Dan Schneider

Daniel J. Schneider, Memphis born and bred, has one of those stories that doesn’t sound real until you meet someone from his high school who swears it is. He was basically the big man on campus at White Station High—senior class prez and all that jazz. Then he tried Harvard for a hot minute because, well, dad went there. Didn’t stick, though. He bounced back to Memphis, grabbed a gig at a computer store, and started classes at Memphis State. That’s when things took a wild left turn: some film producer just happens to spot him and tells him to try out for a movie. He does, he lands the part, and suddenly acting’s on the table. Next thing you know, Schneider’s out in L.A., literally delivering pizzas while hustling for roles. Talk about a grind. Then 1985 hits, and boom: he’s Ricky Smith in "Better Off Dead...," a role that, apparently, still gets people stopping him on the street. After that, it’s TV time—he jumps on "Head of the Class" from ’86 to ’91, and that’s when the writing and producing bug bites hard. Schneider ends up all over a bunch of ‘90s and 2000s TV—"All That," "The Amanda Show," "What I Like About You," plus he co-wrote "Big Fat Liar." Even though he lives out in the Hollywood Hills now, the guy still makes it back to Memphis to see his giant family (seriously, nine nieces and nephews). And yeah, he started his own production company, because of course he did.