Christian Scheider is an American actor, theater-maker, and director.
Early life
Scheider was born in New York City, the son of actor Roy Scheider and actress Brenda Siemer Scheider. Scheider is a graduate of Bard College, where he received a B.A. in Philosophy and studied film and theater. Scheider also attended the Stella Adler Studio of Acting. He worked for three years as a peer and tutor in the Bard Prison Initiative, which offers B.A. and A.A. degrees to inmates serving terms in maximum security prisons. Also while at Bard, Scheider studied filmmaking and performed in many theatrical productions.
Career
Theater directing
Scheider has primarily written, produced and directed original adaptations of American literature for the stage. In 2013, with the endorsement from the estate, Scheider co-adapted Ray Bradbury’s The Murderer with frequent collaborator Tucker Marder. In 2014, Scheider and Marder were commissioned by the Parrish Art Museum to adapt Kurt Vonnegut’s novel Galápagos with endorsement from the Vonnegut estate. The production featured a three-story set, a live orchestra, puppets, video and a twenty-six person cast including Oscar-nominee Bob Balaban. In 2017, Scheider, Marder and Isla Hansen were commissioned by Guild Hall Center for the Visual and Performing arts to premiere their new original experimental performance The Summit an original slapstick comedy about a not-so-fictional global elite preparing to abandon their bodies and upload themselves into the virtual beyond. “As wild and sci-fi as this sounds, there are actually people trying to do it. And when we realized that, when we realized there was this marked shift happening, we thought, ‘that’s not only contemporary, it’s also an age old problem—the Pharaohs, the elites, getting to live a certain way while everyone else drags behind."
Film directing
Scheider heads video production for The Sunny Center in Ireland, the world's only post-exoneration residential community. In 2020, Scheider produced films for The Bard Initiative and Blue Meridian Partners. For film, Scheider's first documentary, A Dream Conferred about progressive education in Long Island, won the Youth Jury Award at the Hamptons International Film Festival in 2005. In 2012, Scheider co-produced and co-edited Marfan Question, commissioned in partnership with the Johns Hopkins Medical Center for their first-of-its-kind interactive video resource program for people living with Marfan syndrome. In 2015, Scheider co-produced and co-directed the documentary The Tree Prophet about self-identified climate prophet David Milarch, which had its premiere at the Santa Monica Film Festival in 2017 and won the Audience Award for Best Short Doc at the San Francisco Independent Film Festival. In 2018, Scheider produced and directed the documentary The Sunny Center, created to aid their growing national campaign for the first-of-its kind refuge and rehabilitation center for people who have suffered wrongful incarceration and ignoble exoneration. Founded by Sonia 'Sunny' Jacobs and Peter Pringle in Ireland in 2003, The Sunny Center supports exonorees as they attempt to piece their lives back together and reintegrate into society. Scheider joined the board of The Sunny in 2019.
Acting
Acting in film, Scheider performed in Words and Pictures directed by Fred Schepisi opposite Clive Owen and Juliet Binoche, which premiered at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival and was released nationally in 2014. On television, Scheider guest starred on ABC's primetime series Forever starring Ioan Gruffudd. On stage in 2015, Scheider performed in the two-man play RED by John Logan, at Guild Hall with Victor Slezak as Mark Rothko. In 2017 he performed in "Are You Now Or Have You Ever Been..." by Eric Bently with James Earl Jones and Matthew Broderick.
Writing
In 2017, Scheider and Marder's feature comedy screenplay for Animal Party about human-animal rituals all over the world was honored by the Redford Center as part of their 2016 grants program. Scheider has worked for comedian Alan Zweibel and screenwriters Bill Collage and Adam Cooper.
