Dan Schneider

Since 2002, Dan Schneider is married to New York Times best-selling author Lisa Lillien, who is also the creator of the 'Hungry Girl' empire and has her own show on Food Network. They live in Hollywood Hills, Los Angeles with a dog, a cat and a few bunnies, and Schneider regularly visits his relatives back in Memphis.

Dan Schneider was born on January 14, 1966 in Memphis, Tennessee, to Harry and Carol Schneider. He is the youngest of his parents' four children and has three elder sisters.

He attended White Station High School where he became the Senior class president. After graduating from school, he enrolled into his father's alma mater, Harvard University, but left after one semester.

He came back to Memphis and started taking classes at University of Memphis, which was then known as Memphis State University. During this time, he took a repairing job at a computer store.

While still studying, he was spotted by a movie producer who encouraged him to audition for a role which he got following an audition. He subsequently moved to Los Angeles and began auditioning for more roles, while working as a pizza delivery boy.

Dan Schneider's first acting opportunity came in the 1984 American teen comedy film 'Making the Grade', in which he played a short role. The next year he appeared in the films 'Better Off Dead' and 'Hot Resort'.

In 1986, he was cast as Dennis Blunden on the ABC television sitcom 'Head of the Class', which ran successfully for five seasons.

In 1989, he acted in three movies: 'Happy Together', 'Listen to Me' and 'The Big Picture'.

He starred on the short-lived ABC sitcom 'Home Free' in 1993. The following year, he played Shawn Eckhardt in the made-for-television film 'Tonya & Nancy: The Inside Story', based on the Tonya Harding-Nancy Kerrigan scandal.

He was hired to work on Nickelodeon's new sketch-comedy show for children, 'All That' (1994-2005), by head of production Albie Hecht, whom he met in 1988 while co-hosting the second annual 'Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards'. He wrote for the pilot episode and subsequently took responsibilities as producer, executive producer, and writer on the show throughout the next few seasons.

Dan Schneider has created some of the most popular and influential family-friendly TV shows like 'All That', 'The Amanda Show', 'Drake & Josh', 'Zoey 101', 'iCarly', 'Victorious' and 'Sam & Cat'. He has been responsible for giving breakthrough roles to numerous young actors including Kenan Thompson, Amanda Bynes, Miranda Cosgrove, Ariana Grande, Taran Killam, Nick Cannon, Liz Gillies, Josh Peck, and Jace Norman.