffer returned in 2009 to help co-produce the show which was hosted by Andy Samberg. His second feature film directorial project, The Watch, was released on July 27, 2012. The Watch earned US$67.9 million during its theatrical run.

Schaffer is married to comedy writer and actress Liz Cackowski, with whom he has two children.

Awards

In 2007, Schaffer won an Emmy for his participation in the production of "Dick in a Box". He was nominated for an Emmy for the song "Motherlover." He was featured in People's Sexiest Bachelor with Andy Samberg, as Sexiest Best Friends. He has also won two Writers Guild of America Award and a Peabody Award for his work on Saturday Night Live. The Lonely Island was nominated in 2009 for a People's Choice Award and a Grammy Award.