Early life and education

Schaefer was born in Boston, spent his childhood in Sussex, England and his adolescent years in Michigan and New York. He studied theater and political theory at Wesleyan University, graduating Phi Beta Kappa. Following a year and a half in Germany—where he studied as a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Kiel—he returned to New York and co-founded the production company Cicala Filmworks.^[1]

He is the maternal grandson of polar explorer and ornithologist Carl R. Eklund.

Career

Schaefer's films have premiered and won awards at festivals such as the Berlin International Film Festival and SxSW, among many others, and have been successfully released theatrically and via outlets such as NetFlix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, HBO, PBS and the Sundance Channel.

He has over fifteen feature film credits to his name, among them My Last Day Without You, The Amazing Truth About Queen Raquela, and Arranged. On these and other projects he's worked with Academy Award winner Melissa Leo, Ali Larter, Zoe Lister-Jones, Ken Duken, Nicole Beharie, David Harbour, Michael Imperioli, and many more. In addition to these indie features, Schaefer and writing partner Christoph Silber wrote four TV movies for leading European networks ARD and ZDF, two of which filmed in Hawai’i.

On the documentary front, Schaefer directed the one-hour television documentary Contested Streets, which looks at what New York can learn from London, Paris and Copenhagen in terms of organizing its streets and public spaces. The film screened widely at environmental film festivals and aired as part of "The Green" series on the Sundance Channel. In 2015, he released a feature documentary on Poet Laureate and environmental activist W.S. Merwin, entitled "Even Though the Whole World Is Burning". A one-hour version of the film, "W.S. Merwin: To Plant a Tree", was broadcast nationally on PBS in 2016.

Schaefer has developed and sold TV shows and films to Warner Bros., Sony Pictures Television, The Weinstein Company, AMC Networks, Mandeville Films, Big Beach and Abominable Pictures. An active member of the Writers Guild of America, East, he's managed by LA-based Industry Entertainment.

Theatrical

• 2024 - Grit & Gratitude: The Sig Anderman Story (writer/director/producer)
• 2023 - Viral (short) (co-writer/director/producer)
• 2020/21 - Aloha Surf Hotel (writer/director/producer)
• 2017 - Kuleana (producer/actor)
• 2015 - Even Though the Whole World Is Burning (writer/director/producer)
• 2012/13 - My Last Day Without You (writer/director/producer)
• 2011 - The Roundup (short) (writer/director/producer)
• 2011 - Get a Job (producer/actor)
• 2009 - The Hungry Ghosts (producer/actor)
• 2008 - The Higher Force (writer/producer/actor)
• 2008 - The Amazing Truth About Queen Raquela (writer/producer/actor)
• 2007 - Arranged (writer/director/producer)
• 2006 - Act Normal (2006) (co-producer)
• 2006 - Contested Streets (director/producer/editor)
• 2005 - Confess (writer/director)

Television

• 2018 - I Am Because You Are (writer/director/producer)
• 2016 - Surf Break Hotel (writer/director/producer)
• 2016 - W.S. Merwin: To Plant a Tree (writer/director/producer)
• 2015 - Blue Water Living / Blauwasserleben (writer)
• 2013 - The Paradise Within / Das Paradies in uns (writer)
• 2013 - To Love, Let Go / Wer liebt, lässt los (writer)
• 2012 - First Lady / Nicht mit mir, Liebling (writer)
• 2009 - Circledrawers (co-creator/producer/actor)