Tom Schiller is an American Emmy Award winning writer best known for his eleven-year stint writing and directing short films for Saturday Night Live (following the show's original short film makers Albert Brooks and Gary Weis). His films, often featuring members of the original SNL cast, aired on the program in a segment titled, "Schiller's Reel." He is also the son of former TV comedy writer/producer Bob Schiller.
Schiller was part of the original 1975 writing team when Saturday Night Live debuted on NBC. Notable films included the Federico Fellini send-up "La Dolce Gilda" and "Don't Look Back in Anger", which depicted an elderly John Belushi as the last living "Not Ready For Primetime Player" and dancing on the graves of his deceased castmembers. (Belushi would become the first SNL cast member to die, four years after the film first aired). Another favorite was "Java Junkie", a send-up of a 50s style cautionary film about a coffee addict (played by Peter Aykroyd). Schiller wrote and directed the short film "Love is a Dream" for SNL with Phil Hartman and producer/cinematographer Neal Marshad. Schiller also wrote and directed a unique feature film, Nothing Lasts Forever (1984). The film, which was unreleased at the time and featured Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Zach Galligan, Sam Jaffe, Mort Sahl, Lauren Tom, Imogene Coca, Apollonia van Ravenstein and Eddie Fisher, has gained a cult following and influenced a number of young directors in recent years.
Prior to working on Saturday Night Live, Schiller worked as an assistant to documentary filmmaker Robert Snyder and directed a film about his longtime friend and mentor, author Henry Miller. Schiller is the son of sitcom writer Bob Schiller, who was a staff writer on I Love Lucy.
Schiller has gone on to direct over 500 comedy TV commercials and is currently represented by his own company, Schillervision.
In spring, 2013 the comedy album "Tom and Don" which is a compilation of improv interviews between Schiller and musician Donald Fagen was released. Schiller's body of work is the subject of the 2005 book Nothing Lost Forever: The Films of Tom Schiller by Michael Streeter. Schiller is married to writer, humorist and partygiver Jacque Lynn Schiller.