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Filmmaker Eric Schaeffer grew up and attended prep school in New York's Upper West Side. He studied Drama at Bard College and drove a cab to support himself while writing screenplays. He writes, directs, produces, and stars in his own films, which are frequently semiautobiographical comedies set in his old neighborhood. He made his debut feature, the semiautobiographical comedy My Life's in Turnaround, along with fellow actor/writer/director Donal Lardner Ward. The team also created the semiautobiographical TV series New York Daze, which ran for one season on FOX. With the help of producer Terence Michael, his next two films were romantic comedies in which he also starred: If Lucy Fell, opposite Sarah Jessica Parker, and Fall, opposite Amanda De Cadenet. After meager theatrical releases, Schaeffer went back to TV to star as Marty Gorelick on the sitcom Everything's Relative. He moved to sex comedies for his 1999 film Wirey Spindell, again casting himself in the title role. He made another romantic comedy in 2001 with Never Again, a love story between his Everything's Relative co-stars Jill Clayburgh and Jeffrey Tambor. Back on television, he appeared on the Americanized twentysomething lawyer show First Years, which ran for one month on NBC. Another acting/writing/directing project, Mind the Gap, was released in 2004.