What is Akiva Schaffer’s Net Worth?
Akiva Schaffer is a comedian, actor, filmmaker, and musician who has a net worth of $7 million, Akiva Schaffer got his start as a member of the comedy trio Lonely Island, alongside Andy Samberg and Jorma Taccone. The group achieved national recognition for its many popular digital shorts on the sketch comedy television show “Saturday Night Live,” including “Lazy Sunday” and “Dick in a Box.” After leaving “SNL,” Schaffer directed such comedy films as “Hot Rod,” “The Watch,” and “Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping.”
Early Life and Education
Akiva Schaffer was born on December 1, 1977, in Berkeley, California to Jewish parents. As a youth, he went to Willard Junior High School and Berkeley High School. For his higher education, Schaffer attended the University of California, Santa Cruz, from which he graduated in 2000 with a degree in film.
The Lonely Island
When he was in junior high school, Schaffer befriended fellow students Jorma Taccone and Andy Samberg. The three attended high school together and then went separate ways for college. After they graduated, the trio regrouped and moved to Los Angeles, where they began making short comedy movies. Inspired by Tennessee Williams’s “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” Schaffer penned an overwrought play he entitled “The Lonely Island,” a reference to the apartment he shared with Taccone and Samberg. That name was soon adopted by the group itself. The Lonely Island went on to post its videos online and enter them into Channel 101, a monthly short film festival in Los Angeles. Schaffer had his breakthrough directing the Lonely Island series “The ‘Bu,” a parody of the television series “The O.C.” He and the group continued to screen at Channel 101 over the years to great success with audiences.
In late 2005, Lonely Island was hired to create recorded material for the live sketch comedy television show “Saturday Night Live.” The group’s second sketch to air, “Lazy Sunday,” became a viral sensation online, leading to numerous further viral videos under the banner of SNL Digital Shorts. Schaffer directed, co-wrote, and edited the majority of these videos; among the most popular were “I Just Had Sex,” “Dick in a Box,” “Jizz in My Pants,” “I’m on a Boat,” and “Motherlover.” The Lonely Island retired from “SNL” in the early 2010s, but made some guest appearances over the subsequent years. Additionally, the group went on to create, produce, and appear in various films and television specials, including “The Unauthorized Bash Brothers Experience,” and to release studio albums of its musical comedy work, including “Incredibad” “Turtleneck & Chain,” and “The Wack Album.” The Lonely Island also co-wrote, and was featured on, the song “Everything is Awesome” from the animated film “The Lego Movie.”
Film Career
Schaffer made his feature film debut in 2007 with the comedy “Hot Rod,” which he both directed and acted in. The film co-stars his fellow Lonely Island members Samberg and Taccone. After that, Schaffer served as a co-writer on the 2008 satirical sex comedy “Extreme Movie.” His next film as director was the 2012 science-fiction action comedy “The Watch,” starring Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn, Richard Ayoade, and Jonah Hill. Four years after that, Schaffer co-directed the mockumentary musical comedy “Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping” with Taccone; the pair co-wrote the film with Samberg, and all three also starred in it. The trio went on to co-produce the films “Brigsby Bear,” “I Used to Go Here,” and “Palm Springs.” In 2022, Schaffer directed the Disney+ film “Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers,” starring John Mulaney and Samberg as the titular duo. The same year, he portrayed Alice Cooper in the Roku biographical parody film “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story.”
Other Television Credits
Schaffer has a number of other television credits beyond his work with the Lonely Island for “SNL.” He has directed episodes of such shows as “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” and “I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson,” and wrote, directed, and edited the television film “Regarding Ardy.” Schaffer also co-directed and appeared in the 2017 Netflix variety special “Michael Bolton’s Big, Sexy Valentine’s Day Special,” which was created by Lonely Island. Later, from 2019 to 2021, he served as an executive producer on the Hulu comedy series “PEN15.” Among his other credits, Schaffer has served as a writer on some MTV and Golden Globe Awards telecasts.
Personal Life
In 2010, Schaffer married comedy writer and actress Liz Cackowski. Together, they have two daughters named Hazel and June.
